There are lived experiences that reveal the psychology of modern-educated people who have been trained through the school system to conform to societal thinking patterns and logical behaviors. These experiences are genuinely questioned in contrast to the expectations of people who have gone through the process of acquiring an (in)formal education. In fact, I am among those who are perplexed on the ‘hows’ (to learn) and ‘whys’ of acquiring education, knowing that my facilitation of education has not been fully enlivened.
With the universal acceptance of the existence of formal and informal education (or, more broadly, schooling and out-of-schooling, or as Batibo (1995) puts it, “traditional education and European education” — intermediation between African local experiences of Indigenous knowledge and the European version), my understanding of education encompasses any action/change of pattern that occurs in someone’s life. By this understanding, we are educated through ‘contacts.’ This includes pedagogical practices. I will explain later if you are puzzled. Now, we can see that this essay is not being taken on a smooth highway. It embraces the fossil of potholes.
As my instincts suggest not to hang my writings on the ‘second-guess’ or ‘window-shopping,’ this thesis I am curating intersects education, power, postcolonial fabrics, and moral responsibility. The cornerstone of intersectionality in this epistemology is that we are prone to poaching the above-mentioned variables as we progress. Of course, the discourse on moral responsibility is becoming increasingly distant in our readings and writings in this conventional time, and it bespeaks the urgency of the moment. The interesting question this paragraph raises is how moral decadence is implicated in educational institutions, which begs the question of whether education exists as a public good or as a private good.
Contextually, I use [West] Africa to demonstrate the imperative ‘blind spots’ that we are reluctant to check, and have continued to deepen classicism, elevate elitism, and marginalize the majority group in society. On the other hand, as portrayed in Western analogies, there should not be a modernistic factor in educating the mind since, genealogically, Africans had their own history of education, until the incursion of colonial education (through missionaries, conquest, and untrained educators or merchants) designed in a manner that reflects foreign cultures, thereby leading to racially stratified societies and increasingly segregated ethnicities.
It is affirmative to re-echo what Mark Malisa of the University of West Florida & Thelma Missedja of Ohio University said in 2019 that ‘Europeans did not introduce education to [West] Africa, what they did bring were their own particular methods of instruction and their subject matter content. Western education molded minds along different lines than did indigenous African education’ — to keep Africans at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. The mission for a new system of education in [West] Africa was introduced through colonial tendencies. Suffice it to say that formal education represented the spread of colonial models of education, furthered by stereotypes about indigenous cultures, feasible in plain sight.
For Foucault (1984), “Any system of education is a political way of maintaining or modifying the appropriation of discourses, along with the knowledges and powers which they carry.” Morgan (2016) argues that post-independent, postcolonial, postconflict societies’ education systems often operate in spaces that are ‘fundamentally hegemonic and antagonistic, marked by intensified partisanship and often irreconcilable social struggles – an environment that contributes to the scapegoating of teachers for complex societal problems far beyond the classroom.’ Decoloniality shares a boundary with his essay. As defined by Tlostanova and Mignolo (2009: 132), decoloniality and decolonisation in praxis mean the ‘decolonisation of knowledge and being by epistemically and affectively de-linking from the imperial/colonial organization of society’. The imperial/colonial organization of society manifests as the economic privatization of education, framed in my critique as education for public good.
Citing Mandela (1994), the African education curriculum is a colonial tool designed to control the minds of Africans to remain subordinate to the Europeans and suffer from an inferiority complex. In agreeing with Mandela’s, Roberts (1905) escalated the aim of colonial education in that the ‘brown workman would always have to work under a European and therefore there would be no conflict. The cast of mind of the Native is such that he could rarely take charge. His lack of inventiveness and of ingenuity in mechanical work would make him inferior to the European as a trained workman, and at no time would he compete with the European.’ Moreover, I would suggest that, considering the emerging development in human behavior, there is a need to look at the convergence beyond the colonial legacies, most especially if we are to make progress as a people. So let us discuss the real deal.
What do I mean by the modern-educated servant?
It is common knowledge that education goes hand-in-glove with enlightenment, social development and freedom. This movement is recorded in a historical context to keep epistemological growth in tandem with societal and cosmic progress. However, the disturbing reality hovering in the orbit is that education as a social engineer, especially in postcolonial Africa, lacks the willingness to produce ethical citizens or socially mature and responsible leadership. But why? I think we must refer to the fifth paragraph.
Conversely, in emerging realities, as economic disparities and the gap in class structure continue to widen, occasioned by poor choices, education in postcolonial Africa produces individuals who are harmful to society rather than harmless. This is an invitation to think of what it means to be a “modern-educated servant.” Simply put, I ascribe a modern-educated servant as an educated person whose knowledge serves selfish (personal) interest rather than the collective interest. I invite you to coin your own ecology of the modern-educated servant using the prism of the Black Roofing Politics (BRP) if you will. This is because BRP came into being through the prognosis of the modern-educated servant.
As discussed in the first and second paragraphs, formal education is critical in the molding of this figure. They have it all going well for them. They are often well-grounded, articulate, globally exposed, and professionally proficient. Significant positions in international organizations, government, academia, corporations and civil society are occupied by them. This means that they are not experiencing a lack of opportunities or are defined by ignorance. The missing glimpse is not what they know, but how they apply what they know in their daily lives as they negotiate their personhood and interact with society. Thus, this reinforces education as a means of personal ‘escapism’ rather than influencing social norms, moral accountability, peer networks, kinship values, and family orientation. This is vital in understanding the psychological tenderness of the modern-educated servant.
The precursor for an educated servant is the ability to remain in that ‘comfort zone.’ Their education empowers them to maneuver opaque systems, yet as toothless bulldogs, they rarely challenge the moral foundation of those systems. In James Baldwin’s voice, “they have become accomplices to their own suffering.” Franz Fanon, in his decolonial inspections, reminded us that education in the postcolonial era, anchored on colonial leanings were not meant to emancipate Africans but to produce their replicas — loyal individuals capable of administering the colonial playbooks with efficiency. I want to borrow a leaf from Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua’s work to call this “intellectual imperialism.”
In conclusion, it is vital to clarify that this essay is neither an attack on education per se nor the educated elites, but rather a protest for an education system based on ethical and social responsibility. A different facilitation of education is possible, and the modern-educated servant can metamorphose into a transformational agent of positive change. Mgqwashu Emmanuel, Head of the Department of Education, Rhodes University, South Africa, contends that educators, researchers, and educational institutions should value multiple types of learning and knowledge, inspired by a post/decolonial orientation to education.
However, it is still important for marginalized populations to have access to the knowledge and skills that are valued by the current mainstream society as they fight for liberation. As we champion for the accountability of power, we must challenge education by creating awareness of the kind of manifestation education holds in the minds of Africans. Most importantly, contesting for a structure that represents the ethos of the African heritage.
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