Mfundisi WE-Africa: Revisiting an educational itinerary of confrontation with racism and inequality

Abstract

In Africa, education is historically related to social change. In this article, we analyze the ideas and achievements of the African Zulu John Dube (1871–1946) in the educational field and how his discourses and practices are reconnected to the present time. Living in the context of implementing segregation in South Africa, Dube advocated and promoted access to education, knowledge, and work for black Africans. Dube’s educational interventions are reconnected to the history of South Africa and (re)evaluated as the significant legacy of a black African who worked hard to combat inequality, especially through education, in a socio-historical context which promoted non-whites, especially black men and women, to be considered inferior and dehumanized.