African indigenous knowledges and the decolonization of education in Africa

Abstract

In the first part of this chapter, we reflect on some of the fundamental features of non-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial educational systems in selected African countries. We examine the epistemological assumptions of these competing educational systems, and the value systems and historical contexts of their emergence. We then proceed to make the case for the systematic decolonization of specific aspects of curricula, with examples. We argue that Indigenous Knowledges should constitute the bedrock of postcolonial epistemology in the continent, and we provide specific examples of how and where this should be done.