Citation :

Jive Lubbungu, Pethias Siame, 2023. "Potholes in the Decolonization High Way of Zambian Education" ESP International Journal of Science, Humanities & Management Studies(ESP-IJSHMS)  Volume 1, Issue 2: 18-24.

Abstract :

The concept of decolonization of education is not a new phenomenon as it dates back to the 1960s when the agitators for independence believed that self-government would reverse the status quo of that time. Formal colonial education was considered unfair and discriminatory and worse still it had coloured indigenous African thought, classifying it as pre-logical and pre-critical (Adebisi, 2016). Therefore, the a need to decolonize it. Since then, there have been several post-colonial curriculum reforms though these reforms have found it difficult to balance internationalization with Africanisation. Further, of late Africa has seen educational decolonization movements such as the 2016 ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ in South Africa and extended to Oxford in the UK. This paper uses the qualitative approach, document analysis method, and marginal framing to argue that there is a cocktail of potholes in the decolonization process of African education in general and Zambian education in particular. Among the bottlenecks, are issues of indelible mark of colonial mindset, dysfunctional ‘Ubuntu’ philosophy, dependency syndrome, cultural imperialism, and the horse and rider concept. The paper further argues that Zambian education is a colonial import. It is a house built by the Master. Unfortunately, for us, the West has changed its architecture, and, in some way, we are fighting a phantom enemy. But worse, we are still using the blunt instruments he left us. To vary the metaphor, we are trying to repair Cecil Rhodes highway from Cape to Cairo with numerous potholes and craters along the way. Should we repair the highway, and in some way continue to rely on the legacy of Cecil Rhodes? The alternative is to build our highway, but do we have the wherewithal to do that? The paper recommends a 360-degree paradigm shift in the way decolonization of education has been handled over the years, a complete shift to indigenous knowledge systems to patch up the potholes. Africa in general and Zambia in particular should move away from the banking concept perpetuated by colonial education to an emancipative concept and must be prepared to take nations’ tax systems.

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Keywords :

Potholes, decolonization of education, Africa, indigenous knowledge, Zambia.