Moving from a neocolonial education system to an education system that serves African development by Mohamed Lamine KABA!
(2025-03-01 at 06:02:09 )

Moving from a neocolonial education system to an education system that serves African development by Mohamed Lamine KABA!

After centuries of multidimensional domination, it is time to break with the educational systems inherited from colonialism and create an African educational model, centered on the needs and aspirations of the continent.

African education system

At the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), Europeans drew the borders of Africa without consulting Africans. Today, the paradigm is reversed: in 2025, the contours of Europe are being drawn in Riyadh, in the absence of Europeans. In Africa, the West bears a historical responsibility for the destructuring of African societies and the establishment of educational systems designed to maintain colonial domination.

The European colonial powers must recognize their historical debt to Africa

Today, the trial of this legacy - placed at the heart of the 38th African Union summit and which we have extensively in a separate article - obliges the powers involved to recognize and repair this historical debt to Africa.

Western educational systems, established during colonization and maintained until then through manipulation and cannon, have failed in their mission to prepare African youth for the challenges of sustainable development. The need to replace them with educational models that value African culture, language and values is becoming acute. Africa is today at a turning point, between the perpetuation of sterile and dependent systems and emancipation through educational systems designed to meet its own aspirations. The continent must free itself from Western influence and build a future of its own.

Indeed, these structures, initially designed to promote the interests of the colonial powers (France, England, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy and their allies), have imposed Western educational models - which are theirs - totally disconnected from African cultural and societal realities.

Today and even since the first hours of contact, these systems are in crisis, unable to respond to contemporary challenges such as poverty, disease, corruption and environmental degradation, and fail to equip young people for a resilient and competitive future.

Reform is therefore essential and must be anchored in African cultural authenticity while integrating the principles of sustainability and equity. A strategic overhaul of curricula must promote the skills and values necessary for harmonious and responsible development.

This transformation also requires a commitment to justice and reconciliation with African values, as addressed by the 38th ordinary Summit of the Pan-African organization in Addis Ababa on February 15 and 16. Which therefore raises the question of recognizing past errors and promoting an educational renewal that projects African societies towards an autonomous, prosperous and multipolar future.

Colonial legacy, an unpaid debt

Since it is about them, the European colonial powers must recognize their historical debt to Africa. A debt marked by a period of domination and destructive exploitation for African societies. The imposed political, economic and educational systems served above all the interests of the colonial overlords. Education, the preferred tool of this domination, aimed to train an elite capable of maintaining the colonial order while promoting the culture and language of the colonizers, thus erasing African cultures and languages.

Today, through cultural manipulation, the instrumentalization or metamorphosis of the social and geo-ethnic question, political interference using the instruments of soft power, hard power and smart power, as well as the complicity of local valets (state actors, uncivilized civil society and corrupt private actors), the vestiges of this past persist, with African educational systems still anchored in Western models that marginalize African identities.

This is why it appears de jure and de facto essential for African states to deconstruct these colonial educational structures.

This implies actions such as the official recognition of Western responsibility in colonization, the establishment of reparation programs for affected communities, the promotion of African cultures and languages in education, as well as the development of partnerships with BRICS educational institutions to promote international cooperation far from Western influence.

The failure of Western education systems in Africa

As imposed in Africa during colonization, Western education systems have failed to prepare young Africans for the challenges of sustainable development because they were designed to serve the interests of the colonizers.

These systems privilege theory over practice, focus on Western civilization while neglecting scientific and technological subjects, social and human disciplines.

They also use the colonial language as the main tool of instruction, making effective communication in mother tongues difficult. Furthermore, they lack an essential link with the community, contributing to a high unemployment rate among graduates whose skills do not match the requirements of the local job market.

As a result, the continent suffers from a shortage of qualified professionals in crucial areas such as health, education and infrastructure. This leads to an over-reliance on Western imports. It is a vicious circle of mental domination traced by the European colonial powers to subjugate Africans.

Today, it is vital to reinvent these education systems to be more relevant, effective and equitable, with African interests at the forefront. This includes promoting education in African languages for effective communication, integrating real African culture and history into curricula to strengthen identity, emphasizing practical education to develop local skills, and building partnerships between universities, research institutions and communities for enriching and relevant projects.

With the imminence of a paradigm shift, Africa must take its destiny in hand

Without a shadow of a doubt, it is clear that Africa must initiate a profound and decisive transformation of its education system.

Instead of persisting in poorly adapted Western models, it must choose to redefine its education systems to better serve its own aspirations. This paradigm shift, which must be supported by African governments, BRICS partners and local communities, aims to create more relevant, effective and equitable learning environments as mentioned above.

The above-mentioned priority areas could lead to a real reform of the African education system. Although challenges remain, such as Western dependency, the effects of the Anderson paradox, corruption inherited from colonization and cultural diversity, Africa must prepare to take its destiny into its own hands. This new educational direction promises to position the continent as a key player on the multipolar global chessboard.

From the above, we can deduce that the reform of African educational systems is a choice of civilization. It is time to move from subjugation to emancipation, from dependence to sovereignty.

It can be said that education is the key to this new beginning. Because, as Nelson Mandela said, "education is the key to emancipation."

Mohamed Lamine KABA, Expert in geopolitics of governance and regional integration, Institute of Governance, Human and Social Sciences, Pan-African University

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