How Did British Colonial Education in Africa Becomea Reason for Decolonization?

How Did British Colonial Education in Africa Becomea Reason for Decolonization?

MART, Çağrı Tuğrul
Toker, Alpaslan

As a by-product of colonization, the colonizing nation implements its own form of schooling within their colonies. Colonizing governments realize that they gain strength not necessarily through physical control, but through mental control. This mental control is implemented through a central intellectual location, the school system. At the heart of this policy is the paternalist idea that the “backward” undeveloped inhabitants of the colonized areas need to be educated and brought up to the level of the superior culture and life-style of the colonizing power. Indigenous people were made by brainwashing to discard their own cultures and embrace Western cultures which were supposedly superior, a situation which resulted in a culture of dependency, mental enslavement and a sense of inferiority. White supremacy used education for its own sake so colonial education was a deliberate policy to continue colonial rule. In African British colonies the misusage of education became a major reason for decolonization. Key Words: Colonial Education, Superiority, Decolonization

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2010-06

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