Top 5 Books and Articles on Pan-African Education
Ahead of our Pan-African Education seminar with Dr John Marah, we’ve put together this curated list of the best journals and books that dive into the important topic of Pan-African education.
As you can imagine, here at the African History Project, education and learning is of great importance. With a department dedicated to education, it is not at all surprising that we constantly engage with African philosophies of and approaches to education. We hope you find these resources useful as they are the sorts of resources we use to conduct our research. Enjoy!
1. Pan-African Education; a must for the African Union
Dr John Marah | This seminal book is loaded with Pan-African history, comparative educational philosophies, reflections and recommendations on important research by Dr John Marah. It touches on a wide variety of Pan-African educational issues whilst offering a number of solutions to achieve his aims for a more connected Pan-African world underpinned by high-quality education. Click here to join the seminar with Dr Marah in which he takes us through his work.
2. The Thinker, a Pan-African magazine for thought leaders
This publication is a treasure trove of brilliantly written, peer-reviewed articles on a myriad of topics including the current state of education in Africa and the diaspora. A stand out article is ‘For a gender balanced Pan-African education’. It highlights some of the issues currently faced by women whilst they navigate educational systems that are not enriched with African cultures. It is a short but informative piece that pushes for gender balance, and questions how said gendered-balanced Pan-African education is expected to work with a curriculum that lacks the aforementioned consideration of the African personality. A great read for those interested in feminine or intersectional studies.
Related Article: Pan-African Education, forging solutions between the anvil and the hammer
3. Pan Africanism and Education
Kenneth James King | This book looks at the curriculum that white educators attempted to teach to African and American American students in the 1920’s and 30’s. The curriculum differentiated the education Black and white students received. However, students who attended these ‘model institutions for black education’ refused to be content with education that couldn’t enable them to “change the world”. A great read particularly for those interested in decolonising the curriculum.
4. Beyond education for domesticity: towards a Pan-African education for girls
Nontyatyambo Pearl Dastile | In this work, Dastile calls out the problems prevalent in girls’ education. She is firm and bold in her belief that gender policies as they pertain to education should be in-line with Pan-African ethos with policies designed to combat the negative fruits of colonialism.
5. Unite or Perish: Africa Fifty Years after the Founding of the OAU, Part II
Morgan Ndlovu and Oscar Braithwaite | This is a great book for those interested in the history of the African Union but chapters eight and nine particularly centre on Pan-African education. Morgan Ndlovu in chapter eight dissects the topic “What Fundamentally, is Pan-African Education? A De-colonial Epistemic Perspective on Education and Development in Post-Colonial Africa”. He discusses the foundational fact that education is tied very strongly to development and touches on the debates concerning whether Africa’s current educational systems contribute to development or not. Oscar Braithwaite deals with the topic “Promoting a Pan-African Education Agenda by Shifting the Education Paradigm” in chapter 9. The work emphasizes the need for a change in the archetype, yardstick and context in which education is currently handled in regard to achieving the aim of Pan-African Education. A great read for policy makers.
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