Education
holds key to
liberation
Knowledge empowers
West Africa
By Rosemary Ndikwanu
Staff Writer
When the British came to the
coast of West Africa some
time ago, they brought a
litany of stuff: some good,
some not too good and some very ugly.
Among the most suspicious, however, was
the idea of formal education. The people
had their ways of educating themselves.
They could, and did, embrace the idea of
another god — they had a bunch of them,
and one more was fine. Medicine they could
relate to. They believed in the potency of
herbs.
The idea of formal education worried
them, but not wanting to antagonize the
colonial masters who
had superior weaponry,
they solved the problem
by sending the children
of slaves and the poor to
school.
As the “underdogs”
became more educated,
they began to question
their communities and
its many deficiencies.
They became the ones
dealing directly with
the British; thus, they systematically began
to formulate policies. Gradually the system
began to twist on itself.
It dawned on the ruling class that this formal
education business was serious and not
to be trifled with. Suddenly, they not only
got in on it but they completely invested and
redefined the rules. Even to this day, the issues
presented by the emphasis on getting
formal education in a developing nation is
mind-blowing.
This is the strength of formal education.
As much as living life is education itself.
Nothing can match the veracity of formal
education. It liberates the soul and frees the
mind. Education helps a people redefine itself
and propels evolution in the right direction.
From Parmenides to Plato and eventually
to Newton, education encompasses continuity
and achievement like nothing else.
Without the works of his forbearers, Newton
might not have succeeded like he did in
this century. |
