The British Colonial Education System in the Twentieth Century:
The Effects on Multicultural Education
The Effects on Multicultural Education
In the first half of the twentieth century, Britain established a colonial education system that would generate the cultural adaptation of African society so that it may reflect a more European model. Through moral education, basic core knowledge, and vocational training, the education system gradually shifted the cultural norms and patterns of behaviors of its students. The purpose of this research is to identify how the British colonial education system affected African culture, describe how the system changed the image of Africans, explain the response of Africans to this change in image, and illuminate the residual effects of colonial education upon the approach to multicultural education today. Beginning in the nineteenth century, the generalization of African culture and the subsequent reforms that ensued due to misconceptions about race, led to the distortion of the African image in the twentieth century. This distortion of national identity has greatly altered the way in which African history and culture is taught in schools today. The modern education system teaches an incomplete and revisionist perspective on African history perpetuated by racial ideologies. As a result, students, especially those who are not of European descent, experience a form of cultural disconnection.
In order to understand how the British colonial education model altered African-culture and led to a Eurocentric approach to education in present times, one must consider how the pre-existing forms of education operated within African culture before British imperialism began. It is important to note that few documents about pre-colonial education in Africa can be found. The most detailed observations come from L’Education en Afrique, a book written by Abdou Moumouni in 1964. According to Moumouni, traditional education was divided into four stages and classified by changes in the child’s physical and cognitive development as well as the child’s contribution to his or her community. The first stage, known as first childhood, defines the stages of development that occurs between birth and six years of age. Second childhood describes the period between ages six and ten; third childhood, between ten and fifteen years of age. Finally, children between fifteen and sixteen years old were categorized as those in the puberty crisis or entry into adolescence stage. Education was community based in which the role of teacher was filled by children’s family members, depending on their knowledge or skill in a specific subject. Curriculum was not, by European standards, academic. Rather, lessons and instruction were primarily focused on traditions and customs relative to the tribal community. Teachers were responsible for the instruction of common indigenous practices such as games, story-telling, apprenticeships, and initiation processes.[1] Even so, the initial intentions of European formal schooling were not academically driven. Moral education, derived from Christian principles, was the primary goal so as to begin the process of “civilizing” Africans.
The presence of Europeans whose goal it was to refine African culture, dates back as early as the fifteenth century by Portuguese missionaries. This is not to say that missionaries were the only factor, economic developments resulting from trade also played a pivotal role. “Trading posts established by the Portugese, the Dutch, the Danes, the French and the English had brought to many communities their first direct contact with a wider world, and introduced them to a considerable range of material innovations including new food crops, cotton goods from the Indies and flintlock muskets and other articles of European manufacture”.[2] However, it was the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that laid the groundwork for European influenced formal education. Between 1790 and 1875, the quantity and intentions of Europeans in Africa changed dramatically due to the expansion and accumulation of power of the British Empire. Technological advancements created a gap between the two continents, subsequently changing the European perception of Africans. The need to identify and define the differences between cultures and skin color led to the development theories about racial superiority and hierarchy, which in turn served as a catalyst for “civilization” efforts. Missionaries, mainly from Great Britain and France, began building and staffing schools in sub-Saharan areas of the continent to bring the Gospel of Christ to those who had not yet heard the Good News. The pamphlet, The Church Missionary Juvenille Instructor, published in 1842 by the Church Missionary House in London, outlines the religious prospects of the education mission stating, “England’s commerce pervades the globe; and her arms and her influence have given her sovereignty over many millions…[so that the Gospel] be sent to the poor neglected heathen”.[3] Instruction in the Word was thought to be the first and most important step in cultivating communities and enabling the growth of progress and enlightenment. Religious education was the focal point of the civilizing mission ideology. Similar missions had been undertaken in various areas of globe where the British had assumed power. In one instance, an account of a girls school in the East Indies exemplified, in the European mind, the success of moral education upon indigenous populations: “Her mind was soon stored with many precious portions of the Word of God…the conduct of this dear child was so correct, that she never required either punishment or reproof…therefore, she was able to give advice to her heathen parents…”.[4] By bringing this same model to both East and West Africa, the British hoped to achieve the same results. It was believed that by educating the child in the ways of Christian conduct, the parents and other adults in the community would also subscribe to this lifestyle. Also contributing to this goal was the “extraordinary advancement in European technology, making possible sustained economic growth at a rate unprecedented in past human experience…”.[5]
The oldest Mission of the Church Missionary Society was in West Africa in 1804. In describing the success of this mission, Reverend D.F Morgan, the chaplain of the mission in Sierra Leone, expressed the need and promise of establishing an institutionalized form of British education,
“I have visited schools in my own country, in the West Indies, and in other parts of the world; but I must confess, in all my experience, I have never seen a better regulated school [in terms of] the readiness with which the children answered questions…their advancement of general knowledge and the intelligence they evinced…We have good grounds for hoping that this Mission will one day prove a great blessing to Africa. If the Gospel is spread there, it must be by Native teachers. White men may begin their work, but if it is to extend, Blacks must carry on”.[6]
Upon this recommendation, and others made by various missionary leaders, the British prepared to mobilize more civilizing assignments, both social and economic, that would eventually institutionalize European formal education in Africa. The notion of “fabricating the negro” would not gain momentum until the nineteenth century; however the process of doing so originated from these organizations. The combination of growing wealth and technology allowed for missionary societies to increase their expeditions and improve those that already existed. “Having succeeded, however partially, in fabricating the desired ‘negro’, a second task remained. The dominant culture had to be installed as the model”.[7] Education became a social experiment, one that encompassed religious, scientific, and economic variables.
The increase of financial support allowed for extreme changes to be made to the structure and curriculum of the British colonial education system in Africa. The Europeans were not the originators of formal education, however they did bring with them new practices and approaches to community education such as “grouping children into classrooms for regular daily lessons, emphasizing the importance of reading and writing and showing particular concern over examination results and certificates”.[8] The evolution of the British colonial education system involved the creation of a multitude of core subjects and programs; along with instruction in literacy and arithmetic and moral values like biblical study and sexual pedagogy, came vocational training in agricultural science, lessons on personal hygiene, household maintenance and other community welfare courses. Educational policies and practices continued to be formed from the basic morals and cultural values of European society which served as the foundation of cultural assimilation, however curriculum now aimed to promote nation building. The process of acculturating Africans was still largely due to the close partnership of the British government and Christian missionaries. “Religion [was] seen by officials as a necessary building block for the professional, academic, and moral training of their subjects”.[9] Unlike the French, the British elected to maintain a hands-off approach to education, allowing missionaries to continue to operate schools on their own. This relationship created a considerable amount of political discourse, “the situation of colonial education in Black Africa in the early 1920’s was characterized by the increasing disappointment in mission circles at the African’s rejection of the churches’ attempts to provide a more practice orientated education and the growing experiences of the colonial administration that the Western-trained African elite demanded more political rights to determine their affairs”.[10] The negative reaction to indirect rule and colonial education was due in part to the tendency of Europeans to generalize African culture. Models for education were designed and implemented universally upon cultures that varied in customary practices such as language, dress, histories and most importantly, relevancy. Realizing the ineffectiveness of this approach, Africans declined to participate in programs which held no incentive, value, or tangible gain for those who participated. Access to secondary education was extremely limited, which produced what was referred to as the “half-educated” African. An education of restricted opportunities serves only to exploit the individual who has been denied greater prospects; education encompasses a multitude of areas of expertise that extend passed language and math. Furthermore, the underrepresentation of African leadership in the decisions made about the state of education and culture in the curriculum decreased the attendance and commitment of African students. The underlying racism of separate academic institutions, in which “a small number of representatives of a powerful and highly organized people have assumed control over the destinies of a vast number of less powerful and less highly organized people,” led to a drop in student attendance.[11] If mass education was to be achieved, the system must promote cultural awareness, ensure equal opportunity, expand educational choice and foster individual empowerment.
In response, comprehensive studies of colonial education system were done and commissioned by the Phelps-Stoke Fund in 1920 and 1924. It was determined that a change in educational methods was needed in order to ensure the success of colonial education in Africa. Such developments included an increase in school organization and inspection, an equal opportunity education policy that would provide adequate instruction for both the elite and the masses, and increased opportunities for Africans to participate in the political advisement of the education system.[12] Supplementing these findings, the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies produced a pamphlet in 1925 that provided a list of recommendations that should be given top priority for the improvement which included suggestions that the British government assume full administrative control over education, curriculum be adapted to fit the needs of population being served, and local languages be used in primary instruction.
By 1932, the population of West Africa amounted to 25,000,000 and in East Africa, 37,000,000. If the British were to establish, increase and maintain its power, it was critical that an effective system of education be available. Among the most critical of these reform was that of teacher education and training. In a record of a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies in 1937, it was ruled that a training institution for teachers be established so as to incorporate Africans into the administrative sector and to cultivate a higher quality of instruction.[13] Teachers must also be trained in cultivation and health as to facilitate community development. Although the British government supplied financial support to mission schools, many still operated on local enterprise. This meant that teachers were often untrained in academic delivery and adequate instructional resources were scarce or entirely unavailable. Government expenditures dramatically increased between the 1930’s and 1950’s in order to centralize and improve primary schools across the continent. However, it was the educational pedagogy that underwent the greatest reformation. Education, specifically in the primary setting, evolved from simply training in cultural ethics and basic core knowledge to that of instruction for rural development and community welfare.
This evolution, or installation, came to be known as adaptive education. It was a process that focused on community health and conditions, such as hygiene and housing, but also agricultural science. An article written by Rennie Smith in the Royal African Society in 1932 solidifies the goals of the new system: “Education should be adapted to the mentality, aptitudes, occupations and traditions of the various peoples...where necessary to changed circumstances and progressive ideas, as an agent of natural growth and evolution”.[14] Changes to the curriculum produced a higher awareness of community and economics and attempted to prepare Africans for social and economic shifts. Lessons on hygiene, specifically on water filtration, pest control and waste management were conducted daily. The greatest concentration was placed on agricultural science. Students were taught modern practices to tend gardens, prevent soil erosion and handle compost.
Methods of co-operation were also introduced, in which natives would aid in developing curricular resources such as textbooks, translated in the local vernacular and “adapted for teaching particular subjects and teaching them in way the native would most easily apprehend”.[15] The Phelps-Stoke Fund and the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies recognized the problems posed by mass education but the solution of adaptive education did little to solve them. Though Africans became increasingly knowledgeable in the occupation of agriculture and community welfare did flourish, academic studies were neglected- which did little raise the Africans political awareness or enable them to exercise their political rights. Adaptive education, in a real sense, was another form of second class education imposed on Africans by a colonial power.
While traditions and vernacular of African culture were included in the adaptive approach to education, racial undertones were still evident. Like any imperialist nation, expansion and domination was the ultimate goal of the British in Africa. “The colonizing European nations could not have carried out domination for several hundred years without the development of a belief system that would rationalize their behavior. Among other things, the idea of ‘race’ was given academic substance and academic legitimacy. Then races were ranked and racism emerged. Education as a process is situated in this sociohistorical context”.[16] Designed to meet the needs of settler over the needs of the native, colonial education evolved simply to ensure the economic success of the nation, rather than the social success of the individual. In an article published by a member of the Royal African Society, Phillip Cunliffe-Lister in 1932, he cites “health, science, [and] material benefit; if I had to say what is the justification of British rule I would point to these as a monument no one could dispute”.[17]
As much as the British colonial education system proved beneficial for community development, it proved just as detrimental to the African image. Derived from theories about scientific racism, Africans must not only be educated in European ways, but also be persuaded that European culture could serve as a substitute to their own and that it was superior to that of any other. Segregated communities were evidence that the white race was above the black race, and the perception of racial superiority was to be engrained in both communities. A social hierarchy ensued, not only between blacks and whites, but also within African communities. “The British colonial government attempted to combine academic and technological/vocational curriculum that would produce an African capable of adapting to an African environment…serving the educational needs of the few who became the professional elite, these schools contributed to the reproduction of the elite as a class”.[18]
Thus, the image of oneself as an African was altered. The bonds of tribal kinship and unity were devalued and replaced with social competiveness. The constructs of European society and economic marketability now divided the ‘civilized’ from the ‘uncivilized’ Africans. Education plays a considerable role in defining the “norm” while also creating a culture that separates one from another based upon knowledge. “Those whose ‘culture’ is an academic culture conveyed by the school have a system of categories of perception, language, thought, and appreciation that sets them apart from those whose training has been through work and their social contacts with people of their own kind”.[19]
The psychological effects of this division forced Africans to accept or reject parts of their native culture, which in turn created a generation gap. The older and younger generations struggled to find a balance between preserving traditional music, art, dress, and values and embracing western ideals. Attempting to alleviate this disparity, community and adult education became another primary focus. Though the colonial education system enforced a compulsory three years of local languages in primary school, students were thereafter instructed only in English in secondary schools. As language is perhaps the greatest definition of culture, the loss of fluency in local dialects signified the replacement of African life and the installment of European principles. Though African culture was not entirely lost, the process of adaptation forced Africans to put one set of traditions and values over another, to view indigenous culture as inferior and European culture as the “norm”. The Arab community best evidences this scenario of cultural inferiority. In an excerpt taken from Rennie Smith’s journal during a visit to Zanzibar in 1932, “The Arab shows little power to the adaptability...One gets the impression of a degenerating class”.[20] In a sense, Africans educated in the British colonial system experienced a loss in their sense of pride or nationalism.
By using scientific racism to justify the colonization of Africa, Britain was successful in installing European culture while also restricting African nationalism. This ensured the stability of the British Empire but perpetuated racial disparities in the educational setting, mainly the notion that mental capacity was linked to physical appearance and could be measured by the cultural successes of the group, as more and more Africans began migrating to England. Racial prejudice and discrimination made it difficult for Africans to operate within society where they were viewed as second class citizens and inherently less able to be socially, politically, and economically efficacious. “The stories of cultural achievements are perpetuated through school curricula…[by] marginalizing the contribution of ‘people of color’ while highlighting the accomplishments of those of European descent thereby creating distorted national identities”.[21
Bibliography
Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies. Conference of the Education of People of African Origin. Arthur Mayhew speaking on education in the colonies. 77th Meeting, The National Archives 847 (June, 24, 1937), Appendix, 3.
Bade, Udo, “The Adaption concept in British Colonial Education,” Comparative Education, V. 19, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1983), 341-355.
Cunliffe-Lister, Phillip. Great Britain and Africa (July, 1932), in Journal of the Royal African Society, V. 31, New York: Oxford University Press, 1932, 225-233.
Church Missionary House. The Church Missionary Juvenille Instructor (1842), by the Church Missionary House, V. 1, London: University of Birmingham Library, 1842, 3-17.
Hilliard III, Asa G, “Equal Educational Opportunity and Quality Education” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, V.9, (Blackwell Publishing, 1978), 110-126.
Halett, “Changing European Attitudes To Africa,” Cambridge Histories Online, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 472-477.
King, Kimberly Lenease, “An Explanation for School Failure: Moving beyond Black Inferiority and Alienation as a Policy-Making Agenda,” British Journal of Educational Studies, V. 49, (Blackwell Publishing, 2001), 428-445.
Magubane, Bernard, “A Critical Look at Indices Used in the Study of Social Change in Colonial Africa,” Current Anthropology, V. 12, (The University of Chicago Press, Oct.-Dec., 1983), 419-445.
Mumford, Bryant M. The Problem of Mass Education in Africa (April, 1938), in Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, V. 11, Cambridge University Press, 1938, 187-207
Quist, Hubert O., “Cultural Issues in Secondary Education Development in West Africa: Away from Colonial Survivals, towards Neocolonial Influences?,” Comparative Education ,V. 37, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 2001), 297-314.
Smith, Rennie. Education in British Africa (January, 1932), in Journal of the Royal African Society, V. 31, New York: Oxford University Press, 1932, 54-76.
White, Bob W., “Talk about School: Education and the Colonial Project in French and British Africa (1860-1960),” Comparative Education, V. 32, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1996), 9-25.
[1] Bob W. White, “Talk about School: Education and the Colonial Project in French and British Africa (1860-1960),” Comparative Education, V. 32, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1996), 10.
[2] Halett, “Changing European Attitudes To Africa,” Cambridge Histories Online, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 459.
[3] Church Missionmary House. The Church Missionary Juvenille Instructor (1842), by the Church Missionary House, V. 1, London: University of Birmingham Library, 1842, 3-4.
[4] Church Missionary House. The Church Missionary Juvenille Instructor (1842), by the Church Missionary House, V. 1, London: University of Birmingham Library, 1842, 27-30.
[5] Halett, “Changing European Attitudes To Africa,” Cambridge Histories Online, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 460.
[6] Church Missionary House. The Church Missionary Juvenille Instructor (1842), by the Church Missionary House, V. 1, London: University of Birmingham Library, 1842, 15-17.
[7] Asa G. Hilliard III, “Equal Educational Opportunity and Quality Education” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, V.9, (Blackwell Publishing, 1978), 117.
[8] Bob W. White, “Talk about School: Education and the Colonial Project in French and British Africa (1860-1960),” Comparative Education, V. 32, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1996), 10.
[9] Bob W. White, “Talk about School: Education and the Colonial Project in French and British Africa (1860-1960),” Comparative Education, V. 32, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1996), 11.
[10] Udo Bade, “The Adaption concept in British Colonial Education,” Comparative Education, V. 19, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1983), 341.
[11] Bryant M. Mumford, The Problem of Mass Education in Africa (April, 1938), in Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, V. 11, Cambridge University Press, 1938, 190.
[12] Udo Bade, “The Adaption concept in British Colonial Education,” Comparative Education, V. 19, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1983), 341.
[13] Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies. Conference of the Education of People of African Origin. Arthur Mayhew speaking on education in the colonies. 77th Meeting, The National Archives 847 (June, 24, 1937), Appendix, 3.
[14] Rennie Smith, Education in British Africa (January, 1932), in Journal of the Royal African Society, V. 31, New York: Oxford University Press, 1932, 65.
[15] Phillip Cunliffe-Lister, Great Britain and Africa (July, 1932), in Journal of the Royal African Society, V. 31, New York: Oxford University Press, 1932, 230.
[16] Asa G. Hilliard III, “Equal Educational Opportunity and Quality Education” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, V.9, (Blackwell Publishing, 1978), 115.
[17] Phillip Cunliffe-Lister, Great Britain and Africa (July, 1932), in Journal of the Royal African Society, V. 31, New York: Oxford University Press, 1932, 229.
[18] Hubert O. Quist, “Cultural Issues in Secondary Education Development in West Africa: Away from Colonial Survivals, towards Neocolonial Influences?,” Comparative Education ,V. 37, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 2001), 306.
[19] Ibid. 307
[20] Rennie Smith, Education in British Africa (January, 1932), in Journal of the Royal African Society, V. 31, New York: Oxford University Press, 1932, 69.
[21] King, Kimberly Lenease, “An Explanation for School Failure: Moving beyond Black Inferiority and Alienation as a Policy-Making Agenda,” British Journal of Educational Studies, V. 49, (Blackwell Publishing, 2001), 429.
