Mis-Education of Afrikans

through institutionalised western Education

Thandolwetu Sipuye writes.

This poisonous system of mis-education, civilization, under the guise of western wrongly called education, flourishes today democracy, is based on lies, blood and the throughout the Afrikan world because fear of exploitation of the Black peoples of the world. self-determination has been implanted within the The oppressor uses his universities to create Black mind. Now, the academic white breeds out of Black people. Afrikan fails to look When these people graduate from the white through beyond the mans training camps, they forget who they are, western oppressors where they come from, become full of false devices of deceit and pride and ego and become isolated from the tools of oppression. masses of suffering Black people whom they are Instead, he conforms an integral part of. They live high class and without question to pompous lifestyles removed from the people. whatever his former They forget about the realities of lives of Black oppressor offers him. But let it be stated here and people. They stand with the oppressor and now that the white oppressor never built any propagate the unforgivable lie that everything is education institutions to educate Black people. fine in this country; that Black people are free All his institutions of higher learning, such as the from white oppression, that democracy is University of Cape Town, Rhodes progressive, and that begging the University and Stellenbosch, were former colonizers for bread is the right The established for the progress and way to go and the order of the day. present advancement of their own racial Even if they come from the ghettos, ideals, not those of the indigenous white world townships and rural areas where masses peoples. Those first Blacks who were civilization, of Black people have been confined integrated into these white institutions over last 100 years, they strive and try under the were rather transformed and to live like the white man their lord guise of thoroughly brainwashed with and master. They try to dress up for him Eurocentric values, morals and ideas. democracy, and talk like him, always wanting to is based on impress and please him. And this brainwash and colonization lies, blood of the Black mind continues today in Authorities in whatever we do and the the very same centres of oppression established by the white man. The so- exploitation Todays Black students are blind to the called new Black government in of the Black realities of education. They are South Africa has built no university in zombies. They are not aware that peoples of this country. All the institutions of education can be used as a tool to either the world build or destroy a nation. Since the higher learning in South Africa belong to the white man. He built them for white man has been in control, the sothe development of his own race, not Black called education Black people have been people. If Black people in South Africa want true receiving at the white mans schools and and meaningful education, then we must build institutions has been deadly and destructive. our own institutions of learning. They are not aware that the white mans education has contributed much to the The need for Black Consciousness scholarship destruction of the integrity, dignity, culture and sovereignty of Black people. But we cannot The oppressor can never educate the oppressed. He only seeks to make slaves (labourers/employees) out of the oppressed. When Black people are truly free, we will build our own institutions, establish our own selves, take charge of our lives as real men and women, capable of governing and ruling our own affairs as a nation. But still in the 21st century, the great majority of Black people are still asleep in the white mans grave. There is an urgent need for Black Consciousness scholarship in South Africa and throughout the Black world globally. The youth need to be taught the truth, not the lies, myths, fiction and Eurocentric ideas and worldviews they get in the white mans schools and universities. The present white world

blame them, for they have been taught white lies disguised as truths from birth. But the time must come when Black academics and graduates use their education to uplift their Race and stop building western corporate business empires. This cycle of living to be employed (enslaved) must be broken. Be not confused here. I am not saying we must stop learning or working. No, we must study very hard wherever we are and aim to achieve high. We must become authorities in whatever we do. But we must learn to do for ourselves and our people. What it means to be free But our main goal, our prime aim must be to build our own, establish our own institutions, so that future generation may not go through the same brainwash process we have undergone at the white mans schools and institutions. And we must build our own industries, build our own job opportunities and establish our own Black businesses, without having to have little shares in white mans companies. This is what it means to take charge and ownership of your own lives. This is what it means to be free. The youth must know that education is an important tool for nation building. But they must know also that the current education they are receiving is designed to make them perpetual slaves, not to make them nation builders. It is designed to make them work (slave) in white peoples companies for the rest of their lives. They need to be wise, and not fall in the trap. Beyond the curriculum The youth must go beyond the set curriculum and syllabus. They must seek for more knowledge, especially literature that relates to the Black Race, written by Blacks. And they must read and take their studies seriously. Education can become a dangerous weapon against your own self if you do not know yourself. The so-called leaders have failed in their duty of liberating this country. Being the offsprings of Bantu Education, they see nothing wrong with the Black Race being a Race of slaves (employees/labourers). This mindset must change; it must come to an end. What exactly does this white mans so-called education system teach the Afrikan student? Here in Azania, the existing system of education was constructed and designed by the

white Anglo-Dutch settler oppressors, for the sole purpose of colonizing, imperialising, dehumanising and deculturalizing the indigenous Black people of this country. It teaches the Black student to hate himself. They wanted to exterminate the indigenous Afrikan identity and to destroy the Afrikan personality by creating a Eurocentric education system with a foreign white curriculum that would serve the interests of white supremacy by training the Black student to despise his own Race. They sought to reduce the Afrikan person to a perpetual state of servitude, and to continue planting in his/her mind (psyche) self destructive feelings inferiority by training him/her to be a mere qualified slave (employee/labourer). How a Nation is destroyed A nation is strategically destroyed by brutally murdering all its standing pillars-the leaders, the healers, diviners, keepers of knowledge, destroying, stealing, looting and misrepresenting all its fundamental knowledge systems, demonising its indigenous traditional and cultural ways of life, and then mis-educating through foreign and false doctrine, imperialist curriculum and corrupt religious dogma, the generations that follow. This is precisely what has befallen the Black Race here in Azania and all over the Afrikan continent. Institutions of miseducation This current neo-colonial system of education carefully controls its curriculum with specially authorised Eurocentric textbooks written by whites that forcefully impose Eurocentric ideologies, doctrines and cultures into the minds and spirits of Afrikans. It is a system that destroys and dismisses everything Afrikan in the name of progress and development, replacing it with anything European. The lessons taught to Afrikans in these institutions of mis-education

are poisonous lessons of confusion, strictly taught to fool the Afrikan, and to brew immorality and ignorance through grooming illdisciplined and unprincipled pupils who have been taught to pursue material gain (money) and dominion at all costs, without considering the humanity of others, and especially that of themselves. This is the nature of the white mans false education system. It is a mis-education system based on lies and manipulation of truth and history to suit the agenda of the oppressors. This oppressive system of mis-education promotes dependency on the oppressor because the Black student is only taught and trained to become a qualified employee (slave), fully dependent upon the white employer (slavemaster) for every meal he puts on the table for himself and his family. It promotes that all generations of Afrikans must be servants of Europeans because it does not teach the Black student to be self-reliant and to have selfdetermination; instead it systematically forces the Black student to become a willing servant, a well trained slave who participates in the construction and management of his own oppression. Black inferiority and white superiority This system of education advocates the same old agenda of white supremacy, aiming to root the Afrikan out from the soil of his natural existence and thus dominate, exploit and oppress him. It arrogantly forces the Black student to be docile to European lies about world history, while turning his back on his own Afrikan history and culture. Like dogs, Black students are forced to grasp and know the histories of the European world, while the histories of Afrika still remain hidden in their archives. Black inferiority and white superiority is still the central message and psychological theme transformed into the subconscious minds of Black students by the current existing system of mis-education wrongly called education. It is a

system of education that tames the Black student, making him a mule, a donkey that will carry all the load of his master all day without question. Training camp for labour It is a system that promotes mis-education of Black children through a curriculum designed strictly to advance European standards and interests at the expense of true Afrikan progress and development. Black Dignity is exterminated and no regard is given to Black History, while Black Literature is suppressed and rejected. So this education is simply a training camp for labour needed to keep the white mans businesses and industries moving forward and growing.

Perfect, qualified slave The aim of this mis-education system is to keep Black people down at the bottom of the social, political and economic hierarchy as willing slaves and servants of the white man. They do not want the Black man to own his own manufacturing industries and factories. They do not want Blacks to be producers or manufacturers. They do not want Blacks to attain real power, to be economically liberated and able to do things for themself. They only want the Black race to be their exploitable labour force (slaves) forever. Thats all they teach the Black Race for. They train him to be a perfect, qualified slave in the white labour markets (postmodern slave plantation fields). Institutionalized business industry Throughout the entire history of Afrika education has never been so selfish, immoral, irresponsible, destructive, un-educational, unspiritual, un-rooted, unloving and uncaring as it exists today here in Azania. The education system here in Azania is actually an institutionalised business industry of mass miseducation and mass indoctrination, rather than a home of learning. Money is the basic drive behind this system. Without money, you cannot study. With money, the doors are wide open. Then they proudly boast that, money talks. So we pay to be indoctrinated and brainwashed, in the name of education. The oppressor has really tricked us.

Most of the Black graduates spend the rest of their lives working as slaves for the white race.

White supremacy has not ceased to oppress Afrika. It still continues to use the education institution as a weapon to enslave the minds of its tamed Black victims

Call for urgent uprising This calls for an urgent uprising of the Black Youth, in rebellion against a system of miseducation that has made them slaves and servants of other races for more than four hundred (400) years. When the youth of this country rose up against the Apartheid government on June 16, 1976 they were fighting not only against the use of Afrikaans. They were fighting against the whole inferior education system created by the white man to produce an effective labour force (qualified slaves) for the prosperity of his business empires. They were fighting against the whole system of education that was designed to make the Black Race a supply of labour for imperialist capitalists. Yet, even today under the guise of a Black leadership, the white imperialists oppressive education system still prevails, fulfilling the very same functions it did in the past - training Black people to be the best servants for the white race. If the Black race is to be free, this education system must be destroyed and ancient Afrikan systems of education must be revived and new ones established. The white man can no longer be allowed to undermine the Afrikan intelligence, to trample upon the rights of Afrikans to determine and shape their own destiny as a nation. A living embodiment of our aspirations There must be an urgent re-writing of Black history by Blacks. Blacks must write their own Histories and tell our own stories. Black students must study books written by Black authors, and the books they study must be relevant to their prevailing social, political and economic conditions and not in conflict with their indigenous Afrikan cultures and values. The books studied by Afrikan students must be books that embrace Afrika to the fullest, advocating, advancing and upholding the ideals and values of Afrika without compromise. Afrika yesterday, Afrika today, Afrika until there is no end of time! Our culture, our history, our science, our religion, our literature, our art and all that which belongs to us must be told, defined, translated and interpreted by us, through our own undiluted Black perspective. We, as Blacks, must reclaim the power bestowed upon us by Almighty God to define ourselves. We must be the carvers, shapers and orators of our own Black Story. We must be a living embodiment of all our aspirations. White supremacy has not ceased to oppress Afrika. It still continues to use the education institution as a weapon to enslave the minds of its tamed Black victims.

An instrument to destroy Black minds The system of education that exists today in Azania is more barbaric than that of the Apartheid era in that it is disguised as a tool to build, while in truth it is but an instrument to destroy Black minds. To destroy the spirit of resistance, Black students are encouraged at school and university to go into the dead corporal world of business and all the other strategically predetermined and well examined careers, where they will be exploited to exhaustion by the white slave-master, working hard to generate wealth for the white man and his children. Black students are never told that these businesses they work and slave for were constructed to strengthen the economic power force of the European white world. They are never told that these businesses were built for the sole purpose of enriching Europeans, and exploiting the Afrikans who are always the white boys servants. They are never told that these white mens businesses were established through the sweat and blood of Black peoples who were used as slaves during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonial eras respectively. The Black student is not told that the white mans careers as they exist today are not anything different from the slave plantations where his Black Ancestors were exploited until they were forced to retire to their deathbeds, just as he will one day retire from the white mans companies to his miserable deathbed. Anti-Black attitudes This immoral system of mis-education nourished itself by planting anti-Black attitudes within the consciousness of the Black student. It teaches the Black student to hate himself, to despise his indigenous identity, striving by all means to be like the white slave-master. This system is an abomination before the spirit of our Black Ancestors. It is a deceitful, hypocritical and unauthentic collection of empty, futile ideas and twisted racist opinions and perceptions of white men and women, compiled into textbooks, labelled as the syllabus and curriculum, and then taught as authentic instructional information in schools and universities throughout our Land. This education is a great danger to the future of Afrika. It is a living threat to the total liberation of Afrikas oppressed sons and daughters