Cavendish University Zambia

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN EDUCATION

(BA ED)
DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN ZAMBIA (EDU213)
MODULE

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Contents
Module Learning Outcomes: ....................................................................................................................... iv

Introduction: ................................................................................................................................................ iv

1. UNIT ONE: CONCEPT OF EDUCATION: .................................................................................................. 1

1.1. Learning Outcomes: ...................................................................................................................... 1

1.2. Introduction: ................................................................................................................................. 1

1.3. What is Education? ....................................................................................................................... 1

1.4. Purpose of Education: ................................................................................................................... 2

1.5. Types of Education: ....................................................................................................................... 5

1.6. Aims of Education: ........................................................................................................................ 7

1.7. Social Values of Education: ........................................................................................................... 8

2. UNIT TWO: THE COMING OF MISSIONARIES: ....................................................................................... 9

2.1. Introduction: ................................................................................................................................. 9

2.2. The Spread of Christianity in Zambia: ......................................................................................... 10

2.3. Colonial Era: ................................................................................................................................ 12

2.4. Christianity after Independence: ................................................................................................ 17

2.5. The Church & the Christian Nation: ............................................................................................ 21

3. UNIT THREE: EDUCATION & DEVELOPNMENT.................................................................................... 30

3.1. Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 30

3.2. What is Development?................................................................................................................ 30

3.3. Developmental Education:.......................................................................................................... 31

3.4. Sustainable development: .......................................................................................................... 33

3.5. Capital & Sustainable Development: .......................................................................................... 41

3.6. Sustainable Agriculture: .............................................................................................................. 43

3.7. Criticisms of Sustainable Development: ..................................................................................... 44

4. UNIT FOUR: TRADITIONAL EDUCATION: ............................................................................................. 46

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 4.1. Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 46

4.2. The Concept of Traditional Education: ....................................................................................... 46

4.3. Traditional Education before Missionaries: ................................................................................ 48

4.4. Challenges of Traditional Education: .......................................................................................... 52

4.5. Pan-African Educational System: ................................................................................................ 54

5. UNIT FIVE: TRADITIONAL & MISSIONARY EDUCATION: ...................................................................... 56

5.1. Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 56

5.2. The Concept Traditional & Missionary Education: ..................................................................... 56

5.3. The Difference between Traditional & Missionary Education: ................................................... 59

5.4. Critic of Traditional Education: ................................................................................................... 62

5.5. Traditional Knowledge: ............................................................................................................... 65

5.6. Science & Technology: ................................................................................................................ 70

5.7. Traditional Education Theory:..................................................................................................... 71

6. UNIT SIX: ZAMBIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM ........................................................................................... 77

6.1. Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 77

6.2. Zambia Socio-Economic Context: ............................................................................................... 77

6.3. Current Education System in Zambian:....................................................................................... 79

6.4. Special Education in Zambia: ...................................................................................................... 80

6.5. Missionaries & the Arrival of Inclusive Education: ..................................................................... 83

6.6. Teachers’ Attitudes toward Inclusive Education: ....................................................................... 87

7. REFERENCES: ....................................................................................................................................... 90

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Module Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this module students will be able to:

 Demonstrate understanding of the key concepts and principles of Educational Development

 Apply Educational Development knowledge, skills, values to the process
 Be aware of the importance of Education in personal and national Development
 Improve students and communities through the application of Educational knowledge

 Apply the Educational Development knowledge, skills and values to other complex social
changes

Introduction:
This module is meant for the students of education at Cavendish University Zambia. It provides
an insight of how education development comes about in Zambia. It is divided in six lesson units
with each unit having various topics in education and development.

The module seeks to provide students with an understanding of the relevance of Educational
process. The module is designed to equip the prospective teachers with the ability to apply
educational skills in the actions and initiatives taken to improve the status and communities.

The underlying principle of this module is to ensure that qualified teachers involved in the
process of empowering students are highly skilled with the ability and capacity to handle various
educational issues pertaining to educational empowerment. The training in educational
development involves imparting knowledge, skills and values in administration. The teacher
needs the said knowledge, skills and values in order to assist in various educational
developmental processes.

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1. UNIT ONE: CONCEPT OF EDUCATION:

1.1. Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this unit students should be able to:

1. Define education and trace its beginning and development

2. Distinguish between formal, informal and non-formal education.

3. Explain the relationship between education and society

4. State the structure and organization of Zambian education.

5. Outline the types of education empowerments

6. Apply the concept of educational development to improve the status of students in their
communities

1.2. Introduction:
This topic acts as a recap on what the students already learnt in other educational modules in
order to refresh and be able to relate to educational development which is the core in this
module. This topic is designed on assumption that the students already familiarized themselves
with the detailed of educational knowledge and skills.

1.3. What is Education?

Whenever I ask my students this question, the first reaction I normally get is a grand silence
followed by just a few hands, and yet, what these students have been doing ever since they
started their school is acquiring education. Children get education from their point of birth. They
have been given education from their day of birth up until to the grave- yard. Education, simply
put, is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values by members of society from one
generation to another. This is done in order to enable the next generation obtain the right skills
necessary for their survival. According to Carter (1959) education is “the art of making available
to each generation the organized knowledge of the past.” Meaning that education is knowledge
passed on from one generation to the other for human survival.

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Other scholars view education as the sum total of all the processes by means of which a person
develops ability, attitudes and other forms of behaviour relevant for human survival. This will
imply that education is the passing on of cultural survival from one living generation to another.

It is a form of socializing the young ones into society; hence it is a way of transforming the
young ones into responsible citizens. This education may take the form of a long period of
training or a short term period. In most cases it involves an instructor, hence there is learning by
the young apprentice who is acquiring knowledge from a superior source. This type of education
involves teaching. The teacher acts as a catalyst and stimulates the learning process. There is
active stimulation of learning.

Education is the most important and most noble of human endeavours. All other activities have
their foundation in education. Education is so important that it will continue even in eternity. It
enables humans to achieve their fullest personal, spiritual, mental, social, and physical potentials.
The ability of being educated is what distinguishes humans from animals. Education transforms
an individual and allows her to effect change in her environment. To discover the varied facets of
education, we shall review a few definitions of education. Education is a continuing voyage of
discovery, an everlasting quest to achieve the fullest wisdom and stature that God meant for us.

Education according to Knight (1980) is a lifelong learning process that can take place in an
infinite variety of circumstances and contexts. According to Kleining (1985), education is “The
range of activities both formal and informal whereby people are initiated into or realigned with
the evolving traditions, structures, and social relations which are taken to constitute their
education.” Education should equip an individual to become a rational, willing agent, who is able
to participate in and change one’s world with a realistic understanding of its possibilities. Peter
(1975) wrote: “Education consists in initiating others into activities, modes of conduct and
thoughts which have standards written into them by references to which it is possible to act,
think and feel with varying degrees of relevance and taste.”

1.4. Purpose of Education:

“The word education comes from the Latin educare, to draw out. In a broad sense it means not
only to elicit creative thought and knowledge from the student, but to draw human kind out of
the predicament it is in. And that predicament, according to both Jewish and Christian

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viewpoints, radically differs from the original perfection God established at creation”
(Youngberg, 1994, p. 69). Based on this definition, White (1903) had a very comprehensive and
correct conception of education. She saw education and redemption as being one and the same.
Her conception of education was practical and had earthly value, yet it had eternal implications.

The Purpose of Education The quotation that best summarizes her purpose of education states
that: To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he
was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his
creation might be realized–this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education,
the great object of life (White, 1903, pp. 15-16). The Meaning of Education Mrs. White contends
that: True education means more than the perusal of a certain course of study. It means more
than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being and with the whole
period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the
mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and
for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come (White, 1903). She further states that:
“In the highest sense the work of education and the work of redemption is one, for in education,
as in redemption, “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”
(White, 1903, p. 30). She explains that: who cooperates with the divine purpose in imparting to
the youth knowledge of God, and molding the character into harmony with His, does a high and
noble work. As he awakens a desire to reach God’s ideal, he presents an education that is as high
as heaven and as broad as the universe; an education that cannot be completed in this life, but
that will be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the successful student his
passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above (White, 1903,
p. 19). Her most meaningful statement relates to the nature of the learner. She emphatically
affirms that: Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin that
of the Creator–individuality, power to think and to do. It is the work of true education to develop
this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thought.
Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to
the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them
contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. Instead
of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act,

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men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breath of mind,
clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions (White, 1903).

The quotation that best summarizes her purpose of education states that: To restore in man the
image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the
development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized–
this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life
(White, 1903). The Meaning of Education Mrs. White contends that: True education means more
than the perusal of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that
now is. It has to do with the whole being and with the whole period of existence possible to man.
It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It
prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in
the world to come (White, 1903). She further states that: “In the highest sense the work of
education and the work of redemption is one, for in education, as in redemption, “other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (White, 1903).

She explains that: He who cooperates with the divine purpose in imparting to the youth
knowledge of God, and molding the character into harmony with His, does a high and noble
work. As he awakens a desire to reach God’s ideal, he presents an education that is as high as
heaven and as broad as the universe; an education that cannot be completed in this life, but that
will be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the successful student his
passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above (White, 1903,
p. 19). Her most meaningful statement relates to the nature of the learner. She emphatically

Affirms that: Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to
that of the Creator–individuality, power to think and to do. . . . It is the work of true education to
develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s
thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be
directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let
them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen.
Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to

4
act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breath of mind,
clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions (White, 1903).

1.5. Types of Education:

According to Asheim (1999), there are three types of education. From the time you were born to
this stage you have been acquiring education. Scholars discuss the three types of education as
being formal, informal and non-formal.

(a) Informal Education:

Informal type of education which is acquired unconsciously and often unknowingly is a type of
education which takes place outside the classroom structure. It has no timetable, no syllabus, no
certification of knowledge and there is no qualified instructor. Learning happens often
unknowingly from interactions between the elders and the young ones. This education is from
the cradle to the grave. According to Msango et al (2000:21) “It is the type of education that goes
on everywhere, outside the school.”

The learners are not brought together to acquire knowledge in an organized setup. It takes place
anywhere. There is no specific time-table. Children learn skills, values and norms of survival in
society.

(b) Formal Education:

Formal education is a kind of education which is obtained in a classroom. This is the acquisition
of knowledge in a pedagogical structure. Let us look at the following characteristics of formal
education;

(a) The learners are taught by qualified lecturers

(b) Learners obtain skills, values and professional knowledge

(c) There are examinations conducted to grade the learners and knowledge obtained is certified.

(d) The learners use timetables to assimilate knowledge.

(c) Non-Formal Education:

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This is another type of education which is between formal and informal. It is a kind of loosely
structured education. Let us look into the following characteristics of non-formal education:

(a) It is taught by qualified teachers but not formerly arranged.

(b) It could be for a short period of time such as workshops, seminars, catechumens.

(c) It is meant to meet specific needs hence the training is for a short period of time.

(d) There may be certification of knowledge or not.

(e) Often attendance certificates are given to the participants. For example: adult literacy or
numeracy and health awareness programs.

Learning does not take place in a vacuum; therefore the three types of education are influenced
and shaped by the agents of education. As a student you realize that the first place which
provided education for your survival was your home. Then later own your own you learnt how to
walk and the community around you provided a little bit of a broader perspective. Your parents
decided to take you to school hence your school offered you a more formalized system of
learning. You may have been lucky to be like many other young Zambians whose parents are
religiously notorious, so I have no doubt that you were influenced in your beliefs and values
through the church so let us discuss the various agencies of socialization one by one.

Perhaps it will be important for us to look at the agents of education as they influence and
directly have an impact on the education set up, content and character development of the
apprentice.

i) The family:

A child is born in a family and most African families consist of a mother, father and the children.
The family maybe either extended or nuclear, hence the chance of this new born baby being
influenced in terms of ideology, beliefs, values and principles taught at homes.

(ii) The School:

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The school is a formalized system of interiorizing values, knowledge and professional skills. It
ensures mental development of the learner. There is also physical development, as Plato puts it
that education is both mind and soul. Lastly a school is a place of moral, emotional and spiritual
development.

(iii) The church:

This is an institution which promotes moral education through religious instructions

The church has been a vital agent of socialization through the building schools in the community

(iv) The state:

 This is the overall body that manages body of the education curriculum

 The state has the overall responsibility of educating its citizens

 It has also the responsibility of employing teachers

 It equips schools and provides in-service training to teachers

(v) Mass media:

Students learn through mass media such as TV, Radio, magazines newspapers and text books.
The learners get influenced either directly or indirectly and often unknowingly as they interact
with the media.

1.6. Aims of Education:

The general aim of education is to prepare the young ones by integrating them into society. As a
student who has been learning for quite some time now, you realize that what you have been
going through is an initiation process which provides you with values, skills, norms and morals
in order for you to be able to live in harmony with your environment.

 Education will ensure that an individual grows up both morally and socially responsible. This
implies that an individual will be able to relate with moral values and live in harmony with
his environment.

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 Education also enables an individual to be able to relate and adapt easily to life’s challenges
within his environment.

 Education equips an individual with the necessary skills for survival in society.

 It is a process of acquiring problem solving skills to solve local and international challenges.

 Through education we get linked up with the rest of the world.

1.7. Social Values of Education:

 Education of an individual is a plight which provides a sense of self-esteem. This makes
people position themselves much better in society in comparisons to their colleagues.

 As the great philosopher said: it is not enough just to educate the soul but also the physic.
Education then allows the formation of a stable human personality.

 Education ensures the infusion of social responsibility and instills moral values in the lives of
the individual.

 Education on national level ensures that the state has professionally trained human resource

RECUPICULATION:

In groups discuss the following and make a presentation:

1. Is the school the best means of educating young people?

2. If so how do you account for the wastage that exists through children leaving school after only
a year or two or the gulf that develops between the educated and the uneducated in a community,
the problem of the educated unemployed? If not what alternatives would you suggest?

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2. UNIT TWO: THE COMING OF MISSIONARIES:

2.1. Introduction:

Christianity has been very much at the heart of the narrative the Zambian region since the
European colonial explorations into the interior of Africa in the mid 19th century. The area
features heavily in the accounts of David Livingstone's journeys in Central Africa.

Livingstone's exploration of the region coincided with an increased interest in missions in the
Evangelical churches in Britain, and, despite his complicated motives, Livingstone became the
darling of Evangelical expansion. This interest was partly, "the result of revivalism among
Pietisms and Methodists and among the Evangelicals of the Anglican church. People wanted to
convert others to the same joyous religious experience they had had".

The rise in missionary zeal was heightened with the expansion of European empires, opening up
unknown territories and bringing other cultures to the attention of the newly formed mission
societies. Yet another element of this increased mission activity was the desire not to see a repeat
of the recent Indian Mutiny, that the Evangelicals, like Livingstone, felt was, "as a result of too
little mission activity". It is possible the cause of the mutiny was actually of a religious origin
with many of the Indians serving in the British Indian Army convinced, "that the British did
indeed have plans to Christianize India", and thereby threatening their faith that was in their view
indivisible from their vocation as a soldier, whether as a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

The rise in missionary zeal was heightened with the expansion of European empires, opening up
unknown territories and bringing other cultures to the attention of the newly formed mission
societies. Yet another element of this increased mission activity was the desire not to see a repeat
of the recent Indian Mutiny, that the Evangelicals, like Livingstone, felt were, "as a result of too
little mission activity". It is possible the cause of the mutiny was actually of a religious origin
with many of the Indians serving in the British Indian Army convinced, "that the British did
indeed have plans to Christianize India", and thereby threatening their faith that was in their view
indivisible from their vocation as a soldier, whether as a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

Livingstone inspired many Evangelicals in his speech at the Senate House in Cambridge
University in 1857 in which he stated,
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 "I consider we made a great mistake when we carried commerce into India, in
being ashamed of our Christianity… those two pioneers of civilisation –
Christianity and commerce – should ever be inseparable".

He concluded the speech with the call,

"I go back to Africa to make an open path for Commerce and Christianity; do you
carry out the work I have begun. I leave it with you".

2.2. The Spread of Christianity in Zambia:

Following Livingstone's death in 1873, at Ilala by the shores of Lake Bangweulu in North
Eastern Zambia, and the subsequent development of preventatives and cures for malaria based on
quinine, mission societies stepped in to take up where he had left off by establishing Christianity
in Central Africa. In a report on the Church and development in Zambia the London Missionary
Society (LMS) was the first organisation to establish a mission station based at Niamikolo close
to Lake Tanganyika in 1885 followed by numerous other mission stations throughout the
country. Part of the reason for the rapid spread of these stations was their acceptance among
some of the smaller tribes of the northern region of Zambia. They perceived that the,
"missionaries… would provide effective protection", from attackers, such as the more powerful
Bemba tribe. Other mission stations followed the LMS example and established a presence in
other regions. Examples include the Paris Evangelical Mission at Lealui 1892, The Primitive
Methodists working among the Illa people in Western Zambia in 1892, the Presbyterians at
Mwenzo in 1894. After independence in 1965 these four mission societies were to merge their
works and become known as the United Church of Zambia (UCZ). Zambia's increased mission
activity was not an isolated case though, globally the number of missionaries rose dramatically
during this period. "By the end of the century there were as many as 12,000 British missionaries
"in the field", representing no less than 360 different societies and other bodies".

According to Phiri (2003) in shaping Zambia's Christianity, it is important that the influence of
the Roman Catholic Church is noted. The, "Catholic Church is by far the most influential
denomination," in the nation. Catholic missionaries first established a mission in 1895 among the
Bemba tribe. The Bemba tribe had traditionally been hostile to church activity, partly due to the

10
resistance to settlement by Europeans, but also because their presence strengthened the resolve of
rival ethnic groups to resist the Bemba. With the death of the Bemba king Chitimukulu Sampa
Kapalakasha and his replacement by a less antagonistic king the way was open for the Catholic
White Fathers to establish the mission in the area that was to become the Copperbelt Province of
Northern Zambia. In Southern Zambia the Catholic mission activity was undertaken by Jesuit
Fathers in the early years of the twentieth century along with the Franciscan friars. Zambia still
retains the historical divisions of this early Catholic mission activity; the county is still divided
into diocese administered by each of these groups.

The first Anglican mission station would not begin until 1911. This was established by Leonard
Kamungu, a priest from Malawi, at Msoro. Kamungu perhaps reflects an aspect of Christianity
that set it apart from many of the other structures of colonialism that severely limited if not
actively restricted the ability of the local population to take a part in their development,
becoming isolated and voiceless from the ruling European elite.

"Though white settlers… were able to organize themselves in Formal groups…

the colonial authorities provided little space for urban indigenous people to
formally organize. Although there was some tolerance of group activity under the
umbrella of the church.

Traditional Anglican involvement in Zambia was undertaken by the Universities' Mission to

Central Africa (UMCA), which had been founded in Cambridge as a direct result of the fiftieth
anniversary of Livingstone's call for African evangelism. Though unlike many of Livingstone's
original audience the UMCA held to a less Evangelical and more Anglo-Catholic form of
Christian theology. Consequently although highly influential, despite its small numbers, modern
day Anglicanism in Zambia does not have the Evangelical fervour that is evident elsewhere in
modern-day African nations that were formally British colonial possessions.

Livingstone, though certainly at the vanguard of the colonisers, and in that capacity he spelled
the end to traditional Zambian society, he is still held in high regard by many contemporary
Zambian's. This perhaps reflects an understanding of Livingstone as less of a coloniser and more
as a bringer of the Christian faith that today over seventy five percent, more recent surveys put it
as high as eighty-five percent, of the population embrace in one form or another. Christianity is
11
still, "growing at a rate of nearly 4 percent per year", in a nation with an annual average
population growth rate of 2.7 percent from 1990-99. Possibly some of this affection is also
because Livingstone is perceived as defenders of the traditional societies as he defied the slave
traders who were already destroying communities; one of his multiple motives for being in the
region was anti-slavery and towards the end of his life a primary drive in his work. Though, as
with many interventions of this nature, the possible motives were not as philanthropic as they
first appeared to those under threat. Livingstone saw the oppressed communities as a basis for his
"potential village preaching centres", to spread the gospel and in so doing provide a stable base
for European culture. Like much of what Livingstone undertook the reality is complex and in
many of his wanderings he was actually forced to rely on the slave trade's logistical networks.
Again Livingstone's legacy lives on in many development initiatives undertaken on the continent
both in religious and secular capacities, a seemingly positive intervention, which carries wider
motives and implications (Phiri, 1999).

2.3. Colonial Era:

According to Mthembu-Salter (2003) during the period of colonial rule in Zambia, up until
independence in 1964, the church attempted to straddle the gulf between ministering to the needs
of the local population without antagonising the colonial administration and bringing the local
population to a point of passive acceptance of colonial rule. The administration viewed church
activity as a possibly practical tool of indoctrination, but at times a vehicle for dissent against
colonial rule too.

The traditional view of the Church during this period was to provide social welfare. Churches
became primarily involved in education and healthcare. Other initiatives such as orphanages,
skills training and agricultural extension were also evident in the development of Zambia during
this period. Though at times its role extended into advocacy and the formulation of law and the
penal code Mathias.

In the matter of healthcare the churches saw the provision of affordable healthcare as vital to a
population that could not afford private medical treatment. Even in current-day Zambia, the
Catholic Church alone is running 15 hospitals, 28 health centres, 54 home based care institutions.
The provision of healthcare had a twofold motivation. Firstly, there was the concern driven by

12
Biblical principles of care for the incapacitated. Examples include the parable of the Good
Samaritan Luke 10:25-37, then Jesus' encouragement in Matthew 25:36 "I was sick and you
looked after me, " and the Old Testament reprimand to the leaders of Israel, "you have not
strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured," Ezk 34:4, Secondly, it was
driven by a perception that the only alternative medical care available to the local population
involved traditional healers and their use of, in colonial eyes, unscientific and crude methods as
well as possible appeals to animistic or ancestral powers. These latter elements were of particular
concern in ecclesiastical circles as, the Church has generally tried to change or discourage
cultural practices that are contrary to Christian teaching. Christian missions were at the forefront
of social change in Zambia. On the question of traditional penal codes, that were either
considered too lenient or too harsh depending on the change the missions wished to see imposed,
as opposed to a legal code more in line with that in Britain the Church was instrumental in
pushing through reform. The involvement of missionaries was "more than providing correctives
– spiritual or otherwise… their real ambition was power". Generally though healthcare had
impact on indigenous society it was seen as a reasonably neutral activity by the colonial
authorities.

According to Phiri (2003) education on the other hand would prove to be a little more of a
double edged sword for the colonial administration. Paradoxically, as the state sought to control
education policy by taking out of the hands of the churches so the clamour for the demise of
colonial rule, from a mission educated local population, rose. Schools were often found
associated with the mission stations. The prime focus of education was on rural areas and the
schools themselves retained the flavour of the particular denomination that had established them.
Though the PAG report notes, "the exception was to be found on the Copperbelt where the
formation of the United Missions in the Copperbelt in the 1930s ushered in inter-denominational
schools." The schools usually offered a rudimentary education in basic reading, Bible study and
practical subjects beyond this it was felt the local population would have little use for higher
education as it could lead to isolation from their communities.

Once more the Bible provided a precedent for missionaries to involve themselves in education,
"train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it," Proverbs
22:6. For the missionaries the practical outworking of this exhortation in Zambia was threefold:

13
 As a means to evangelism. The Evangelical churches in particular saw the personal study of
the Bible as a vital part of the discipleship of converts to Christianity. Therefore, the ability
to read was vital to this concept it also meant that the Church was at the forefront of
recording African aural languages so as to produce translated scriptures. All denominations
though perceived that giving the children a Biblical education would draw them away from
the traditional instruction in the village.

 Education was also seen as a method by which European values and culture could be instilled
into the population.

 Formal education would also provide skilled workers for the mission station. Church
workers, construction workers, teachers etc. Later they would also provide skilled labour for
commerce, government and the mines.

The concept of providing only basic education, as was the case with many mission schools, was
called into question following a revolt in Malawi in 1918 in which mission trained teachers and
former students played a part. The colonial authorities felt that education needed a more formal
basis, to be under closer scrutiny and to provide greater openings for the more apt pupils. "The
government introduced a proclamation which demanded the registration of schools and…
empowered magistrates and Native Commissioners to inspect schools. According to Johnstone
& Mandyk (2001) by 1922 the General Missionary Conference passed a resolution calling for the
"establishment of one or more government colleges or institutions to provide instruction in
agriculture, forestry, pedagogy and the duties of chiefs.” Further to this the "institution was to be
under the management of a joint council of the nominees or the Administration and
representatives of the missions", setting the precedent for partnership between the state and
church in education.

From the 1920s onwards there was to be a gradual erosion of the church's primacy in education
in Zambia. Understanding the need for increased professionalism among its staff the Anglican
Church "closed all its schools for 18 months between 1918 and 1920 and brought all their
teachers to Msoro for retraining." The Advisory Board devised the Native School Code by 1927
establishing the state as the arbiter of educational standards in Zambia. The state now had the
power to deregister schools that did not operate for the prescribed number of days in a year or

14
did not cover adequately the curriculum developed by the Board. The number of registered
mission schools declined significantly during this period. "Of the 547 schools run by the White
Fathers only 17 qualified as schools under the new conditions.” Part of the reason that the
Copperbelt Schools were inter-denominational was the pressure from the Board not to allow
contending schools to open up in the towns and repeat the rivalry that was prevalent elsewhere
leading to small villages with two schools run by competing missions.

Following the Second World War the government opened its own schools in some provinces.
This event was to draw the Christian denominations and indigenous authorities together in a
consensus on education in an attempt to reinforce their positions. Some Churches saw the
government policy as an attempt to secularise education and resisted the move openly. In 1951
Local Education Authorities (LEA) were established to take control of government schools and
were also authorised to take control of any mission schools that the indigenous authorities,
mission societies or any other voluntary organisation no longer wanted to administer. Many of
the Protestant missions handed their schools over. "By 1963 – the dawn of Zambia's
independence – 800 of the 2,100 schools were L.E.A while the rest were mainly agency schools
30 per cent of which were operated by the Catholics" (Smith, 1999)

Shao (2001) despite their decline the mission schools had become the place where the aspiration
for independence was established and nurtured, as well as promoting colonial structure they had
also encouraged critical thinking enabling students to contest the status quo. "It was the mission
centres that became the birthplace of post-war African nationalism.” In the wider context the
churches had also to become advocates for the people who congregated their buildings for
worship and populated their parishes. Although an outside agency they were equipped and
informed enough and had sufficient influence both in Zambia and back in Britain to intercede for
those who had little voice in the colonial political system. It would not be until after
independence those indigenous or even international NGOs would have a comparable voice.
Phiri states," since churches remain 'zones of freedom' and in some cases more or less a 'state
within a state', they tend to take up the political functions of repressed organizations. This leads
to confrontation with the state.

15
Weller & Linden (1984) cite a Catholic missionary who reported that a missionary from the
Presbyterian mission was compelled to complain "to the Foreign Office in London about the
behaviour of the company's officials in his area. Villages burnt, and chiefs and headmen put in
chains, in order to intimidate them into sending their people to do carrier service." In fact one of
the briefs of the General Missionary Council was "to watch over the interests of the Native
races." Churches were to involve themselves in diverse campaigns such as poll tax reform, the
effects on families due to labour migration and issues of racial inequality.

According to World Bank (2001) during this period there was a rise in African Indigenous
Churches (AICs). These churches were founded and run by Zambian's who either defected from
the mission churches dissatisfied with their European bias or their stayed theology or they were
founded during the labour migrations of the 1920s into the Copperbelt. "Among the labourers
were Africans who had been introduced to Christianity in their home regions and who, upon
discovering no church whatsoever in the Copperbelt, decided to start a church themselves – one
that was entirely directed and sustained by Africans." also. It was AICs that would be the initial
breeding grounds for nationalist sentiments, and it was this fervour that crept over the
denominational lines through informal contacts and into the more politically powerful mainline
churches.

The imposition of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953 brought some of these
issues to a head. In Zambia it was felt that the Federation exacerbates the issues of racial
inequality and economically favoured Zimbabwe over Zambia and Malawi. The Christian
Council of Northern Rhodesia, that had replaced the General Missionary Conference in 1944,
stated its position clearly when it wrote:

"Under normal circumstances the Church is bound to support the State and the forces aimed as
preserving law and order, but this obligation is qualified by the Church's higher loyalty to the law
of God. Where the State is misusing its Stewardship of power; where it is not adequately
fulfilling its function of protecting the God-given freedom of all its citizens; where it is favouring
one section of the community to the detriment of the others, then a Christian is called to protest
ad to take whatever action is compatible with the Christian Gospel" (Simutanyi, 1996)

16
The imposition of the Federation was a response by Britain to shore up an empire it could no
longer maintain after the war. In its attempts to preserve its power the colonial government
alienated the churches as some of the most powerful civil society groups in the nation, prompting
open opposition to its policies. It would not be long before this rift allied with educated Zambian
elite would bring about calls for Zambian independence. It was a lesson that would not be lost on
future governments.

2.4. Christianity after Independence:

The drive for an independent Zambia found a secure home in the churches. "The Christian
Church… formed a crucial part of the associational landscape in many Sub-Saharan countries,
consisting not only of a forum for spiritual communication but also a sanctuary for secular
resistance." Phiri (1999) noted that "the mission centres provided a place where the
contradictions between Christianity and the politics of racism and colonialism could be discussed
in relative freedom… The effect of this was that the anti-colonial struggle in Zambia was clearly
driven by Christian beliefs and packaged in Christian social action."

The Lumpa Church was established in 1954 by Alice Lenshina, from a village near Lubwa
Mission in Chinsali District of Northern Province of Zambia. It quickly spread to the whole of
Northern Province, Eastern Province and the Copperbelt, was an AIC. It stands aloof of the
nationalist struggle against the colonial rule. This led to the accusation that the Church was
actually opposing the struggle as recently had been initiated by the ANC and later UNIP. The
main aim of the Lumpa Church was to clean the country of witchcraft. This message was very
popular. She helped also to reintegrate widows who could get important positions in her church,
for example as prayer leaders or as church choir leaders. . Lenshina's movement had specifically
spiritual roots, she was "a peasant woman who claimed to have died and risen again."
Encouraged by Fergus Macpherson, the Scottish missionary of Lubwa Mission to share her story
she gathered a large following and formed an independent church (Msango et al, 2000).

The rapid rise of the Lumpa church and its reluctance to involve itself with anti-colonial struggle
led to violent conflicts with the UNIP youth in Chinsali District and then later also with colonial
authorities. In 1963 the new majority government with Kenneth Kaunda as prime minister sends
the army into the district to restore order and to capture Lenshina. Sporadic clashes became an

17
open war, in which the official death toll was 1,111, although it was probably much larger
Lenshina surrendered herself to the army and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Lumpa
Church was banned. Tens of thousands of her followers fled to the Congo. The Church only
reappeared after the fall of Kaunda in 1988.

Much of the latter conflict with the Lumpa Church had been undertaken by the transitional
government formed to take over from the colonial administration in 1964. This transitional
government was led by Kenneth Kaunda. Kaunda was himself a product of the mission schools,
as was his father, David, who was "a well-educated Malawian preacher and schoolteacher… who
moved to Zambia as a missionary." Kaunda would emphasize his Christian roots, especially in
the lead up to independence and in the early years of his presidency. "I was brought up in a
Christian home and my Christian belief is part of me now. It is still my habit to turn to God in
prayer asking for his guidance." His Christian beliefs ensured the colonial administration were
favourably disposed towards Kaunda and the United National Independence Party (UNIP) that
he led. His faith also bought him wide support in the churches both African and European led.
However, Kaunda also emphasised that it was his understanding of the Bible's teachings that led
him to conclude that colonialism "was immoral because it denied Africans their God-given
dignity".

Gifford (1999) indicates that though the church was the seedbed for much of the nationalism that
brought about independence in Zambia, Phiri notes that the freedoms that nationalism wrought
were to allow other secular civil society associations to ease the church aside as the main source
of opposition to colonial rule. With Kaunda's declarations of faith and independence the church
retracted from the political sphere, merely lending support to the government policies when
necessary. Phiri maintains that this demonstrates the reverse of the phenomenon that Bayart
observed in Cameroon in which "churches often replace the manifestly political institutions in
certain of their functions. When civil society is repressed by a predatory state, a vacuum occurs
in the political system." Phiri (2003) indicates that the relative freedoms of political association
and the improved public spending initiatives of the early years of UNIP rule caused the Church
to return to a more traditional pastoral role. Others, such as Gifford, suggest that Bayart's
observations are too generalised and were specific in geographical and chronological reference

18
only to Cameroon at the time Bayart made them. Therefore, it is difficult to translate these
interpretations either to newly independent Zambia or even to the present day circumstances.

In 1972 the political freedoms declined markedly and this was rapidly followed by economic
volatility as well. In response to, Simon Kapwepwe, the former Vice-President's attempt to form
an alternative political party to UNIP Kaunda's government declared Zambia a one party state.
The following year Zimbabwe closed its borders to "all Zambian exports, except copper, which
adversely affected the economy". Exports were diverted through Tanzania and Angola, but in
1974 the outbreak of civil war in Angola was to have a further impact on the Zambian economy.
At this time the price of copper, accounting for 95% of Zambia's export earnings, began to fall
dramatically. By 1976 Kaunda was forced to declare a state of emergency and the dramatic dip
in revenue caused the UNIP government to borrow heavily, significantly increasing Zambia's
external debt. The worsening economic situation and increasing debt led the IMF to intervene in
the 1980s to shore up the economy and impose Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) on
Zambia. Kaunda only survived politically with the return and reconciliation with Kapwepwe in
1978.

According to Haynes (1998) during this period there was also a shift in the power and politics in
Zambian ecclesiastical life. The churches began to assemble around three representative bodies:
The Episcopal Conference of Zambia (ECZ), the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ) and the
Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ). The ECZ was a unified voice for the component
elements of the Roman Catholic Church; the CCZ was largely the traditional Protestant mission
churches, the UCZ, the Anglicans etc. and the EFZ was started by the Baptists as a more
Evangelical body, but as the years have passed has become increasingly Pentecostal. Following
independence the colonial mission churches came under pressure from two fronts. The first was
a growth in AICs that "split off from mission churches, usually because of perceived racism,
or… to incorporate local elements that the mission churches would not countenance." The
second came from the influx of missionaries, especially from the United States, who were sent
by Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. The emphasis on the miraculous and an
acknowledgement of the impact of the spiritual realm on the physical world had a great impact in
Africa, where "the traditional culture of African society… draws little distinction between the
spiritual and the temporal." The growth in the AICs in particular and probably the memory of the

19
Lumpa uprising, caused Kaunda to impose "a ban on the registration of new churches", in 1988
to "stem what he considered to be an 'unprecedented establishment of breakaway churches'".
This move though was indicative of a widening gap between the church and state in regards to
the economic policies, political ideologies and personal life of Kaunda.

During the late 1960s the UNIP government embarked on a more radical socialist agenda which
became known as Scientific Socialism. This move alarmed the wider Christian community of
Zambia fearing that it could lead to Marxist Humanism in the nation. The ECZ, CCZ and EFZ
took the unusual step of issuing "a joint statement entitled Marxism, Humanism and
Christianity". The government fearing a backlash from the public toned down its policies. Phiri
comments on this episode, "the churches discerned that the UNIP was adopting socialism not
necessarily because of an ideological change of heart, but as another method of control." The
success of the combined pressure prompted the three bodies to continue to work closely in terms
of public policy, which Gifford goes on to note "makes Zambian Christianity… virtually unique
on the continent" in that "the co-operation includes Pentecostals."

The ideological tensions rose again when Kaunda identified his personal political philosophy as
"Zambian Humanism". To Kaunda it was the coming together of his Christian ethics and the
values of traditional African society. However, Kaunda's newly expounded philosophical
outlook ran headlong into the theological outlook of the churches of the EFZ that were being
heavily influenced by the new missionary movement from the United States. Gifford notes that
Kaunda's "idealistic and utopian combination" endured the anger of the EFZ influenced by
"American Evangelism for whom the word humanism carried the worst of connotations", Colin
Morris, an English Methodist missionary in Zambia who was a friend and strong supporter of
Kaunda, described Kaunda's beliefs as syncretistic: "he can make himself a cathedral, mosque,
temple or synagogue with an ease that makes nonsense of religious divisions." By now Kaunda
had lost the trust of the churches who regarded him as a "renegade Christian presiding over a
corrupt and oppressive government". The churches refused to co-operate with the 1976 education
reforms believing that because of socialism, "government's educational ideology was atheistic".

According to PAG (2000) the harshness of the SAPs was to cause serious food riots in Zambia
during the last years of the UNIP government when subsidies on staples, such as maize meal,

20
were removed. Kaunda was often forced to back-pedal and reinstate the subsidies. In doing so
the UNIP government incurred the wrath of the IMF who blacklisted Zambia on the international
financial markets, so furthering its poverty. With the halcyon days of post-independence free
education and health now in the past the poor in particular needed to look elsewhere for help.
Shao (2001) says, "when a government is unable to build a clinic in a village, the people's
tendency is to look to the church for help." the same was true in Zambia at this period. With the
waning of Kaunda's star the power of churches was in the ascendancy again and any serious
challenger to Kenneth Kaunda would need to show indisputable Christian credentials.

2.5. The Church & the Christian Nation:

According to Phiri (2003) the political unrest in Zambia, including food riots in which 30 people
died and an attempted coup, resulted in a call for multi-party democracy. "The demand for
Democracy in many countries in Africa, including Zambia, was also an expression of opposition
to the effects of structural adjustment." The beleaguered Kaunda capitulated and called a
referendum. In mid 1990, "The Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), an unofficial
alliance of political opponents of the Government, was formed" under the leadership of the
recently-ousted Finance Minister Arthur Wina and the leader of the Zambian trade unions,
Frederick Chiluba, to fight the democratic corner in the referendum. Kaunda then postponed the
referendum by a year, but by then the momentum was too strong even in his own party. By the
end of 1990 Kaunda announced that multi-party elections would be held in October 1991. The
"MMD chose not to disband into many small parties that could easily be defeated by the UNIP.
Instead the MMD registered as one party and elected the popular trade unionist Fredrick Chiluba
as its presidential candidate."

Though the churches steered a careful course so as not to actively promote any party Phiri
(1999) notes that "pro-democracy political sermons became frequent in many churches," but
concludes, "despite their bias towards change, the Churches commendably maintained a non-
partisan role, emerging as critical agents of reconciliation during critical times." Churches were
to hold days of prayer for the election process, including election night itself, and, "in the few
months before the elections, the churches made probably their greatest contribution to a peaceful
transition. They joined to form the Christian Churches Monitoring Group, which then became
the Zambia Elections Monitoring Coordinating Committee (ZEMEC), which set out to train a

21
grassroots army to observe procedures at all polling stations on election day." Jimmy Carter who
led the international team of observers notes that at a time of "political impasse", between
Chiluba and Kaunda the Anglican Cathedral in Lusaka provided the "acceptable meeting place
for both parties. Their meeting, which began with shared prayer, resulted eventually in a
redrafting of the constitution that opened the way for the elections." Chiluba later credited Carter
as being sent from God.

Christians wary of Kaunda's somewhat unorthodox theological positions in the past were further
antagonised when the President began openly flirting with Eastern Religious beliefs. The
growing perception in Zambia was "that Kaunda had not just forsaken true Christianity, but had
fallen under the sway of Eastern gurus… in the 1980s he became linked with a Dr M. A.
Ranganathan and established his David Universal Temple at State House." Phiri states that the
association with "Eastern Religions… was not acceptable to Zambian Christians." The tensions
caused by the perceived drift of Kaunda from Christian orthodoxy were exacerbated when
Kaunda alleged "churches were preaching hatred" in response to negative articles about his
regime in two Christian publications. Possibly in an attempt to antagonise the churches even
more Kaunda joined with a television project with the Marharishi Mahesh Yogi launching a
scheme to make Zambia "Heaven on Earth", this was televised on the state-run channel days
before polling. Gifford notes that the response by senior pastors from Ndola, the principal town
of the Copperbelt, was to call the project "demonic" and they "deplored the fact that the
government 'had banned the registration of more churches but permitted occult systems to enter
Zambia' (World Bank, 2001)

Smith (1999) observes that Fredrick Chiluba "was situated quite differently than Kaunda–
politically and religiously speaking. Politically speaking he symbolised a new generation." not
caught up in the dogma of the colonialism verses nationalism debate of Kaunda, but representing
the developmental needs of Zambia. In the run up to the elections Chiluba was to use the rift
between Kaunda and Christians to his advantage by emphasising his Christianity. He "stressed
(and his supporters stressed even more) his impeccable credentials as a true spirit-filled believer.
Christian motifs were introduced into the political struggle – the diminutive Chiluba being
frequently referred to as David challenging Goliath, and even more frequently as Moses, about to
bring his people to freedom after almost forty years of fruitless wanderings in the wilderness."

22
Phiri states that "Chiluba gained the support of the churches [while] Kaunda simultaneously lost
his."

At the election on 31 October 1991, Fredrick Chiluba "received 75.79% of the votes cast" and
the MMD won 125 of the 150 seats in the national assembly in elections that, "international
observers reported… had been conducted fairly". Haynes states that this was "brought about in
part due to the perception that the previous government under K. Kaunda threatened the
Church". Though opposition to SAPs had led to the elections the candidate's personalities their
religious beliefs might have masked the economic concerns. Simutanyi notes that "during the
election campaign the question of the economy was not given serious attention." The excitement
elicited among ordinary Zambians at the opportunity to elect a party of their choice enabled the
"erstwhile opponents of structural adjustment" to change political horses midstream and present
their rendering of SAPs "as a panacea for Zambia’s economic problems… ordinary people
showed open support for austerity. For example, at an MMD rally addressed by Chiluba in
Kabwe in August 1990, Chiluba asked his audience if they would be prepared for sacrifices
when the MMD came to power. They chanted 'YES.' Of course, by embracing SAPs Chiluba
and the MMD also ensured that they would be viewed favourably by the IMF and international
finance community should they gain power (PAG, 2000).

Chiluba quotes a conversation he had with Jimmy Carter just before the election, "he says 'what
you say today will matter tomorrow, you have to be very mindful every word you utter should
have meaning.'" These words would come back to haunt Chiluba as his presidency unfolded.
Two months after the election Chiluba called for a "celebration of praise", at State House at
which he declared on national television that Zambia was a Christian nation. Phiri speculates that
Chiluba's declaration was a personal commitment to God as president that he would lead Zambia
guided by his principles based on his Christian faith. "One of my informants, Melu, felt that, as
far as the president was concerned, the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation was not a
political statement… it was something he believed he needed to do." Phiri had previously stated
that Chiluba "often draws little distinction between his personal religious faith and his public role
as president". Gifford on the other hand sees the declaration as a chance by the Pentecostal and
Evangelical Churches to gain an upper hand in politics in Zambia. "Following the
announcement, there was general euphoria on the past of many born-agains." The ECZ and CCZ

23
response was muted as they had not been consulted before the declaration. Gifford suggests,
"Chiluba may have contacted officials of the EFZ, who no doubt were reluctant to bring in the
other bodies because they saw this as their hour, having in the past felt themselves slightly
overshadowed by the ECZ and CCZ" (Simulanyi, 1996)

According to Phiri (2003) Chiluba's patronage of the Evangelical wing of the church continued
as he "appointed born-again pastors to government posts". "Chiluba was reported to have
distributed 140 million kwacha to some of these churches during the 1996 election campaign in
the hope of solidifying their political support. Chiluba has offered other perks to churches
towards this end as well, including issuing diplomatic passports to clergy… and allocating
building plots to churches." He and Godfrey Miyanda, who began as Minister without Portfolio
and later became Vice President, could be "found 'preaching' to church constituencies at mass
rallies, church fund-raising events and Sunday church services", though Gifford notes of this
latter practice "in Zambia, it would be hard for a President to do otherwise." Phiri also noted that
"there was an influx of Christian missionaries into Zambia. New charismatic churches or church
organisations increased." This is hardly surprising as the Pentecostal church in particular was
keen to promote Chiluba's Christian nation. A video produced by Christian Vision talks of
Chiluba in terms similar to the account of Joseph in Genesis saying, "this man who only a decade
ago languished in a Zambian goal has found God, found freedom, found the support of his
people and has been voted president of his country by a massive majority. Shattering the chains
of economic stagnation, of increasing poverty and spiritual darkness", and aimed to encourage
Western Christians to invest money and skills into Zambia based on its status as a Christian
nation (PAG, 2000).

It is clear that the motives for Chiluba's declaration are somewhat ambiguous. On one hand
Chiluba was calling on God for divine blessing on Zambia at the declaration he quoted 2 Chron
7:14 saying "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn form their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and
will heal their land", and as Phiri speculates, "one of the reasons why Zambia was declared a
Christian nation was Chiluba's belief that a nation whose leader fears God prospers
economically. This interpretation of the Bible is heavily influenced by the US faith prosperity
teachings that were gaining influence in Zambia, through missionaries, overseas contacts and

24
increasingly by the means of mass media. "American sources and missionaries are systematically
flooding the continent and forming a crucial, dynamic part of the African revival."(1999) Gifford
comments, "the faith paradigm has become widely accepted as Christianity, and is staple fare on
Zambian television." (Mthembu-Salter, 2003)

Chiluba had an understanding of how Pentecostal churches view his presidency as God
appointed. Rev. Sky Banda as senior Pentecostal pastor in the nation says of Chiluba, "when he
finally got into the presidentship position we were very happy. We felt it was a God-ordained
situation." Haynes proposes, "Independent churches… theologically towards the conservative
end of the religious spectrum, regarded government as divinely sanctioned, that they rule
because God allows them to." By using scriptures such as Romans 13:1a, "Everyone must
summit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has
established." Chiluba was confident he would be able to push his harsh economic policies
through with little opposition from the Pentecostal wing of the church. An even more powerful
inference in Pentecostal terms was that his presidency was like that of an Old Testament king.
Using a scripture, "the Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master the Lord's
anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord", 1 Sam 24:5, often
appropriated by Pentecostal faith prosperity teachers to hide excesses in their ministry and
prevent serious investigation, he and his supporters were able to fend off difficult questions from
Pentecostal quarters, see also (Christian Vision, 1992)

According to Shao (2001) with this seemingly sound scriptural backing Chiluba was able to ask
of his Christian supporters to endure hardships beyond those that brought the UNIP government
of Kaunda to its knees. Calling once more on faith prosperity doctrines, "Chiluba admonished
Christians to 'work hard and not to continue begging because there was not poverty in
heaven'."Phiri questioned whether Chiluba's actions were in fact in keeping with his former
beliefs as a trade unionist, "the characteristics of liberal democracy as understood by Chiluba
were not put into practice when he declared Zambia a Christian nation." Because of his
seemingly unassailable position the MMD threw them whole heartedly into an adjustment
programme. Haynes comments that the programme "was so stringent that the local World Bank
representative counselled caution and urged that greater concern be given to the issue of social
instability, which he judged to be a direct result of too fervent an application of adjustment

25
policies". The policy left many unemployed, raise the price of basic foods with the removal of
subsidies (an action that had caused major riots under Kaunda) and increased the cost of
education and healthcare. The application of this programme was to have a huge impact on the
population and it was to finally cause a rift between Chiluba and the church. Phiri (2003) states
it, "contributed to the worsening of the economic standards of 80 percent of Zambians". Once
more as hardship threatened the population the church was compelled to take up an advocacy
role instigating, "conflict between Chiluba and the churches… due to the social impact of his
economic policies" This was a crucial moment in the relationship between Chiluba and the
church because, "the sustainability of economic policies depends to a large extent of the balance
of power between groups supporting and those against." (PAG, 2000)

The surprise declaration of the Christian nation had already alienated the CCZ and ECZ and they
became increasing less likely to fully support Chiluba just because he was a Christian. The
declaration eventually estranged many of the women of Zambia, who had enthusiastically
supported Chiluba in 1991, but later felt that he was "not gender sensitive and… wondered
whether this had anything to do with the fact that Zambia… had been declared a Christian
nation." Illustrating what Aboum suggests, "the relationship between the church and Women is
contradictory. On the one hand, the Church empowers women, and on the other, it has been slow
in applying the revolutionary message of good news for women within its own structures." Put
simply, "the Church has an empowering role, but a marginalising structure." As the economic
hardships increased churches came under greater pressure both to provide welfare, but also
because of financial hardships within their own organisations. "As Africa's economies have
collapsed, many African churches have been reduced to a state of penury." Indeed Zambia itself
became increasingly reliant on outside AID. Although Christian nation status ensured that
Christians in the west would be encouraged to donate more to see Zambia succeed, Zambia's
poverty and debt burden increased dramatically during the 1990s. Chiluba's policies were
causing the churches to distance themselves from him. "In March 1992 the EFZ… issued a
statement in which it appealed to the Zambian church to 'restrict itself to those matters that are
within its competence' and to 'maintain a reasonable distance from government" (Howell &
Pearce, 2002)

26
Phiri (1999) by 1996 the term Christian nation had been written into the opening of the proposed
Zambian constitution. This took the debate from whether the declaration in 1991 was a personal
statement or policy to a new level. As Phiri says it now, "had legal implications or a longer
lasting nature than the Chiluba presidency." There were demands from opposition MPs and even
a joint communiqué from the ECZ, CCZ and even the EFZ calling for a referendum, but,
"Chiluba simply offered the constitution to Parliament to approve", and his confidence was
rewarded when the MMD MPs holding a vast majority approved the wording. These actions
along with others by Chiluba, including attempting to prevent Kaunda from running for president
again, caused UNIP to boycott the forthcoming presidential elections.

Chiluba's perceived arrogance coupled with his failures to tackle the economic decline, poverty
or corruption caused some pastors to conclude that what was lacking was suitably informed and
educated Christians in politics to see the vision of a Christian nation through to its conclusion.
Nevers Mumba, a Pentecostal pastor, and a key supporter of Chiluba in 1991 formed the
National Christian's Coalition in 1996. Mumba claimed that this was not a political party, but just
an organisation to "act as an independent voice in guiding the president in matters of concern to
the church". However this caused great controversy among Christians, some of whom thought
Mumba was in fact harbouring political ambitions to become president himself. Mumba
challenged the integrity of Chiluba's government and in doing so caused Chiluba to see the NCC
as a threat to his power. Under increasing pressure from within the NCC and increasing
alienation by other political groups and churches Mumba converted the NCC into a political
party and stood at the 1996 elections. The NCC however failed to win a seat. Chiluba was
returned by 70% of the vote, but only 40% of the registered electorate turned out and only 60%
of eligible electors had ever been registered. The absence of UNIP and voting irregularities
caused many, including international observers, to question the validity of the election. World
Bank, 2001)

According to Hand (1997) in his second term Chiluba continued to lose the confidence of the
people of Zambia. In 1997 an attempted coup triggered the arrest of UNIP activists and the house
arrest of Kenneth Kaunda. This brought down international condemnation on Chiluba. His
separation from his wife Vera in 2000 caused many in church circles to question whether
Chiluba's faith was what it once had been. And when Chiluba's demanded to stay on for a third

27
term, despite the fact that it contradicted the constitution he had fought so hard to push through,
it diminished his standing even further. In 1991, "Chiluba… promised the Christian community
that power… [would] not corrupt his character", but this had an increasingly hollow ring to it.
Gifford comments the makeup of the MMD included a large number of Kaunda's regime who
had jumped ship to keep their lucrative positions. "In 1994, Vice-President Levy Mwanawasa
resigned, alleging Chiluba's government was corrupt." When opposed over his demand for a
third term, "Chiluba reacted undemocratically by expelling twenty-two senior members of the
MMD party, including Miyanda." On 3 May 2001 an attempt to impeach Chiluba was made to
the Zambian parliament and backed by 158 MPs. The next day Chiluba, "announced 'I will leave
office at the end of my term. Let's take national interests into consideration, this is in the best
interest of the nation'… his presidency of Zambia as a Christian Nation ended with his reputation
both as a Christian and as a democrat in ruins." He handed over power to the newly elected
president Levy Mwanawasa, the leader of the MMD, in December 2001. In his first address to
the Nation, the new president reaffirmed his commitment to the declaration of Zambia as a
Christian nation. (Shao, 2001)

Phiri (2003) indicates that Pentecostal churches have managed to distance themselves to such a
degree they were largely unaffected by Chiluba's fall. The instigation of the NCC by Mumba
provided many with a safe method of switching allegiances without abandoning the concept of
the Christian nation. Phiri says of Zambian political affairs that it "has not fallen into the pattern
of one party that supports the Christian Nation, contesting with another party which opposes it.
Zambian politics has come increasingly to be played out between supporters of the Christian
Nation." Following Mwanawasa's election he called on Nevers Mumba to become Vice President
and in doing so conferred Pentecostal legitimacy on his government without the baggage that
surrounded Chiluba. In many ways the Chiluba presidency has enabled the Pentecostal church to
secure its voice in with the larger and more established churches in Zambia and among the urban
populations in particular it is increasingly seen as one of the most active parts of civil society.

28
 RECUPITULATION:

1. Discuss David Livingstone contribution as missionary to the development of Zambia

2. Discuss one important issue David Livingstone proposed to abolish in Africa including
Zambia

3. Discuss the curriculum missionary education used and stressed in their effort to provide
education to the indignant people.

4. Zambia was declared a Christian Nation in the 1990s. Was the declaration a political
philosophy or really Zambia was meant to be a Christian Nation. Discuss.

29
3. UNIT THREE: EDUCATION & DEVELOPNMENT

3.1. Introduction:
Development is both physical and a state of mind in which society has, through some
combination of social, economic and institutional processes, secured the means for obtaining a
better life. Whatever components of better life, development in all societies must have “to
increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life-sustaining goods such as food;
shelter, health and protection, to raise levels of living. But this cannot be achieved without
people who are highly qualified to do the planning, emplementation and so on

3.2. What is Development?

According to Asheim (1999), the term "development" is often used in the following
combinations: economic development, socio-economic development, economic development in
USA, the development of the region of the city. In each case, under development generally refers
to any progressive change primarily in the economic sphere. If the change is quantitative, they
talk about economic growth. In a qualitative change we can talk about the structural changes or
changes in content development, or the acquisition of the economic system of the new features.
In addition to purely economic characteristics are often considered social dimensions of
development. Moreover, the social characteristics have long been full performance; assess the
degree of development of any region.
According to Heal (2009), development always has a direction determined by the purpose or
purposes of the system. If this direction is positive, then we speak of progress, if negative, of
regression, or degradation. In other words, the nature of regional development always involves a
certain goal or several goals.

According to Todoro & Smith (2006: 826) development is the process of improving the quality
of life of all human lives. In economic terms development means the capacity of a national
economy, whose initial economic condition has been more static for a long time, to generate and
sustain an annual increase in its Gross National product (GNP) at rates of perhaps 5% to 7% or
more. Another measure used which is similar to the GNP is known as the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP).

30
The development is a multidimensional process, which is usually discussed in terms of a set of
various social and economic goals. Even if only on economic development, it is usually
considered in conjunction with the development of social sciences. Socio-economic development
includes aspects such as:

increased production and income; changes in the institutional, social and administrative
structures of society; changes in the public consciousness; changes in the traditions and habits.
Currently, the main purpose of economic development in most countries and their regions is to
improve the quality of life. Therefore, the process of socio-economic development includes three
major components: increase revenues, improve health and increase its level of
education; creation of conditions conducive to growth of self-esteem of people as a result of the
formation of social, political, economic and institutional systems to be respect for human
dignity; increase the degree of freedom of people, including their economic freedom.
The last two components of the quality of life is not always taken into account when assessing
the degree of socio-economic development of countries and regions, but in recent years in
economic science and political practice, it is given greater importance.

Development of any region is a multi-purpose and multi-criteria process. The contents of the
regions can vary greatly. Indeed, the development of Brazil and Russia, France, Great Britain
and its content are very different, and this difference is due not only to the initial level of
development, but also the characteristics of each region, its industrial structure, geographical
location, production specialization, etc.

3.3. Developmental Education:

According to Needham (2011), education is a self-enlightening process. It is an important
component of life. Know more about the importance of education.

According to Heal (2009), the first importance in education is knowledge gain. Education gives
us knowledge of the world around us. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us
build opinions and have points of view on things in life. People debate over the subject of
whether education is the only thing that gives knowledge.

31
Wallace (2005) indicates that education is the process of gaining information about the
surrounding world while knowledge is something very different. Information cannot be
converted into knowledge without the catalyst called education. Education makes us capable of
interpreting things rightly. Education is not just about lessons in textbooks. But it is about the
lessons of life.
Education is important as it teaches us the right behaviour and good manners thus making us
civilized. It teaches us how to lead life. Education is the basis of culture and civilization.
According to Ahmed (2008) it is the strong instrument in the development of our values and
virtues. Education cultivates us into mature individuals, individuals capable of planning for our
future and taking the right decisions in life. Education arms us with an insight into our lives and
teaches us to learn from experience. The future of a nation is safe in the hands of educated
individuals. Education is important for the economic growth of a nation. It fosters principles of
equality and socialism. Education forms a support system for individuals to excel in life. It is the
backbone of all societies. Further Barbier (2007) reveals that education is important because it
equips us with all that is needed to make our dreams become true. Education opens doors to
brilliant career opportunities. It fetches better prospects in career and growth. Every employer
today requires his prospective employees to be well-educated. He requires expertise. So,
education becomes an eligibility criterion for employment in any sector of the industry. We are
rewarded for exercising the expertise required for the field we venture. We are weighed in the
market on the basis of our educational skills and how well we can apply them.
According to Wallace (2005) Education is essential as it paves the path leading to
disillusionment. It wipes out all the wrong beliefs in our minds. It helps create a clear picture of
everything around us and we no longer remain in confusion about the things we learn. Education
brings up questions and also helps us devise ways to find satisfactory answers to them. Education
is about knowing that everything has a science to it, it is about learning to reason everything till
every question meets its answer. Education can lead us to enlightenment. It is education that
builds in every individual, the confidence to take decisions, to face life and to accept successes
and failures. It instills a sense of pride about the knowledge one has and prepares him/her to live
(Pezze,1997).
Though not enlisted as one of the three basic human needs, education is equally important. For
the progress of a nation, for the enrichment of society in general, education is necessary and

32
important. A country's literate population is a nation's asset. The number of institutes offering
vocational courses and colleges offering online education is increasing by the day. Vocational
courses help earn specialized education. Online degree programs help the working class and
adults in general, to pursue education even while working. Distance education has proven to be
of help for those who are unable to attend classes. In today's competitive world, it won't be wise
to neglect the importance of education. And most countries have realized this. This has led to
many government-aided educational programs and government grants to schools and colleges.
The motive behind this is fostering education in society. (Arrow et al, 2004).
Well, schools, colleges and such educational institutes define the basic framework of education.
Schooling gives us the fundamentals while we specialize in fields of our interest during degree
courses. But education does not end here. It is a lifelong process. Self-learning begins at a point
where institutional education ends. The process of self-learning continues.

3.4. Sustainable development:

According to Wallace (2005) Sustainable development (SD) is a pattern of economic growth in
which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these
needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come (sometimes taught
as ELF-Environment, Local people, Future (Ahmed, 2008). The term 'sustainable development'
was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted
definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Alternatively,
sustainability educator Michael Thomas Needham referred to 'Sustainable Development' "as the
ability to meet the needs of the present while contributing to the future generations’ needs."
There is an additional focus on the present generations responsibility to improve the future
generations life by restoring the previous ecosystem damage and resisting to contribute to further
ecosystem damage.

Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with
the social challenges faced by humanity. As early as the 1970s, "sustainability" was employed to
describe an economy "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems. Ecologists have
pointed to The Limits to Growth, and presented the alternative of a "steady state economy" in
order to address environmental concerns.

33
The concept of sustainable development is often broken out into three constituent
parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability.

In 1987, the United Nations released the Brundtland Report, which included what is now one of
the most widely recognised definitions:

According to Endress et al (2005) "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It
contains within it two key concepts:

 the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which
overriding priority should be given; and

 the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the
environment's ability to meet present and future needs" (Dasgupta et al, 2004)

The United Nations (2005) World Summit Outcome Document refers to the "interdependent and
mutually reinforcing pillars" of sustainable development as economic development, social
development, and environmental protection. Based on the triple bottom line,
numerous sustainability standards and certification systems have been established in recent
years, in particular in the food industry. Well-known standards include organic, Rainforest
Alliance, fair trade, UTZ Certified, Bird Friendly, and The Common Code for the Coffee
Community.

Indigenous peoples have argued, through various international forums such as the United
Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Convention on Biological Diversity, that
there are four pillars of sustainable development, the fourth being cultural. The Universal
Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) further elaborates the concept by stating that
"...cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”; it becomes “one
of the roots of development understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a
means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence". In
this vision, cultural diversity is the fourth policy area of sustainable development.

34
A useful articulation of the values and principles of sustainability can be found in the Earth
Charter. It offers an integrated vision and definition of strong sustainability. The document, an
ethical framework for a sustainable world, was developed over several years after the Rio Earth
Summit in 1992 and launched officially in 2000. The Charter derives its legitimacy from the
participatory process in which it was drafted, which included contributions from hundreds of
organizations and thousands of individuals, and from its use since 2000 by thousands of
organizations and individuals that have been using the Earth Charter as an educational
instrument and a policy tool.

Economic Sustainability: Agenda 21 clearly identified information, integration, and participation

as key building blocks to help countries achieve development that recognises these
interdependent pillars. It emphasises that in sustainable development everyone is a user and
provider of information. It stresses the need to change from old sector-centered ways of doing
business to new approaches that involve cross-sectoral co-ordination and the integration of
environmental and social concerns into all development processes. Furthermore, Agenda 21
emphasises that broad public participation in decision making is a fundamental prerequisite for
achieving sustainable development.

According to Vancock (2002), sustainability is a process which tells of a development of all

aspects of human life affecting sustenance. It means resolving the conflict between the various
competing goals, and involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental
quality and social equity famously known as three dimensions (triple bottom line) with the
resultant vector being technology, hence it is a continually evolving process; the 'journey' (the
process of achieving sustainability) is of course vitally important, but only as a means of getting
to the destination (the desired future state). However, the 'destination' of sustainability is not a
fixed place in the normal sense that we understand destination. Instead, it is a set of wishful
characteristics of a future system. The concept has included notions of weak sustainability,
strong sustainability and deep ecology.

According to Dyllick & Hockerts (2002) Green development is generally differentiated from
sustainable development in that Green development prioritizes what its proponents consider to be
environmental sustainability over economic and cultural considerations. Proponents of

35
Sustainable Development argue that it provides a context in which to improve overall
sustainability where cutting edge Green Development is unattainable. For example, a cutting
edge treatment plant with extremely high maintenance costs may not be sustainable in regions of
the world with fewer financial resources. According to Pezze (1997) an environmentally ideal
plant that is shut down due to bankruptcy is obviously less sustainable than one that is
maintainable by the community, even if it is somewhat less effective from an environmental
standpoint. However, this view depends on whether one determines that it is the development
(the plant) which needs to be sustainable, or whether it is the human-nature ecology (the
environmental conditions) in which the plant exists which should be sustainable. It follows, then,
that an operational but heavily polluting plant may be judged as actually 'less sustainable' than
having no plant at all.

Some research activities start from this definition to argue that the environment is a combination
of nature and culture. The Network of Excellence "Sustainable Development in a Diverse
World" sponsored by the European Union, integrates multidisciplinary capacities and
interprets cultural diversity as a key element of a new strategy for sustainable development.

In fact, some researchers and institutions have even pointed out that a fourth dimension should
be added to the three dimensions of sustainable development, since these three dimensions do
not seem to be enough to reflect the complexity of contemporary society. In this context,
the Agenda 21 for culture and the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Executive
Bureau lead the preparation of the policy statement “Culture: Fourth Pillar of Sustainable
Development”, passed on 17 November 2010, in the framework of the World Summit of Local
and Regional Leaders – 3rd World Congress of UCLG, held in Mexico City. This document
inaugurates a new perspective and points to the relation between culture and sustainable
development through a dual approach: developing a solid cultural policy and advocating a
cultural dimension in all public policies.

Still other researchers view environmental and social challenges as opportunities for
development action. This is particularly true in the concept of sustainable enterprise that frames
these global needs as opportunities for private enterprise to provide innovative and
entrepreneurial solutions. This view is now being taught at many business schools including

36
the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University and the Erb Institute for
Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan.

The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development lists the following areas as coming
within the scope of sustainable development:

Sustainable development is an eclectic concept, as a wide array of views fall under its umbrella.
The concept has included notions of weak sustainability, strong sustainability and deep ecology.
Different conceptions also reveal a strong tension between egocentrism and anthropocentrism.
Many definitions and images (Visualizing Sustainability) of sustainable development coexist.
Broadly defined, the sustainable development mantra enjoins current generations to take a
systems approach to growth and development and to manage natural, produced, and social
capital for the welfare of their own and future generations.

During the last ten years, different organizations have tried to measure and monitor the proximity
to what they consider sustainability by implementing what has been called sustainability metrics
and indices.

Sustainable development is said to set limits on the developing world. While current first world
countries polluted significantly during their development, the same countries encourage third
world countries to reduce pollution, which sometimes impedes growth. Some consider that the
implementation of sustainable development would mean a reversion to pre-modern lifestyles.[17]

Others have criticized the overuse of the term:

"The word sustainable has been used in too many situations today, and ecological sustainability
is one of those terms that confuse a lot of people. You hear about sustainable development,
sustainable growth, sustainable economies, sustainable societies, sustainable agriculture.
Everything is sustainable (Temple, 1992)."

For several decades, theorists of steady state economy and ecological economy have been
positing that reduction in population growth or even negative population growth is required for
the human community not to destroy its planetary support systems, i.e., to date, increases in
efficiency of production and consumption have not been sufficient, when applied to existing

37
trends in population and resource depletion and waste by-production, to allow for projections of
future sustainability.

a) Measurability:

In 2007 a report for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated: “While much discussion
and effort has gone into sustainability indicators, none of the resulting systems clearly tells us
whether our society is sustainable. At best, they can tell us that we are heading in the wrong
direction, or that our current activities are not sustainable. More often, they simply draw our
attention to the existence of problems, doing little to tell us the origin of those problems and
nothing to tell us how to solve them. Nevertheless a majority of authors assume that a set of well
defined and harmonised indicators is the only way to make sustainability tangible. Those
indicators are expected to be identified and adjusted through empirical observations (trial and
error) see also ecological footprint.

The most common critiques are related to issues like data quality, comparability, objective
function and the necessary resources. However a more general criticism is coming from the
project management community: How can a sustainable development be achieved at global level
if we cannot monitor it in any single project?

According to Dasgupta (2007) the concept of sustainable development was originally

synonymous with that of sustainability and is often still used in that way. Both terms derive from
the older forestry term "sustained yield", which in turn a translation of the German term
“nachhaltiger Ertrag” is dating from 1713. According to different sources, the concept of
sustainability in the sense of a balance between resource consumption and reproduction was
however applied to forestry already in the 12th to 16th century.

‘Sustainability’ is a semantic modification, extension and transfer of the term ‘sustained yield’.
This had been the doctrine and, indeed, the ‘holy grail’ of foresters all over the world for more or
less two centuries. The essence of ‘sustained yield forestry’ was described for example by
William A. Duerr, a leading American expert on forestry: “To fulfill our obligations to our
descendents and to stabilize our communities, each generation should sustain its resources at a
high level and hand them along undiminished. The sustained yield of timber is an aspect of

38
man’s most fundamental need to sustain life itself.” This is in line with a fine anticipation of the
Brundtland-formula (Donovan, 2000).

Not just the concept of sustainable development, but also its current interpretations have its roots
in forest management. Strong sustainability stipulates living solely off the interest of natural
capital, whereas adherents of weak sustainability are content to keep constant the sum of natural
and human capital.

The history of the concept of sustainability is however much older. Already in 400 BCE,
Aristotle referred to a similar Greek concept in talking about household economics. This Greek
household concept differed from modern ones in that the household had to be self-sustaining at
least to a certain extent and could not just be consumption oriented (Schaltetggr & Popoff 1997)

The first use of the term "sustainable" in the modern sense was by the Club of Rome in March
1972 in its epoch-making report on the ‘Limits to Growth", written by a group of scientists led
by Dennis & Donella Meadows of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Describing the
desirable "state of global equilibrium", the authors used the word "sustainable": [

b) Environmental sustainability:

According to Dasgupta (2007) Environmental sustainability is the process of making sure current
processes of interaction with the environment are pursued with the idea of keeping the
environment as pristine as naturally possible based on ideal-seeking behavior.

An "unsustainable situation" occurs when natural capital (the sum total of nature's resources) is
used up faster than it can be replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity only uses
nature's resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally. Inherently the concept of
sustainable development is intertwined with the concept of carrying capacity. Theoretically, the
long-term result of environmental degradation is the inability to sustain human life. Such
degradation on a global scale could imply extinction for humanity.

39
Consumption of renewable resources State of environment Sustainability

More than nature's ability to replenish Environmental degradation Not sustainable

Equal to nature's ability to replenish Environmental equilibrium Steady state economy

Less than nature's ability to replenish Environmental renewal Environmentally sustainable

c) Economic sustainability:

The Venn diagram of sustainable development shown above has many versions, but was first
used by economist Barbier (1987). However, Pearce, et al (1989) criticized the Venn approach
due to the intractability of operationalising separate indices of economic, environmental, and
social sustainability and somehow combining them. They also noted that the Venn approach was
inconsistent with the Brundtland Commission Report, which emphasized the inter-linkages
between economic development, environmental degradation, and population pressure instead of
three objectives. Economists have since focused on viewing the economy and the environment as
a single interlinked system with a unified valuation methodology (Hamilton 1999 & Dasgupta
2007). Intergenerational equity can be incorporated into this approach, as has become common
in economic valuations of climate change economics (Heal, 2009) Ruling out discrimination
against future generations and allowing for the possibility of renewable alternatives to petro-
chemicals and other non-renewable resources, efficient policies are compatible with increasing
human welfare, eventually reaching a golden-rule steady state (Ayong le Kama, 2001& Endress
et al.2005). Thus the three pillars of sustainable development are inter-linkages, intergenerational
equity, and dynamic efficiency (Stavins, et al. 2003).

Arrow et al. (2004) and other economists (e.g. Asheim, 1999) have advocated a form of the weak
criterion for sustainable development – the requirement than the wealth of a society, including
human-capital, knowledge-capital and natural-capital (as well as produced capital) not decline
over time. Others, including Barbier 2007, continue to contend that strong sustainability – non-
depletion of essential forms of natural capital – may be appropriate.

40
 3.5. Capital & Sustainable Development:
The sustainable development debate is based on the assumption that societies need to manage
three types of capital (economic, social, and natural), which may be non-substitutable and whose
consumption might be irreversible. Daly (1991), for example, points to the fact that natural
capital can not necessarily be substituted by economic capital. While it is possible that we can
find ways to replace some natural resources, it is much more unlikely that they will ever be able
to replace eco-system services, such as the protection provided by the ozone layer, or the climate
stabilizing function of the Amazonian forest. In fact natural capital, social capital and economic
capital are often complementarities. A further obstacle to substitutability lies also in the multi-
functionality of many natural resources. Forests, for example, not only provide the raw material
for paper (which can be substituted quite easily), but they also maintain biodiversity, regulate
water flow, and absorb CO2.

Another problem of natural and social capital deterioration lies in their partial irreversibility. The
loss in biodiversity, for example, is often definite. The same can be true for cultural diversity.
For example with globalisation advancing quickly the number of indigenous languages is
dropping at alarming rates. Moreover, the depletion of natural and social capital may have non-
linear consequences. Consumption of natural and social capital may have no observable impact
until a certain threshold is reached. A lake can, for example, absorb nutrients for a long time
while actually increasing its productivity. However, once a certain level of algae is reached lack
of oxygen causes the lake’s ecosystem to break down suddenly (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002).

a) Market failure:

If the degradation of natural and social capital has such important consequence the question
arises why action is not taken more systematically to alleviate it. Cohen and Winn (2007) point
to four types of market failure as possible explanations: First, while the benefits of natural or
social capital depletion can usually be privatized the costs are often externalized - i.e. they are
borne not by the party responsible but by society in general. Second, natural capital is often
undervalued by society since we are not fully aware of the real cost of the depletion of natural
capital. Information asymmetry is a third reason-often the link between cause and effect is
obscured, making it difficult for actors to make informed choices. Cohen and Winn close with

41
the realization that contrary to economic theory many firms are not perfect optimizers. They
postulate that firms often do not optimize resource allocation because they are caught in a
"business as usual" mentality (Daly, 1991)

b) Business case for sustainable development:

The most broadly accepted criterion for corporate sustainability constitutes a firm’s efficient use
of natural capital. This eco-efficiency is usually calculated as the economic value added by a
firm in relation to its aggregated ecological impact. This idea has been popularised by the World
Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) under the following definition: "Eco-
efficiency is achieved by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy
human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts
and resource intensity throughout the life-cycle to a level at least in line with the earth’s carrying
capacity" (DeSimone & Popoff, 1997).

Similar to the eco-efficiency concept but so far less explored is the second criterion for corporate
sustainability. Socio-efficiency describes the relation between a firm's value added and its social
impact. Whereas, it can be assumed that most corporate impacts on the environment are negative
(apart from rare exceptions such as the planting of trees) this is not true for social impacts. These
can be either positive (e.g. corporate giving, creation of employment) or negative (e.g. work
accidents, mobbing of employees, human rights abuses). Depending on the type of impact socio-
efficiency thus either tries to minimize negative social impacts i.e. accidents per value added or
maximise positive social impacts i.e. donations per value added in relation to the value added.

Both eco-efficiency and socio-efficiency are concerned primarily with increasing economic
sustainability. In this process they instrumentalise both natural and social capital aiming to
benefit from win-win situations. However, as Dyllick & Hockerts point out the business case
alone will not be sufficient to realise sustainable development. They point towards eco-
effectiveness, socio-effectiveness, sufficiency, and eco-equity as four criteria that need to be met
if sustainable development is to be reached.

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 3.6. Sustainable Agriculture:
Sustainable agriculture may be defined as consisting of environmentally-friendly methods of
farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural
systems. More specifically, it might be said to include preventing adverse effects to soil, water,
biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources -- as well as to those working or living on the
farm or in neighboring areas. Furthermore, the concept of sustainable agriculture extends inter-
generationally, relating to passing on a conserved or improved natural resource, biotic, and
economic base instead of one which has been depleted or polluted.

a) Elements of sustainable agriculture

(i) Agro-forestry

According to the World Agro-forestry Centre, agro-forestry is a collective name for land use
systems and practices in which woody perennials are deliberately integrated with crops and/or
animals on the same land management unit. The integration can be either in a spatial mixture or
in a temporal sequence. There are normally both ecological and economic interactions between
woody and non-woody components in agro-forestry.

(ii) Mixed Farming:

Many farmers in tropical & temperate countries survive by managing a mix of different crops or
animals. The best known form of mixing occurs probably where crop residues are used to feed
the animals and the excreta from animals are used as nutrients for the crop. Other forms of
mixing takes place where grazing under fruit trees keeps the grass short or where manure from
pigs is used to feed the fish. Mixed farming exists in many forms depending on external and
internal factors. External factors are: Weather Patterns, Market Prices, Political Stability and
Technological Development. Internal factors relate to Local Soil Characteristics, Composition of
family and Farmer’s Ingenuity. Mixed Farming provides farmers with a) an opportunity to
diversify risk from single-crop production; (b) to use labour more efficiently; (c) to have a source
of cash for purchasing farm inputs; (d) to add value to crop or crop by-product; (e) combining
crops and livestock.

(iii) Multiple Cropping:

43
The process of growing two or more crops in the same piece of land, during the same season is
called Multiple Cropping. It can be rightly called a form of poly-culture. It can be – (a) Double
Cropping (the practice where the second crop is planted after the first has been harvested); (b)
Relay Cropping - the practice where a second crop is started along with the first one, before it is
harvested).

(iv) Crop Rotation:

The process of growing two or more dissimilar or unrelated crops in the same piece of land in
different seasons is known as Crop Rotation. This process could be adopted as it comes with a
series of benefits like – (a) avoid the buildup of pests that often occurs when one species is
continuously cropped; (b) the traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of
nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops; (c) Crop
rotation can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-
rooted plants; (d) it is a component of poly-culture.

3.7. Criticisms of Sustainable Development:

The concept of "Sustainable Development" raises several critiques at different levels.

a) Consequences:

John Baden views the notion of sustainable development as dangerous because the consequences
have unknown effects. He writes: "In economy like in ecology, the interdependence rule applies.
Isolated actions are impossible. A policy which is not carefully enough thought will carry along
various perverse and adverse effects for the ecology as much as for the economy. Many
suggestions to save our environment and to promote a model of 'sustainable development' risk
indeed leading to reverse effects."[45] Moreover, he evokes the bounds of public action which are
underlined by the public choice theory: the quest by politicians of their own interests, lobby
pressure, partial disclosure etc. He develops his critique by noting the vagueness of the
expression, which can cover anything. It is a gateway to interventionist proceedings which can
be against the principle of freedom and without proven efficacy. Against this notion, he is a
proponent of private property to impel the producers and the consumers to save the natural
resources. According to Baden, “the improvement of environment quality depends on the market

44
economy and the existence of legitimate and protected property rights.” They enable the
effective practice of personal responsibility and the development of mechanisms to protect the
environment. The State can in this context “create conditions which encourage the people to save
the environment.”

RECUPITULATION:

1. What is sustainable development?

2. Discuss how education promote development

3. Discuss the elements of sustainable agriculture

4. Outline the importance of environmental sustainability

45
4. UNIT FOUR: TRADITIONAL EDUCATION:

4.1. Introduction:
The education that was given to the African youth fitted the group and the expected social roles
in society were learned by adulthood. Girls were socialized to effectively learn the roles of
motherhood, wife, and other sex-appropriate skills. Boys were socialized to be hunters, herders,
agriculturalists, blacksmiths, etc., depending on how the particular ethnic group, clan or family
derived its livelihood.

4.2. The Concept of Traditional Education:

The process of traditional education in Africa was intimately integrated with the social, cultural,
artistic, religious, and recreational life of the ethnic group. That is, ‘schooling’ and ‘education’,
or the learning of skills, social and cultural values and norms were not separated from other
spheres of life. As in any other society, the education of the African child started at birth and
continued into adulthood.

The education that was given to the African youth fitted the group and the expected social roles
in society were learned by adulthood. Girls were socialized to effectively learn the roles of
motherhood, wife, and other sex-appropriate skills. Boys were socialized to be hunters, herders,
agriculturalists, blacksmiths, etc., depending on how the particular ethnic group, clan or family
derived its livelihood.

Because there were no permanent school walls in traditional African educational systems, as in
the case of the Western countries, some European writers on African education tended to be
blinded by their own cultural paradigms and viewed traditional African educational process as
mainly informal. Some early European writers on Africa in general went to the extent of saying
that Africa, especially south of the Sahara, had no culture, history or civilization. Murray (1967:
14), for instance, states that “…outside Egypt there is nowhere indigenous history. African
history has always been ‘foreign’ history.”

Laurie (1907), in his Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education, did not even include Sub-
Saharan Africa in his scheme of analysis or exposition; he started with Egyptians and ended with
the Romans. He equated education with civilization and culture as he knew them and, by
implication, Sub-Saharan Africa was primitive.
46
Boas (1983: 180) defines “primitive as those peoples whose activities are little diversified, whose
forms of life are simple and uniform, and contents and form of whose culture are meager and
intellectually inconsistent. Their inventions, social order, intellectual and emotional life should
be poorly developed.” Boas goes on to justify a civilized culture by using technical
developments and the wealth of inventions as yardsticks. The types of technology he singles out
as making a culture civilized are those which go beyond merely satisfying daily basic needs;
thus, Eskimo techniques are primitive since they do not greatly reduce the Eskimo’s daily
physical preoccupation with livelihood. One sees that Boas is favoring West European culture as
a measure of civilization; however, the academic tradition of putting Europe at the pinnacle of
civilizations has now largely been addressed and refuted by both Western and non- Western
scholars and other people of ideas.

Brickman (1963: 399) goes beyond Laurie’s (1907), Murray’s (1967) & Boas (1983)
conceptions of civilizations and primitiveness by continuing with the Egyptian origins of African
education to state, at least, that “African education dates back to ancient times in Egypt, to the
establishment of Muslim mosques in the centuries following the death of Mohammed, to the
University of Timbuktu in the sixteenth century, and to the missionary schools in the nineteenth
century.” Brickman goes on to concentrate on the May 1961 Addis Ababa Conference of African
Ministers of Education, UNESCO representatives and the other observers concerned about the
development of education in Africa.

What is apparently missing in Brickman’s (1963) survey is the education provided African youth
before the coming of Islamic religion into Africa, especially south of the Sahara. Even with the
case of Egyptian civilization, some historians have ascertained that Africa South of the Sahara
affected North Africa considerably. Temple (1992) has used archeological evidence to
substantiate that Kush, or Africa south of the Sahara, influenced Egyptian civilization immensely
and that the empires of Ghana, Mali, Songhai, etc. attest to the cultural unity of Africa. Of
course, to completely determine which region influenced which, and even to what extent, are
some of the problems in African history need further investigation.

47
 4.3. Traditional Education before Missionaries:
Watkins (1943: 666), Scanlon (1964), Mbiti (1967), Kenyata (1965), Boateng 1983) have
described traditional systems of African education prior to the coming of Islam and Christianity,
using several African cultures or societies. Scanlon (1964:3) states that “the education of the
African before the coming of the European was an education that prepared him for his
responsibilities as an adult in his home, his village and his tribe.”

The Africa youth’s ethnic group and community were held cohesively by rules and regulations,
values and social sanctions, approvals, rewards and punishments, etc. into which he was
inducted.

He or she was taught social etiquettes, agricultural methods and others that ensured the smooth
running of the social entity of which he was an integral part. The boys observed and imitated
their father’s craft and learned practical skills which they performed according to their capacities,
as they matured into manhood and were now heads of their own households. The education of
girls was differentiated from that of boys in accordance to the roles each sex was expected and
socialized to play for the remainder of their adult lives (Kenyatta, 1965: 95).

Watkins (1943) has described the traditional process of education in West Africa; she calls the
traditional African educational institution the “Bush” school, for the Poro and Bondo societies
conducted their training of boys and girls respectively outside of the village or town. The training
given to the youth prepared them for military, family, agricultural, and cultural purposes. Mental
and moral training are also undertaken. Each youth must go through this training before he could
be considered a worthy member of the society. The length of the training of boys differs from
those of girls, but it usually takes several years before a boy is passed from adolescences into
adulthood. The traditional method of teaching used is what Westerners would today call
‘Mastery Learning’ (Block, 1973) and thus failure was virtually nonexistent; every effort was
made, encouragements given, incentives provided to make sure that even the most coward goes
through, say, the circumcision process. Group instruction, group assignments, apprenticeship and
age groupings to experience a particular significant event were the most common methods
employed to instruct the young. Private instruction by one’s brother or sister, or one of the
parents was also provided. Repetition, imitation, internalization and practice were the main

48
methods used for learning, so that by adulthood, the African was a full member of the
community.

Smith (1999: 64) has described the uses of folk-tales as educative devices in traditional African
societies. Stories are used not only to amuse and express feelings, but to also teach ideal forms of
behavior and morality. Children learned by listening to their elders, imitating or ‘emulating’
them. These stories are usually handed down from one generation to the next; their main concern
was to induct the youth into the moral, philosophical, and cultural values of the community.

In West Africa, there were grits ‘walking dictionaries,’ historians, or verbal artists who
memorized the history, legends of a whole people and would recite them and teach their
apprentices or audiences, publicly or privately; direct instruction was also employed.

One of the major avenues through which the African youth received his or her education as, and
still is today in some quarters, during several grades or initiation ceremonies. For the Tiriki
group in Kenya, East Africa, Davidson (1969:81) has provided the following description:

Until you are ten or so you are counted as a ‘small boy’

with minimal social duties such as herding cattle. Then

you will expect, with some trepidation, to undergo

initiation to manhood by a process of schooling which lasts

about six months and is punctuated by ritual

‘examinations’. Selected groups of boys are entered for

this schooling once every four or five years. … All the

initiates of a hut eat, sleep, sing, dance, bathe, do

handicraft, etc. … but only when commanded to do so by

their counselor, who will be a man under about twenty-five.

49
 …circumcision gives it a ritual embodiment within the first

month or so, after which social training continues as before

until the schooling period is complete. Then come

ceremonies at which elders teach and exhort, the accent

now being on obedience to rule which have been learned.

The Tiriki social charter is thus explained and then

enshrined at the center of the man’s life.

Throughout Africa, initiation rites and the various rituals involved in the passage from childhood
to adulthood were cultural devices to inculcate the spirit of the community in the youth. As
Western schools Americanized or Europeanized their people, so did traditional African schools
Africanized their own people. For the case of Tiriki again, Davidson (p. 85) continues that during
the initiation:

There is inculcated a sense of respect for elders, of

brotherhood among members of the age set in question, and

of skill in practical matters such as the use of arms. The

parallel may be wildly remote in context and content, but

one is irresistibly reminded of the English public schools.

Even visiting Tiriki mums are said to be like their English

counterparts, alarmed for their offspring but jealously

proud of their progress.

50
Laye (1954: 128), in his excellent autobiographical novel The Dark Child, describes his
circumcision experiences in Guinea, West Africa:

The teaching we received in the bush, far from all prying

eyes, had nothing very mysterious about it; nothing, I think,

that was not fit for ears other than our own. These lessons,

the same as had been taught to all who had preceded us,

Confined themselves to outlining what a man’s conduct

should be: we were to be absolutely straightforward, to

cultivate all the virtues that go to make an honest man, to

fulfill our duties toward God, toward our parents, our

superiors and our neighbors. We must tell nothing of what

we learned, either to women or to the uninitiated; neither

were we to reveal any of the secret rites or circumcision.

That is the custom. Women, too, are not allowed to tell

anything about the rites of excision.

Boas (1983: 105) has also described the education of African youth under the traditional system,
stressing that the process starts from the time of the unborn child and refutes writers who have
construed that “… since the Africans knew no reading or writing, they therefore had no systems
of education and so no contents and methods to pass on to the young.” For the scholars who
think Africa was ‘Tabla Rasa’ with respect to educational institutions and processes,
“…education… meant Western civilizations; take away Western civilization, and you have no
education.”

51
On the contrary, the educational systems that existed in Africa prior to the European colonization
of the continent, as we’ve tried to demonstrate, taught the African child to avoid affairs that the
community scorned. The African child was educated to know, internalize and practice roles
appropriate to sex and age. In the early years of childhood, the child’s education is largely in the
hands of the biological mother, and the community assumes the greater role as adolescence
approaches. Thus, language training is received from the mother, and the extended family. The
peer group, or age-set also become significant as the youth approaches the stage of circumcision.
At this stage orature, comprising of myths, legends, folksongs and folktales, proverbs, dances,
etc. are all in line to prepare the youth for adulthood. Thus, “before the advent of the Europeans

African indigenous education was quite adequate in so far as it met the requirements of the
society at the time” (Boas, 1983:105). And “like any good system of education, it had its
objectives, scope and methods which clearly reflected the ways of life or cultural patterns of the
clan or chiefdom” (p. 105). Traditional African systems of education were, and are still so
effective “that a total rejection of the African heritage will leave African societies in a vacuum
that can only be filled with confusion, loss of identity, and a total break in intergenerational
communication” (Boateng, 1983: 335-336); claims that “the essential goal of traditional
education is still admirable and remains challenging” (p. 336).

4.4. Challenges of Traditional Education:

Traditional African education, like any system of education, had and still has its own weaknesses
and strengths. In the modern context, however, and in light of Africa’s moves for rapid
economic, political, technical and cultural developments, traditional African education falls far
too short from what continental African needs to accomplish. Traditional education was
confocal and therefore exclusive of others who did not belong to the particular ethnic group. If it
were not so, the various inter-ethnic wars in Africa would have been less. Granted, there were
many other reasons that gave rise, and still do, to ethnic antagonisms, but the educational process
and content are not immune and cannot be discarded out of the variables or reasons that cause
ethnic antagonisms.

Traditional African systems of education did not produce ‘scientists’ as we know scientists today
and did not produce great military men, at least not great enough to counter the onslaught of the

52
British, French, German, Portuguese armies and South African Trekers, hence Mazrui (1980:
123) observe that ‘this history of Africa’s military weakness has continued to haunt African
leaders and thinkers’ and the late President Sekou Toure concludes that ‘it was because of the
inferiority of Africa’s means of self defense that it was subjected to foreign domination’ (p. 123).

There are many other weaknesses in traditional African education that could be pointed out, but
is it not sufficient to say that these weaknesses are reflected in the past and present undeveloped
condition of Africa? African farmers and traditional healers still use traditional methods of
farming and healing the sick. Infant mortality, starvation, and the peripheral position of African
women in politics-that-makes-a-difference, etc. are still rampant in Africa. Certainly, much of
Africa’s problems could be attributed to colonialism, capitalism, neo-colonialism and thus,
Western exploitation of Africa’s raw materials and other commodities but, must all of Africa’s
problems be blamed solely on Europeans? And, in fact, is it not Africa’s failings that subjected
her to her current peripheral position in world politics, economics and mechanization?

The weaknesses in traditional African education were explicitly revealed with the advent of
Christianity and the European formal school system. “Tribal education was not an education for
change” (Boas, 1983: 107); it demanded conformity, but not individuality, creativity or
individual uniqueness. It taught strict obedience to the elders’ rules and authority, which were
not always necessarily founded, so that when the missionaries brought their schools into Africa,
it became a ‘refuge’ for those Africans who wanted to be different from other members of the
group (Achebe, 1958). The old system “…assumed that human nature was constant; that there
was no revolution to upset the status quo of the old order” (Boas, 1983, p.107). To this old
order’s amazement, Western schools in Africa became places to go to earn diplomas and
degrees, and therefore social prestige, fine clothes, cars, houses, economic and political power.

Traditional educational systems still exist among the African masses but Western schools confer
much more, especially onto those who complete the universities, whether they are employed or
not. The hope that they will one day be employed or even underemployed and maybe frustrated
in their employment is still more comforting than to be unschooled and without the paper
certificate from a Western school, prestigious or not. And many university teachers know this
very well and “…can attest that the vast majority of African students today are first and foremost

53
job seekers who aspire to well-paid, high status, materially comfortable occupations” (Sklar,
1967:11) their degrees, political alliances and ideological conformity can get them. It has
become the ineluctable case “…that one who possesses a diploma, can bargain, whereas those
without certificates have no cards to play” (Hooker, 1975: 20). And in the case of Africa at the
present, that means the majority who cannot ‘play.’

4.5. Pan-African Educational System:

The virtues and challenges of traditional educational systems aside, it is crucially important that
continental Africa implement a Pan-African educational system that will facilitate the economic,
political, and cultural reconstruction and integration of the African continent. The curriculum of
pan-African education will be pan-African centered and will aim at the expansion of African
people’s cultural and intellectual repertoire.

In 1963 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia recommended to his fellow African leaders that “A
massive effort must be launched in the educational and cultural field which will not only raise
the level of literacy and provide a cadre of skilled and trained technicians’ requisite to our
growth and development but, as well acquaint us one with another.” And that “Serious
consideration should be given to the establishment of an African University, sponsored by all
African States, where future leaders of Africa will be trained in an atmosphere of continental
brotherhood. In this African institution, the supra-national aspects of African life would be
emphasized and study would be directed toward the ultimate goal of complete African unity” (
Selassie, 1963: 288).

In 1989/2000, I recommended that, to materialize Pan-African integration, Haile Selassie’s Pan

African University should be established and that the curriculum should Pan-African centered,
with an integrated staff, faculty, and student body. Until we educate African people to see Africa
as a whole, our development projects will remain fragmented and ineffective. Therefore, in the
face of larger and larger economic units, African people should do more to materialize Pan-
Africanism in economics, culture, politics, and education (Marah, 1989; 1998).

54
 RECUPITULATION:

1. What were the challenges of African Education?

2. Discuss the difference between African and Western Education Systems

3. African Education produced scientists. Discuss this assertion

4. Outline the strengths and weaknesses of African Education in comparison with Western
Education.

5. Discuss the curriculum of Pan=African Education and its purpose.

6. In your groups discuss this: African Education had more of preparing a child for his/her
responsibilities as adult in his/her home, village and tribe. How would this make a citizen
civilized in his/her socialisation with people?

55
5. UNIT FIVE: TRADITIONAL & MISSIONARY EDUCATION:

5.1. Introduction:
The section aims at discussing the differences between indigenous Africans education and what
is brought by missionaries. This will successfully be done by discussing the topic under aims and
objectives, organizational, administration, content and methods of teaching respectively. And last
but not the least, a brief assessment of the value to individuals and society at large of the two
types of education will be made.

5.2. The Concept Traditional & Missionary Education:

The origin of education can be traced back to man’s history. This means that education existed
for as long as human beings started living in their societies in Africa. This type of education was
known as indigenous African education or traditional African education. This type of education
existed in Africa way back before the coming of the missionaries. However, the missionaries
came along with what is known as modern education or western education. Each form of
education had its own strengths and weaknesses. It was only looking after the weaknesses of
traditional indigenous education did the missionaries concluding that Africans were uneducated.
Little did the missionaries consider the merits of indigenous African education?

Before getting down to the topic of discussion, it is necessary to understand the scope of
education. Kelly (1999) states that “Education is not the same as schooling, but it is a lifelong
process conducted by many agencies”. The word education has many meanings. He further
stated that it could refer to a “system or institution (a school system) to a certain activity.
(Education is the action exercised by adult generation on those who are not yet ready for social
life) to content (that is the Curriculum and Syllabus). To this effect, education can be categorized
in three types. These are formal, informal and non-formal.

The distinction between formal, informal and Non-formal is also very important to the study of
African indigenous Education and Mission Education. Formal education is the hierarchy
structured, chronologically graded systems that runs from primary School to University or other
forms of higher education. This is the most common type of education present even today. Non-
formal education is any organized educational activity outside the establishment of formal
system that is intended to serve identified learning objectives. A good example is that of

56
conducting workshops or other forms of education intended to serve identified learning purposes,
especially at social gatherings. Informal education is the life-long process whereby every
individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experiences and other
educational influences and resources in each one’s environment. This is the type of education
where one 1earns how to survive in life through experiences and instructions from the elders.

From the education types, it is easier to see that individuals acquire most of their knowledge,
skills, attitudes and values through informal education, that is, in the home, from the media, on
the streets etcetera. Otherwise, UNESCO defines Education as an organized and sustained
communication process designed to bring about learning. And learning is the relatively
permanent change as a result of experiences However; this refers much more to formal and non-
formal education.

Since education looks mainly at the wellbeing of an individual, it can be eloquently said that
education existed in every society around the world. If education never existed, then people
would never have managed to survive. However, the provision of education may have differed
depending on the social needs of the people in a particular society. Thus, it would be imperative
to distinguish African indigenous education and that education which was brought by the
missionaries.

In Africa, before the introduction of education brought by the missionaries, there was a form of
education that was aimed at preparing people for a better life in society. This type of education
started from childhood until such a time when an individual attains adulthood. Kelly (1999)
states that “although indigenous education systems can vary from one place to another, the goals
of these systems are often strikingly similar. He further argued that the aim of indigenous
education concerned with instilling the accepted standards and beliefs governing correct
behaviour and creating unity and consensus. This looked mainly at the role of an individual in
society.

On the contrary the type of education that was brought by the missionaries was aimed at making
Africans learn how to read and write so that Africans can easily be converted to Christianity.
Thus, the missionaries were motivated to give formal education, -that is literacy and numeracy so
that Africans could read the Bible (evangelization) and spread the gospel to others. The

57
missionaries rejected much of tradition way of life because their desire was to convert as many
as possible to Christianity religion. Thus, the education provided was biased towards religion.
The more the indigenous people learnt how to read the Bible the higher the chances that they
would be drown -to the Christian faith.

In terms of organisation, Boas (1983) argued that in African indigenous education, the powers
were limited to tribal social division (family, lineage or village, clan, chiefdom). Organisations
mainly describe the social relationships that existed, that are the rights and duties of husbands,
wives and children. It also looks at whether a particular tribe is patrilineal, that is, Children
belong to the husband or matrilineal where descent is towards the mother’s side or family. The
relation between relatives -for example mothers or father’s brother was also seen to have special
importance to a child’s growing up. The organisation on the part of the missionaries was also
limited to further their beliefs.

Although they were all Christians, their doctrines differed in respect to their churches. For
instance, the London Missionary Society (LMS) had its own principles which were different
from the Jesuit Father’s principles or doctrines. No wonder Snelson (1974) & Mwanakatwe
(1974) shows that these churches would fight for areas of domination. No other missionary
society was to encroach in another missionary society’s land. Thus each missionary society
organized itself and therefore, organized the kind of education it felt was going to be effective in
raising the number of converts.

In African indigenous education, administration was done by the elders. The entire tribe or
chiefdom would be administered by the kings or chiefs who would either be elected or put in
power through hereditary. The chief was mainly assisted by the council which composed of the
elder men of the tribe. It was some of these elders who would play a bigger role in the provision
of indigenous education. This is because the education was mainly towards the inculcation of
good morals.

This was different from the administration on the part of the missionaries. The missionaries were
run by the ruling government, for instance the British South African Company (BSACO) in the
case of Zambia. This government was responsible for the distribution of the areas of domination
for the mission society -land distribution. However, the government did not play a role in the

58
provision of education because they did not see the benefits that would come out of it. So the
missionaries were the ones who took it upon themselves as they wanted Christianity to grow.

5.3. The Difference between Traditional & Missionary Education:

As earlier mentioned, the content of indigenous education had much stress on the communal and
social aspect rather than on an individual. This was done mainly to prepare boys and girls for
adult life in households, villages and tribes. That is why the type of education provided was
“static”. This means that it was unchanging from generation to generation, in other words it was
rather conservative and not innovative. Thus it was the same education that was practiced over
and over for years (Mwanakatwe, 1974))

The content of indigenous education had its paramount importance on the detailed knowledge of
physical environment and the skills to exploit it. For instance, hunting on the part of men and
farming the part of females. It also had its stress on togetherness or unity as well as
understanding the rights and obligation of each individual in a particular society. The concept of
togetherness would teach the indigenous people on how to live and work with others within the
societies or chiefdoms. The rights and obligations will put in place the extent and limitations of
individual rights. This was responsible for making sure that boys and girls understand what is
required of them in a particular society.

In its content, indigenous education also included laws, moral principles obligation to ancestral
spirits, to relatives and to others in groups or tribe (Mwanakatwe: 1996). It is from these lessons
that children would learn to respect elders as well as pay allegiance to the spirits if they wanted
their days of their lives to be extended.

In contrast, the content of the education provided by the missionaries was only biased towards
religion. Snelson (1974) argued that the education provided had stress on bible doctrines,
agriculture, Carpentry, black smithering and other skills that would help people raise their
standards after which they would be drawn to the Christian religion. This type of education had
no appeal to the way people had hitherto transmitted wisdom knowledge and experiences from
one generation to the next. This means that the missionaries did not consider the indigenous
African education to benefit them in any way neither did they consider how helpful it was even
to the Africans themselves.

59
The other point is that the kind of education that was brought by the missionaries was too
bookish, that is the reason why the Phelps stokes Commission came to rescue most African
nations like Zambia. It recommended that type of education that would be responsive to the
needs of the African community. This is a clear indication that even though the missionaries
brought their education, it did not by all means consider the best type of education to be given to
the indigenous Africans (Snelson, 1974).

The other difference is seen in terms of “competition”- the Indigenous education encouraged
togetherness or corporation rather than competition. In short, competing was discouraged in any
way possible; instead unit was always the talk of the day in indigenous education.

Yet the education brought by the missionaries was too competitive. It had the principle based on
performance. This meant that the only the best students were to proceed to the next level. Thus
the underdogs will always remain behind. These principles are present even today.

The methods of teaching used in indigenous education were plain and similar because they were
all based on doing. It was planned from childhood to adulthood. So children would learn through
“imitations” Men would work, hunt or play and boys would imitate. Women would also do the
house chores in the presence of their daughters and later tell them to do likewise. Sometimes,
especially at evening time, children would learn through oral literature as elders told education
stories while sited around a fire. This was actually the time when fear and punishment was used
as motivators for learning and behaviour. For instance, children would be told to stand still if
elders are passing and never to answer harshly if elders are rebuking them. They used to be told
that defaulters would grow hair on the neck or the earth would open and swallow them. Thus the
children would adhere to the instructions out of fear.

The other methods used were through social ceremonies and initiation ceremonies. The later is
where a boy or girl was taken in seclusion after attaining puberty. The men were taught to work
hard and provide for their families while the women were taught to care for their husbands,
children and the entire family. It was during this time that men and women were taught to
participate in adult activities fully -that is, fishing, hunting, housekeeping etcetera (Kelly 1999).

60
However, the type of education brought by the missionaries was all formal. Africans would be
taught how to read and write in a classroom setup. Even some practical skills like carpentry,
building would require someone to give formal instructions. This kind of education today shows
the kind of methods they wanted to use even in olden days. Hence their constraints were that
they were just setting up this kind of education. This kind of education was too bookish,
therefore was not conforming to the needs of the indigenous people even at community level.

Kelly (1999) argues that both forms of education had their own strength and weaknesses.
Indigenous Africa education was said to be weak because it was static, conservative and not very
open to change or innovations. This means that its world’s view was restricted because it could
not cope with the dynamic needs of the modern world. Kelly further stated that, “indigenous
education was orally based, without any written record”. This form of education only conformed
to the past traditions rather than the spirit of inquiry. Thus, had a limited understanding of
scientific processes, innovativeness or change.

However, it was recommended for its strength as Kelly puts it, “traditional education was
meaningful, unifying, holistic, effective, practical and relevant to the individual as well as the
community at large. It created strong human bonds because it involved the whole community. It
was also recommended for the fact that there was separation between education and the world of
work. Thus, it reached out to and educated the whole person.

On the other hand, western or the education brought by the missionaries was seen to be biased
towards missionary work or the spread of religion, it worked much against the demerits of
indigenous African education. Thus, it was said to be useful as it encouraged innovativeness and
competition so as to attain modernisation of an individual and in turn modernize the whole
society or chiefdom.

African indigenous education was valuable to both the individual as well as the society. An
individual benefited in that emphasis was much more concerned with instilling the accepted
standards and beliefs governing correct behaviour. In addition, indigenous did not encourage
competitiveness in intellectual and practical matters instead it created unity consensus among
members of a particular society or tribe. Thus indigenous education was not only concerned with
socialization of younger generation into norms, religion, moral beliefs and collective opinions of

61
the wider society, it also laid a very strong emphasis on acquisition of knowledge which was
useful to the individual and society as whole (Kelly 1999).

Western education is also seen to be useful to an individual as well as the society. Western
education promotes innovative thinking. Change is the very nature of life therefore, an individual
needs to develop. This will in turn develop the whole society or country. Since the nature of
indigenous education did not allow change or was said to be static, it was said to discourage both
the individual and the society at large. Thus, western education encouraged competition which
goes in line with innovative thinking.

In a recap, indigenous forms of education served the needs of the community as a whole. Hence,
indigenous education theory hold that each of the individual’s relationship affects and is affected
by all the other members of the community. While western education was used was said to be
too bookish and somewhat divorced from the life and culture of the wider community. No
wonder M.J Kelly concluded that there is the need to harmonize and integrate the best elements
of both indigenous and western form of education in order to create more viable system of
education in Africa.

5.4. Critic of Traditional Education:

a) Methodical Approach:

This section provides an African centered approach to the question of indigenous African
education and knowledge. Thus, the principal issues of inquiry place African education and
knowledge acquisition in an Afro centric dialectic to engage critical discussion and suggest new
ideas for reconstructing education policy in contemporary Africa, and thus it echoes A.
Fafunwa’s (1982:9) axiom that:

No study of the history of education in Africa is complete or meaningful without adequate

knowledge of the traditional or indigenous educational system prevalent in Africa prior to the
introduction of Islam and Christianity.

Thus, this perspective calls for critical discourse regarding the utility of African education, the
placement of indigenous African theoretical and philosophical ideas at the center of African
educational policy formation; the resurrection of African epistemology, and the institution of a

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corrective critical theory of African education and knowledge. Examples of this perspective are
revealed in the work of Dei (1994) & Tedla (1995). Dei (1994) in his elucidation of Afro-
centricity and pedagogy suggest that the examination of Afro-centricity is instinctively an
alternative way of knowing the world, and thus an “…investigation and understanding of
phenomena from a perspective grounded in African-centered values…that calls for”… the
validation of African experiences and histories, as well as a critique of the continued exclusion
and marginalization of African knowledge systems, educational texts, mainstream academic
knowledge, and scholarship (Dei 1994: 3).

Instructively, this paradigm, and the entire dialectics of Afro-centric theory consequently allows
space for a holistic discussion of the challenges of African education, and assign the idea that
there are “…commonalities in African peoples’ culture(s) that should be interrogated and
investigated to serve as the basis for Afro-centric unity…(Dei 1994).”

And it also recognizes that “…there is no one, single indigenous form of education [or culture] in

Africa” but rather a dynamic of ethnic, historical and social factors that often make
generalizations problematic or simply inadequate (Bray, 2000).

Secondly, Tedla (1995) in her call for a new form of African education rooted in the positive
aspects of indigenous thought (philosophy) and education introduces the concept of Sankofan
education as a buffer against the uncritical and often unconscious negative images about Africa
that has lead some of Africa’s young to value the sensibilities of Africa by Western values, and
thus devaluate the traditional African way of life. Hence, she rightfully defines Sankofan
education as an African centered education anchored in indigenous African thought that
judiciously borrows ideas and technologies from other peoples of the world, and thus, her
cornerstone attributes rest upon: (1) African cultural heritage, (2) the transcending of ethnic and
national blinders to appreciate the relatedness of the African world community experience, (3)
the placement of Africa and African values at the center of investigation, (4) the preparation of
learners to contribute to society, and (5) five acquisitive goals concerning: cultural and academic
excellence, spiritual development, community building, and physical fitness and health (Telda

1995: 211).

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These perspectives therefore provide a pivotal projective for answering some key questions
about indigenous education and knowledge in Africa, and forthrightly place African ways of
knowing and being in a historical and social context, and therefore, ripe for theoretical
examination and, critical theory construction.

In discussing indigenous and other forms of education in Africa, we begin by asking

fundamental questions about what is education and knowledge, and secondly, questions about its
relationship to the cultivation of a truly African pedagogical ethos. Education in a definitional
context can generally be thought of as the transmission of values and the accumulated knowledge
of a society. Thus, it is essentially a societal instrument for the expansion of human culture. In
contrast, knowledge is a state of knowing or understanding gained or retained through experience
or study. For the purpose herein, these short definitions provide a functional seed to the
cultivation of an African educational and pedagogical discourse.

And retrospectively, the transmission of values and the state of knowing or understanding gained
or retained through experience or study in Africa began in ancient Egypt about 3000 BC years
ago, at the beginning of the history of civilization. The nature of this early education was
predominately in the hands of priests and the intellectual elite within ancient Egyptian theocracy.

Thus, they instructed in the humanities, and all subjects of the sciences, including medicine,
mathematics, and geometry, and also in the more applied sciences of architecture, engineering,
and sculpture (New Encyclopedia Britannica, 1997:2).

This early pedagogical activity in ancient Africa has perplexed many then and even today, and
thus should quiet discussion about Africa being introduced to formal education upon the arrival
of Islamic or Western schooling or other external means of schooling. However, in a rush to
negatively judge Africa and its contributions to human civilization, some have continued to
circulate incorrect information to give support to false assumptions.

For example, Nwomonoh (1998) in his preface to a contemporary survey on education and
development in Africa mistakenly states “before the introduction of Western style schooling the
only formal schooling received by millions of people in Africa was the Islamic system, and it has
much older roots in the continent that does the Western system.” Nwomonoh’s (1998) statement

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is unfortunate in view of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, especially in ancient Egypt and
other select regions of Africa (as mentioned below). In critique, either he didn’t consider Egypt
as a part of Africa (many academics are blindfolded by the ‘south of the Sahara’ hoopla) or he
simply overlooked an abundance of significant research that point to a well developed early
Egyptian educational system that interestingly enough, established two formal education systems
-one for scribes, and the other for priests and taught many subjects, in addition to reading and
writing (ibid).

In debatable contrast, Africa is not the historical or educational stepchild of Islamic or Western
education when history verifies that an African process of education was transmitted and
cumulated throughout the continent before the advent of invasion or colonialism, as represented
in ancient Nubia in the east, the Great Zimbabwe in the south, and at the University of Sankore
in the west. Notwithstanding, ancient and modern notables such as Peseshet (an ancient Egyptian
female physician of the Middle Kingdom), Mansa Musa (the emperor of ancient Mali who
among other activity, built the University of Sankore at Timbuktu), Queen Nzinga (a queen who
resisted Portuguese colonialism), Nelson Mandela (former president and political prisoner in
South Africa), and the multitude of lesser-known others who worked to create a sustainable
human future in Africa.

This backdrop thus points to the dilemma of African education and knowledge as we examine
prerequisite questions for discourse on indigenous literacy, science and technology, language and
literature, and other topics that can introduce a progressive theory of critical African education.

Therefore, in juxtaposition, this paper will review issues surrounding indigenous knowledge and
education, the myth of no written languages in Africa, the relevance of science and technology to

African education, and discourse on critical theory.

5.5. Traditional Knowledge:

Indigenous African education and knowledge has generally been understood as a simplistic
process of socialization involving the preparation of children for work in the home, the village
and within a select ethnic domain. Thus, most contemporary discussions on indigenous African
education rest in the shadow of Western globalization ideas about structural adjustment, etc.; and

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congruently it is projected as a stagnant, limited, and inoperative paradigm which pushes some to
conclude that any serious discussion about the indigenous transmission of values and its
accumulated knowledge in Africa is a waste of time. However, via an African centered synthesis
one can begin to appreciate the particulars of indigenous ways of knowing and their
epistemologies.

For example, in examining indigenous African education and knowledge closely, we see that it
involves understanding education as: a means to an end; social responsibility; spiral and moral
values; participation in ceremonies, rituals; imitation; recitation; demonstration; sport; epic;
poetry; reasoning; riddles; praise; songs; story-telling; proverbs, folktales; word games; puzzles;
tongue-twisters; dance; music; plant biology; environmental education, and other education
centered activity that can be acknowledged and examined. And second, in a cultural-political
process, it involves historical information about how Mansa Musa (1312/1337) developed
Timbuktu as a commercial city and center of learning where scholars learned theology and law at
the mosque of Sankore that subsequently laid the foundation for the University of Sankore which
become a learning center not only for Africa, but also for the ‘Middle East’, with eminent
scholars like Ahmed Baba (DeGraft Johnson 1954: 98) who authored more than forty books on
diverse subjects, and owned a 1,600 volume library in the sixteenth century (Jackson 1980: 217)
Ergo, the real story (or glory) of indigenous African education and knowledge ironically remains
dormant in slick misconceptions about African inferiority. Hence, some of the particulars of
African culture and knowledge production that would otherwise educate the populous remain
hidden, unless a pro-active community of scholars rescue it, and give it new meaning and
significance.

For example, Opata (1998) in his study of Igbo culture added new light on the tradition of
presenting the kola nut in Nigeria via the Igbo, hence the indigenous and modern aspects of
African education and knowledge unite to explain a particular in Ibo society, the exchange of the
kola nut (Oji) representing: (1) goodwill between friends, (2) a formal signal of the beginning of

a meeting, (3) greeting a visitor in peace, (4) respect between a younger person and an elder, and
(5) most importantly, the itako oji onu (Ligbo) process of breaking the kola nut and sharing it to
represent an instrument of reconciliation (Opata 1998: 100).

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Instructively this information and similar data outlines a dynamic for a true African education
that embody lessons of “…mutual respect for the opinions of others, lessons of deference to
elders, lessons about the importance of dialogue, lessons about conflict negotiation, the spirit of
tolerance and forgiveness, and the spirit to face the future with an open mind” that can become a
way to involve parents in the curriculum, and establish new lines of communication between
schooling and indigenous knowledge (Opata 1998: 117).

In recognition of the complexities of indigenous African knowledge, the work of Semali (1999)
in Tanzania, and his African centered dialectic on the interplay of indigenous folk knowledge
and modern (Western) curriculum practice in African schools is important to our discussion.
Conversantly, Semali (1999) outline the distinctions between indigenous African knowledge and
other forms of knowledge to report that: (1) indigenous African knowledge (IAK) does not
derive its origins or standing from the individual but from the collective epistemological
understanding and rationalization of community; (2) IAK is about what local people know and
do and what local communities have known and done for generations, (3) the ability to use
community knowledge produced from local history form important literacy skills critical to
survival in an African context; and (4) what local people know about their environment must be
included in the planning and implementation process of education.

In addition, and possibly most important theoretically, Semali (1999) introduced the idea of
indigenous literacy as information communicated via local culture and languages that reflects
local innovations and techniques in activities such as fishing, pest control (via Sudan and Egypt)
to herbs and plant usage to manage local diseases (Semali 1999: 308).

Continuing in his examination and definitional posture, Semali (1999) also: (1) provides an
observational critique based on his experiences in Tanzania; and reports that IAK was
understood by his students as unofficial knowledge of essentially anecdotal memories of
customary law, inheritance rights, taboos, and rituals, and that the distinction between IAK and
Western European education was clear which forced his students to “…find a way to
accommodate and make sense of both systems…”; (2) warns that the acknowledgment of IAK
“… does not necessarily imply there is internal consensus or that everybody who belongs to the
culture shares the same knowledge base for decision making; and last, he informs us that (3) that

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although some reforms have occurred in primary school curriculums to incorporate IAK, they are
still “…beset by undue reliance on facts, rote memorization and regurgitation” (Semali 1999).

Hence, in critical fashion, Semali (1999) delineates the obstacles to the implementation of IAK
as: (1) a lack of political will to correct the contradictions of intent and practice which set
unrealistic national goals, (2) dependence of foreign fiscal planning, (3) inappropriate macro
planning, (4) inappropriate research methods, (5) a lack of formal African school teaching
methodology, (6) the difficulty of obtaining donor support for research in indigenous education,
(7) the alienation of many African intellectuals from their culture, and (8) negative attitudes
towards the legacy of colonial education (Semali 1999). Semali’s (1999) critique is instructive,
and thus effectively highlights his call for people in Africa to “…rethink education and schooling
and begin a new path which departs from foreign interpretations of what is important at the local
level.” And more importantly, his questions about: how much control do African people have
over the production of their identity, what extent do they consciously and knowingly continue to
be ignored, and how to set African education theory ablaze in search of a pedagogy of excellence
(Semali 1999: 313).

a) Literature Myth:

In regards to language and literature in indigenous Africa, John Henrik Clarke in his introduction

to John G. Jackson’s book Introductions to African Civilizations (1970) set the tone for
discourse. He forthrightly says, “Contrary to a misconception which still prevails, the Africans
were familiar with literature and art for many years before their contract with the Western
world”. Clarke’s position is correct, however the fallacy remain present.

For example, Ayittey (1991:30) in his essentially decent work on indigenous African institutions
says “without any written literature, the natives of African relied upon oracles, proverbs,
storytelling and music to educate and inculcate…”

One would think that although much of African history centered on oral tradition, a written script
would be in Africa somewhere, but following Ayittey’s (1991) assessments, discourse about an
African source of writing is a mute topic. But contrary to that notion, one of the earliest written
African language was Ge’ez, also known as Ethiopic, deriving from the liturgical language of the

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Ethiopian church with its inscriptions from the 3rd or 4th century before Arabic (according to
biographies of Ibn Khallikan, Arabic was invented by an African named Abul Aswan) was
introduced via Arab conquest in the 7th century (The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 1997:162).

And furthermore, in West Africa, Winters (1991) informs us that the Mande invented several
cripts that were used throughout the Western Sahara to: (1) meet the demands of long distances
trade, (2) allow merchants a way to keep records of their business transactions, (3) preserve
religious doctrine, and serve as (4) a method to record obituaries. Hence, the oldest inscriptions
are dated at 3,000 BC with a proto-Mande syllabic script of approximately 200-300 signs and 40
different forms; and thus current evidence of the script can be found in Mauritania and Morocco

(Winters 1991: 211).

Historically, there were many scripts in Africa. For example, the scripts of ancient Egypt
hieroglyphic; hieratic and demotic; the Meroitic and Coptic scripts of Nubia; the Amharic,
Sabean and Ge’ez scripts of Ethiopia; the Berber and Carthaginian scripts of North Africa; the
Arabic script of North, Northeastern and west Africa; the Swahili Perso-Arabic script of the east
coast of Africa; the Nsibidi script of the Efik of Nigeria; the Mende script of Mali and Sierra
Leone; the Moum script of the Moum of Cameroon; the Toma (aka Loma) and Vai scripts of
Liberia; the Bete script of the Bete of Ivory Coast, the Akan script, and the A-ka-u-ku script
invented by the Bamum around 1896 in Cameroon that only a few as three people can read [in
2004 the archive was only used by a traditional healer who used the script as his only means of
writing as he simultaneously consulted the books for ancient Bamum medicinal remedies] (Tedla

1995:134, Karenga 1993:75, Obenga 1972). Consequently, the history of African script need a
full analysis and inclusion in the curriculum of contemporary Africa in juxtaposition to multi-
ethnic African language study. Until this happens in Africa and around the world, the myth of
Africa as a historically illiterate continent will not end.

Subsequently, we must begin to tell a different story that informs of when the demand and
market for books were more profitable than any other form of business in Timbuktu and
“…university life was fairly common and scholars were beheld with reverence” (Davidson 1959:
93; Clark 1970: 20). And also examine language more extensively as Kenyan writer Ngugi wa

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Thiong’o (2000:156) reminds us, when he said:

One of the worst robberies is that language. In the realm of culture, African has been robbed of
languages in the most literal and figurative sense so that even today Africa is still defining itself
in terms of Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusaphone linguistic zones.

5.6. Science & Technology:

In the arena of science and technology historically and presently, Africa is generally
unrecognized or extremely discounted. This fact is most evident in a simple review of most
college and university textbooks; the overwhelming majority does not mention Africa, except for
an occasional reference to animal life (non-human), mineral sources, or plant life.

Consequently, the historical or contemporary African contribution (i.e., state of knowing or

understanding) to the identification or investigation of natural phenomena (science), and
technology is absent, although research has documented indigenous technology in Africa in
many areas that include: manufacturing, agriculture, food processing, civil engineering,
transportation, mining, and communication (Sunal, et al 1998:120)

Considering this quintessence, a quick review of the literature reveals that Africa had: (1)
produced carbon steel 1,500 to 2000 years ago on the western shores of Lake Ukerewe (aka Lake
Victoria) in Tanzania (Van Sertima 1991:9), (2) created a stone astronomical observatory in
Kenya on the edge of the Lake of Turkana 300 years before the birth of Christ with each stone
aligned with a star (ibid: 10), (3) via the Dogon of Mali plotted the orbits of stars circling Sirius

and revealed the nature of its companion although it was invisible to the human eye to chart
Sirius B, the smallest and heaviest star in the sky, representing a 700 year old tradition (Adams
1991:27-29), (4) developed medical text 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt (Finch 1991:140), (5)
developed iron technology no later that the middle of the fist millennium in West Africa (Sutton
1982:297), and has historically done a host of other work in the pure and applied sciences
generally unknown to most in the world at one time or the other.

However, the contributions set by Africa and her people to history has seemingly remained
absent in the consciousness of many, and subliminally fuel the myth that an indigenous scientific
or technological community did not exists in traditional African societies.

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And in compound fashion, historically, during the colonial era indigenous technology declined
and in some places it was banned to entertain the importation of European manufactured
products. Thus, the myth indigenous scientific or technological community backwardness was
structurally perpetuated through miss-education, and social-political constraints.

Thus, today science education in Africa is struggling with dominating Western influences,
almost killing any prospects for developing a curriculum relevant to African culture and the
earner. For example, Ogunniyi (1998) in a study on malaria found that African scientist concern
herein was with why some people and not others are afflicted with malaria, whereas the Western
scientist searched for the causative agent in the disease. They both were working to prevent
malaria in the future; however their cultural orientation to the investigation question reflected
different cultural approaches. The Western concern was inanimate objects, while the African
concern was for human welfare. This short example illustrates the complexity of the modern
struggle of African science in its articulation of cultural ethos and scientific principles. To arrest
this situation a detective approach may suffice according to Tedla in “…piecing together the
continent’s experiences…to obtain a fuller picture of traditional education and its teachings of
the sciences of Africa (Tedla 1995:127).”

And therefore, a full investigation into the history of African science and science education in
Africa is necessary to inform modern discourse which can encompass: (1) Chiekh Anta Diop’s
translation of a major portion Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity into Wolof (Van Sertima
1986:8), (2) Ishango bone mathematical markings found at the fishing site on Lake Nyanza (aka
Lake Edward) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 9000 BC and 6500 BC
(Zaslavsky 1991:111), (3) the African roots of fractal geometry (Eglash 1999, Frost 1999), and
(4) the metal workers of Ife who mastered the lost-wax casting, smithing, and chasing techniques
to produce copper and copper-based alloy by the second quarter of the second millennium AD

(Connah, 1987: 141).

5.7. Traditional Education Theory:

Currently, there are many challenges facing education in Africa: lack of funds, teachers,
classrooms, learning materials, and transparency. Considering this challenge, contemporary
African education need a critical examination of its mission, goals and objectives that moves

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beyond the questions of select donor agencies and narrow national issues. Hence, an African
centered critical theory is needed to extract the best of indigenous African thought and practice
to present research-based alternatives and solutions to current educational challenges in Africa.

Instructive in this vain is Brock-Utne (2000) in her response to the World Bank “Education for
All” conference held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1900 which presented some insights concerning
what may be the beginning of a critical theory of African education via her thesis that: (1) there
is an intellectual re-colonization present among many African nations south of the Sahara, (2)
not only has Africa become dependent upon Western aid, but also on Western curricula, culture
and languages, (3) Western donors and part of the Western educated African elite are involved in
a re-colonization process that benefits themselves to the detriment of the African masses, and
therefore (4) all of the above robs the people of Africa of their indigenous knowledge and
language, starves African higher education, and subsequently perpetuates Western domination
(Brock-Utne 2000). And in addition, current discourse on African education in and outside of
Africa report that it is in a perpetual state of crisis. Whether this is true or false is debatable, yet
no critical theory of African education has appeared to analyze the ‘crises. Consequently internal
and external educators, policy makers, donors and others are lost in a web of slack reforms that
fail to educate the overwhelming majority in Africa. This omission is indeed intriguing given
that before and after colonialism, formal education has generally been an elitist enterprise.

Accordingly, at least four preliminary questions arise germane to a theoretical development of

critical African education (CAE), i.e.: (1) how should it be defined, (2) how can it be infused
with current discourse/study on African education, (3) what are the implications of CAE for
social policy in Africa, and (4) why is it important/relevant to the continuance of African
education and schooling?

As a starting point, we can examine a construct introduced by Horton (2000) on critical

demography that conceptually apply to critical African education (CAE) theory that can: (1)
institute the development and application of ideas, theories and methods that fit the African
ethos; (2) articulate the manner in which domestic and international social, economic and
political structures differentiates, dominate and subordinate African education, (3); call for a
more explicit discussion and examination of the nature of power and how it perpetuates

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oppressive educational and social structures; (4) institute a systematic approach to discourse
concerning African education; (5) develop, articulate and research situations that can meet the
requirements of a wide variety of circumstances, principles, and procedures; (6) explain the
nature or behavior of select phenomena and its historical and contemporary sophistication, and
(7) last, how it may function as a reflective, descriptive, explanatory, and predicative theory that
can effectively challenge the status quo.

The utility of the CAE paradigm obviously depends on the intellectual/academic community and
a general recognition that it can become a useful approach in: (1) the study of AE when the
history and contemporary advances in African education are ignored (e.g., ancient Egypt, Mali,
University of Sankore…), (2) attempts to arrest elite privilege, (3) examining pedagogical
structural changes, (4) exploring future prospects for African education, and (5) in examining
possibilities for new research modules. Thus, more attention must be given to the question of
critical African education theory in hope that it will transcend eloquent rhetoric to become an
agent for progressive policy formation. In this way, we can apply the insights of Kwame
Nkrumah (1968: 30) that call for us to be:

Equipped with a clear knowledge of our objectives, we are in a position to undertake a critical
appraisal of recent developments in African history. because this is necessary if we are to draw
positive lessons from past experience to determine both the area of deviation and the need for
correction, and to devise a more effective strategy for the future.

The days of ignoring the African contribution to knowledge and education should be past;
however it is a common practice. For example in a study to generate curriculum
recommendations that were multinational in origin, perspective and responsive to the reality of
the interconnected positions of human existence, Africa was absent among a nine nation
multinational 182 member panel from an array of professions. The task of the panel was to reach
a consensus on (1) complex global crises that humans will face in the next 25 years, (2) human
characteristics needed for dealing with these crises, and (3) education strategies needed for
developing the human characteristics needed to deal with the crises, yet Africa was absent
(Parker 1999: 117).

Surely African views, issues and knowledge could have contributed to the above issues, but the

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African voice was ignored, and ironically, the researchers acknowledged the absence as one of
the limitations of their study. This oversight (and general lack of respect), and other education
centered activities that exclude Africa should be aggressively addressed at international
education associations meetings by progressive scholar-activist. And most interesting, there
seems to be a subliminal lack of respect for African education and knowledge throughout
pedagogical discourse.

For example, The New Encyclopedia Britannica (2003: 77) in its ‘History of Education’ section
list Egypt as an early civilization in constructing formal education in three short paragraphs,
however there is no mention of Egypt in the discussion of education in Africa (supporting the
idea that Egypt ancient and modern is separate from the continent and culture), and within six
pages there is no discussion on African education trends or theories, but rather a review of
African responses to oppressive Euro-centric colonial education policy.

This wholesale apartheid historiography of African education should spark a Pan African
corrective pronouncement and thus advance a new agenda with a prerequisite of justice, cultural
integrity and social responsibility. And anything short of that will be a throwback to the days of
colonial manipulation when education was an instrument of imperialist domination and
economic exploration, revealing itself as a key culprit in contemporary African economic and
political instability that acquit responsibility for inequality, social stratification, and intellectual
cultural servitude.

Nevertheless, Ayittey (1991) & others (Marah 1989) have done some preliminary research on
indigenous African institutions and social structure through an analysis of traditional African
religion and philosophy (before and after European conquest) via data on court procedures,
participatory democracy, government by consensus, indigenous economic systems, hence
guiding research to a systematically organize set of elements to create a theoretical construct, and
an efficient educational enterprise applicable to the current and future needs of Africa.

Moreover, in building a ‘theoretical construct’, African education policy makers need to consider
at least four suggestions. First, they should investigate a theory of Africa education that moves
beyond problematic analysis to a constructive critique of internal and external forces that impede
progressive social change. Second, there should be a research methodology that will

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continuously include a study of how indigenous knowledge, education and learning techniques
can inform modern social, economic and political reality. Third, the proposed new curriculum (or
theoretical formation) should be instituted in Africa to maximize human resource potential to
advance national and international development, and last, African policy makers should decide to
create and sustain an independent think tank to address common educational and social issues
throughout the continent.

And should anyone doubt the need for new ‘theoretical construct’ or critical theory of African
education, they should consult ongoing research that tells us: (1) African primary school
enrollment and literacy rates are among the lowest in the world; (2) 42 million school children
south of the Sahara are not enrolled in school and of those that do have access to school, their
schooling was often of such poor quality that they are not able to acquire even the most basic
skills of reading and writing, and that (3), many children south of the Sahara lose their teachers
to AIDS, compounding the search for educational opportunity (860,000 in 1999 according to
USAID).

The complexity of the challenges to education in Africa call for a skilled body to step forward,
and in addition to the intellectual community, the political community must also fashion
solutions, thus the birth of the African Union (AU) in 2002 demonstrates a political will to move
beyond post-independence rhetoric to the establishment of a governing body in the form of a
Pan-African Parliament, and an overall AU goal to accelerate the process of integration in Africa
to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social,
economic and political problems via its economic development programs like the celebrated
New Partnership for Africa's Development vision and strategic framework for Africa’s renewal
adopted in 2001 by five African heads of state (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa)
via the Organization of African Unity to develop an integrated social-economic development
plan for Africa. And secondly, South Africa President Thabo Mbeki’s conceptualized African

Renaissance which call for African people and nations to solve the problems of Africa in the
context of social cohesion, democracy, economic development/growth to place the continent as a
significant player in geo-political affairs is another step in the rights, and thus warrant our
collective support.

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In short, this critical Pan African initiative will bring the continent together, and consequently,
aid critical African education theory allow for the advancement and incorporation of the African
world community in the process as demonstrated in philosophical-political approach of Mbeki
through the African Renaissance movement designed to end the violence, elitism, corruption and
poverty and simultaneously promote a more just and equitable order grounded in encouraging
progressive education and learning processes and the reversal of the ‘brain drain’ of the African
intellect, juxtaposing self-determination discourse focused upon heritage and ideals. Thus, unlike
any other time in history, now is the time for Africa and her international community to embrace
and implement a Pan African social-educational theory and practice that will advance a
corrective critique of education and knowledge production in Africa.

RECUPITULATION:

1. Discuss the African education theory. What does it reflect mostly?

2. John Henrik Clark’s argument that the Africans were familiar with literature and art for many
years before their contact with the Western World. Discuss this assertion.

3. What is traditional knowledge?

4. What was the purpose of Missionary Education? What does it stress?

5. According to your understanding what is life-long education?

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6. UNIT SIX: ZAMBIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

6.1. Introduction:
This unit looks at the present situation in Zambia. The first section discusses Zambia in terms of
its socio-economic context, and includes information about the political, demographical and
economic situation. The unit then goes on to provide an account of the education system, the
development of special education, and issues around inclusion of students with disabilities, and
the characteristics of inclusive schools, the policy regarding inclusive education, the attitudes of
teachers towards inclusive education.

6.2. Zambia Socio-Economic Context:

a) Geographical:

Zambia lies on a gently undulating plateau of savannah grasslands, in the southern Hemisphere,
rising between 900-1 500 metres above sea-level. The country covers 752 600-sq km or three
times the size of Great Britain. The country is completely landlocked, that is, it is bounded by
Tanzania to the North, Malawi and Mozambique to the east, Zimbabwe and Botswana and a
small strip of Namibia to the south, Angola to the west and democratic republic of Congo to the
North-West. Much of Zambia’s landmass about 56 000-sq is reserved for game parks.

Although Zambia is well within the tropics, much of the country has a temperature climate, with
but a few of the discomforts associated with the tropics. The climate is marked by a pleasant
seasonal rhythm. Since the country lies between 10-18 degrees south of the equator, the seasons
are reversed, summer falling from September to April, with temperatures varying from 26-32
degrees Celsius. The dry winter falls from May to august, with temperatures ranging from 15-27
degrees Celsius.

b) Political:

Before colonization set in, the area we now call Zambia had various types of indigenous rule,
ranging in degree from amorphous tribes that were loosely organized and composed usually of
nomadic people, to more rigidly organized kingdoms.

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British imperial expansion into the territory took effect in what came to be known as Northern
Rhodesia toward the end of the 19th century. In 1884 colonial powers at the Berlin Conference
demarcated the region into protectorates and sub-regions. The main protagonist was John Cecil
Rhodes, whose British South African Company (BSA) sought minerals and supplies of cheap
labour to work the mines in South Africa, from the territories North of the Zambezi river.

In 1924, formal political control was passed to the Crown, making Northern Rhodesia a British
Protectorate. On 24th October 1964, however, Zambia attained it independence and Dr. Kenneth
David Kaunda became the Head of State under a one party system regime declared in December
1972. The Choma declaration made the United Independence Party (UNIP) the only legal
political party. However, this state of affairs was challenged, and a return to multi-party rule was
implemented. A general election under a new system was called in October 1991 and the
Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) won the election with a landslide a victory. Dr.
Fredrick Chiluba became the second republican president.

c) Demographic:

Zambia is a multi-racial country with a population made up of a number of ethnic groups. The
population has been increasing at an annual rate of 3.3%. The total population increased from
7.3million in 1987 to 8.0 million in 1989 and 9.5million in 2000 and 13 million in 2011. It is
estimated that about 24% of this population is currently in the country’s primary and secondary
schools as pupils.

d) Economic:

After a dynamic period of growth and development following the attainment of independence in
1964, the Zambian economy ran into increasing difficulties during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
The implementation of development programmes fell below expected targets. Productivity in the
industrial sector significantly declined, while morale in the civil service also seriously slipped to
embarrassing levels. Bureaucracy in offices grew out of manageable proportions, while
production dropped disastrously. To a considerable extent, this decline reflected the impact of
the world recession on copper prices and demand, the rise in oil prices, due to failure of the
world community to agree on practical steps toward a new international economic order. The

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Gulf war crisis and its resultant effects, led to rocketing prices on virtually everything that
supports human life. The decline in the economy, of course, affected the possibilities of living a
balanced life by most citizens irrespective of station in Zambia. For most people, life is
unbearable. The economy seems to be picking, while poverty is still prevalent.

6.3. Current Education System in Zambian:

General education in Zambia is of relatively recent origin. The first missionaries of the Christian
church brought modern education to Zambia then northern Rhodesia during the 1880s. the first
‘school’ was opened in 1883 by the pioneer Brethren missionary Fredrick Anort. In 1925, the
Crown Government established a sub-department of Native Education, taking the first step to
become involved in educational provision. It was estimated then that there were 100 000
attending nearly 2000 schools ran by 15 various missionary societies throughout the length and
breadth of the land (Snelson, 1970). However, this data should be viewed with caution as the
designated ‘schools’ were fundamentally evangelical classes. The bulk of the curriculum
comprised the teaching of the ‘word’ of God, the main thrust for the missionaries’ incentive to
leave their motherlands. The attendance was made up of people of different ages. Although the
main objectives was to empower the people with the basic skills for reading the Holy Book “the
Bible”, the educational foundation in the country had been laid.

Later, the Government, entered the educational race with the missionaries, with an overall aim of
building a fragmented structure of basically trained ‘clerks and telegraphists’ to feed the lower
grades of the administrative service.

By 2,000 the Zambian education system still reflects colonial influences. The structure still
remains the old British academically oriented school. The overall structure of education,
however, is a 7-2-3-4 system. That is to say seven years of primary education; two years junior
secondary; three years of senior secondary; and then university. When nine years universal basic
education is fully achieved, there will be a continuous programme from Grade 1 through 9, with
the curricula organized on the basis of six years of primary education and three years of junior
secondary. The structure will therefore be changed from 7-2-3-4 to 6-3-3-4 system.

Full-time education in Zambia starts at the age of seven when the child enters school until they
sit grade 7 composite examination which enables them to be selected for Junior Secondary

79
School and to receive the Primary School Leaving Certificate. The junior secondary school
comprises grade 8 and 9. At grade 9, senior secondary school selection and Junior Secondary
School Leaving Certificate Examinations are taken. Those who pass these examinations proceed
to senior grades 10 through 12. At grade 12, the Zambian secondary School Certificate
Examinations are administered. Some successful candidates in these Secondary School
Certificate Examinations proceed to the University.

The above structure only reflects the first and second stages, but there is also a tertiary level of
education. At tertiary level of education, there are various types of institutions with different
programmes. Students can enter the tertiary level after completing secondary education. Within
this stage is a wide range of fields of study, such as advanced special programmes leading to the
Diploma in Teaching, Diploma in Technology, Diploma in Nursing, Diploma in Agriculture, etc
…and programmes to be taken at University level.

At independence, the Government assumed responsibility for the education of all sections of the
population on the dissolution of the Federal Government. There were fee-paying and non-fee
paying schools in the country which operated strictly on non-racial grounds. In 1964, however,
the government of the Republic of Zambia implemented an emergency educational development
plan by which an additional 20 000 primary school places, 16 new form one, 7 new form three
classes and the University were created, increasing the enrolment to 362 105 pupils in
Government run primary schools, as opposed to merely 100 pupils in 1930 (Mwanakatwe, 1968).
At independence, Zambia had only 32 000 Standard-Six Certificate holders; 4 200 form two
certificate holders; and 100 university graduates who had obtained their degrees from foreign
universities. At the time Zambia did not have a university, for a total population of 4.5million.
By 1984, there were 1.14million pupils in primary schools and 90 000 students in secondary
schools. The number of University graduates improved from a mere 100 in 1964, to more than
10 000 in 1989 (GRZ, 1989).

6.4. Special Education in Zambia:

Zambia gained her independence in 1964 with a small number of educated people. Snelson
(1970) claimed that, at that time, there were about 100 non-disabled Zambian university
graduates 1,500 disabled and non-disabled secondary school graduates and 6,000 with grade nine

80
educations – a meager return from an education system which had started more than three
quarters of a century earlier. Mwanakatwe (1968) observed, however that the contribution made
by educationists in the early post-independence era was likely to be underestimated or dismissed
as worthless, and went on to affirm that without their effort and the efforts of the pioneer
missionaries, the foundations necessary to build a more comprehensive educational structure
would not have existed. McGregor 91967), Zambia Council for the Handicapped (ZCH, 1978)
and Kalabula (1989) all state that special education is of recent origin in Zambia and they assert
that the education, training and welfare of visually impaired students represented the first
specialty areas of support. The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) first conceived this are in the
1930s.

Dr. Ella Botes, the first missionary from South Africa, established the first school for the visually
impaired students at Magwero mission in the Chipata district of the eastern province of Zambia.
After the establishment of this school, many students with visual impairments from all over
Zambia came to Magwero in the hope of being taught by Dr. Botes. Most of the students at this
first school came from as far as Zaire (DRC), Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa) and Malawi
(Nyasaland) (Kalabula, 1989). Handicraft, Braille and life skills – Activities for daily living
(ADL) were taught. The first blind boys who passed standard IV (Grade 6) at Magwero were
trained to be teachers by Dr. Botes. In 1963, another group of 27 blind boys who had passed
standard IV examinations was later trained as telephone operator, teachers and evangelists. The
success of this school was not, however, evaluated in terms of the number of students who
passed examinations, but rather in the new hope of being self-reliant (Kalabula, 1989).

In 1963 the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind (RCSB) from the United Kingdom
established a training programme for teachers of the visually impaired at Bwana mukubwa
school for the blind in Ndola (Wilson CBE, 1962). This school was initiated by the Northern
Rhodesia Society for the Blind (NRSB), now called the Zambia Council for the Handicapped
(ZCH, 1978).

In 1972, for the first time, two girls with visual impairments passed their form V (Grade 12)
examinations. They were the first female students with impairments to have acquired the highest
secondary school qualification in Zambia. There were at least 423 visually impaired students in

81
seven regular secondary schools in 1973 (ZCH, 1978). In the same year, one of the first students
with visual impairment completed his degree in sociology at the University of Zambia. This
same student went on to complete his Master’s degree in music at an American University in
1976 (ZCH 1978).

At present, there are about 800 teachers who have received training in special education. Of
these, less than 600 are actively engaged in teaching students with 0 special educational needs.
The rest may have retired, died or crossed to neighbouring countries for greener pastures
(Mandona, 1997). The consensus of expert opinion suggests that ten to fifteen percent of children
require active intervention and specialized services. This means that in Zambia there are about
250,000 children of primary school age with special needs. Out of this number, less than 1% of
the total population has been identified and are in school. There are several reasons for this
negligible number. One is the lack of sufficient educational provision to meet the needs of all
children. Another is that the systems for identification and contacting children with special needs
are not well-developed (GRZ, 1996; Zindi, 1997). Furthermore, family, teacher and community
attitudes are not always favourable. From a sense of shame or embarrassment, many parents do
not divulge information about their exceptional children, with the result that their children’s
problems remain unknown and untreated (GRZ, 1996). Disabled children have been treated as
objects of charity and have taken to the streets to beg on behalf of their families. To have a
disabled child in the family was considered to be a sin next to death. These attitudes have
occupied the agenda of the regular education teachers’ meetings in Zambia. The total enrolment
for regular primary schools (Grades 1-7) stands at 1 507 660 pupils (GRZ, 1997a). so there
should be about 150,000 students with mild moderate disabilities in these grades, of which
45,000 (3%) are moderate or severe (Educating Our Future, 1996 & Nyambose, 1999).

From this brief historical account of the education welfare, training and employment of disabled
people in Zambia, much can be learnt. It is disheartening to learn that at the time of
independence (1964), Zambia’s educational priorities were mainly biased towards meeting the
needs of the non-disabled population, and ignored the needs of disabled students, and yet early
education workers and missionaries did not segregate these two groups of people in the provision
of these services. The foundation which was laid by the first missionaries for the education,
training and welfare of the disabled was not taken forward. As a result, very few disabled people

82
are receiving education. As already stated, some parents of disabled children and some teachers
have had negative attitudes toward inclusion of students with disabilities in general education
classrooms. When teachers develop negative attitudes toward children whom they are entrusted
to teach, as well as the type and quality of education service the teachers offer the students with
special educational needs.

6.5. Missionaries & the Arrival of Inclusive Education:

Elizabeth Lamond, a Missionary Head-teacher, first initiated integrated education for the
disabled in Zambia in Mwense District of the Luapula Province in 1966. GRZ (1987) revealed
that the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind supervised this development. In 1967,
considerable number of disabled students, particularly visually impaired students from various
primary schools was sent to ordinary schools, which had opened integrated units. In 1971, about
nine blind students managed to pass their Cambridge Overseas School Certificate Examinations.
As more students completed their primary education, more units were established in secondary
schools. The Open Education Scheme under the auspices of the Royal Commonwealth Society
for the Blind, was the only vital tool available at that time to help shape the educational welfare
of exceptional students. However, missionaries also played a remarkable role in the development
of educational programmes for the disabled. Today, a number of integrated units have
mushroomed in the country.

a) Policy on Inclusive Education:

The Zambia National Policy on Education (GRZ, 1996) in relation to learners with special
educational needs state that integration should occur to the greatest extent possible. GRZ (1996)
education policy document stated the following: (a) The principles guiding the education system
were harmonized with the principles of liberalization, partnership, and private enterprising, (b)
specific statements were stated at every level, and, education, social and political principles were
fused together in vision of child centred education, that meet the needs of the learner, family,
communities and society. Where integration occurs, there still remain the practical question as to
the extent to which ordinary schools can provide facilities i.e. adapted accommodation, special
education teachers, equipment and multi-disciplinary professional support suitable for each
child’s special needs (UNESCO, 1996).

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However, the National Policy also takes cognizance of the fact that some children have severe
impairments, to the extent that education in a special school is necessary. Equality and access to
education for special needs children has not significantly improved despite the 1996 Education
Policy-Educating Our Future and the 1990 Jomtien Education for All by the Year 2000
declaration. However, access to schools and the capacity of some of the regular school systems
to include these children have increased to a notable extent since 1990. There is an increase in
the demand for schooling by parents of special needs children. Consequently, the enrolment of
these children in regular schools has also increased from less than 0.1% to 3%. The capacity of
the school unit system has also increased from 72 integrated units in 1990 to 127 (76-38%) units
in 1997. The special schools have only increased by 8.3% during the same period, from 24
special schools to 28.

Equity of access to schooling for exceptional children has increased from 0.1% of all disabled
and eligible for schooling in 1990 to 1% in 1995, while that of their non-disabled peers increased
from 35% in 1990 to 85% in 1995 respectively. This imbalance of access to schooling needs to
be urgently addressed. Ensuring equity of access, participation and benefit for all students
necessitates interventions at all levels to support children at risk (Katwishi, 1995). Katwishi
attributed the increase in the number of exceptional students in school to the mushrooming
number of integrated units in most primary schools in the country.

On the international scene, the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action, which have
been documented by UNESCO (1996), have also confirmed that the trend in social policy during
the past two decades has been to promote integration and participation, and combat exclusion.
Inclusion education and participation is essential to human dignity and to the enjoyment and
exercise of human rights. Within the field of education this is reflected in the development of
strategies that seek to bring about a genuine equity of opportunity. Experience in many countries
demonstrates that the inclusion of children and young people with special educational needs is
best achieved within integrated schools that’s serve all children within a community (Oliver,
1995). It is argued that within this context those with special educational needs can achieve the
fullest educational progress and social integration.

84
While integrated schools provide a favorable setting for achieving equal opportunity and full
participation, their success requires a concerted effort, not only by teachers and schools staff, but
also by peers, parent’s families and volunteers. Galis (1994) indicates that the reform of social
institutions is not only a technical task. It depends, above all, upon the conviction, commitment
and good will of the individuals who constitute society.

The fundamental principle of the integrated schools is that all children should learn together,
whenever possible, regardless of any difficulties and differences they may have. Inclusive
schools must recognize and respond to the diverse needs of their students, proving for different
styles and rates of learning and ensuring quality education or all through appropriate curricula,
professional development, organizational arrangements, teaching strategies, resources use and
partnerships with their communities. Within integrated schools, children with special educational
needs should receive whatever extra support they may require to ensure an effective education,
such as taking theme for recreation to the places of interests like zoos. To be effective, inclusion
must be complemented by national, regional and local plans of action inspired by a political and
popular will to achieve appropriate education for all. This implies that there is need for national
policy which will further be interpreted at regional district and local levels.

Currently, the educational needs of children with severe impairments in Zambia are addressed
through special education schools and special education units attached to regular schools. In
1996 there were 20 residential special schools at primary level and only two at secondary level
(GRZ, 1996). There were also 127 special education units, of which 100 were at primary and 27
at the secondary levels. The Ministry of Education in its Education Policy, Educating Our
Future (GRZ, 1996) pledges to give attention to the educational needs of exceptional needs of
exceptional students by: - 1) Training an adequate number of teachers in special education; 2)
designing appropriate curricula and providing teaching materials for all levels of abilities; 3)
prescribing specifications for special furniture, equipment, aids and infrastructure provision; 4)
developing appropriate support technology systems and providing adequate supervision of
special education programmes.

b) Characteristics of Inclusion:

85
There are two main modalities of provision for special needs education in Zambia. The
residential special school is the main feature, whilst integrated provision, via resource room
treatment at both primary and secondary school levels, is rapidly increasing (GEZ, 1996).
Resource room services students with special needs integrated in regular class and are considered
as members of that class. The resource room model of service delivery was introduced because
there are only two residential special schools at the secondary level for students with special
needs to attend after their primary school education. Hence, special education, as perceived by
GRZ (1996) is not a programme entirely different from that normally provided for able pupils of
the same age, but refers to those aspects which are unique or are additional to the regular
education programme. Different arrangements exist, depending on the child’s disability. Where
the disabilities are severe, the child might spend most of the time in a special class with a
specialist teacher. Many children, however, are not members of special classes but receive
occasional help outside of the activities of the normal class. Thus, a child with speech
impairment may spend one or two hours a week with a speech therapist, while a physically
disabled child may be provided with physical exercises by the physiotherapist.

There are also special schools that cater for the specific educational needs of certain categories of
exceptional students. There may also be schools attached to hospitals for children who are
hospitalised for long periods of time. The type of special education facility to be established
depends on the nature and severity of the disability (GRZ, 1996). The main argument in favour
of special schools is that they make it possible to concentrate personnel and resources needed for
the children in such schools and to create for them a learning environment that responds
positively to their special learning needs. However, experience has also shown that students with
disabilities integrated into regular schools adapt more easily to living in their home community.
Their segregation in residential special schools tends to create negative expectations of their
ability and after school many have difficult in returning home. For these reasons, it is not
desirable that students with disabilities should be treated as persons outside the mainstream of
community life. As much as possible, they should be integrated into their home life community
activities and home schools, living a life that is comparable with that of other children of the
same age. Hence, the preferred model of service delivery system used in Zambia entails a
judicious balance of special education programmes and activities within the framework of a

86
regular school. Where necessary, however, a pupil should be able to move from provision in an
ordinary school to a special school, and vice versa, in accordance with needs.

6.6. Teachers’ Attitudes toward Inclusive Education:

There are claims that in Zambia, mainstream and special education teachers hold different
attitudes and beliefs about integrating students with disabilities in general education classrooms
(Nyambose, 1997). First their beliefs and perception of the curriculum and the type of topic they
favour or dislike most in their teaching practices will influence the way they teach. A teacher
who loves music, for example, often ensures that music takes a large portion of his/her teaches
time in the classroom at the expense of pupils who do not favour that subject. Secondly, their
beliefs and perception of teaching students with disabilities will also vary. Some believe that a
disabled person was born unlucky and cannot benefit from general education instruction because
he/she requires specialised equipment and attention from a specially trained teacher. Other
teachers hold beliefs that welcome disabled students in their general education classrooms. Such
teachers try to make initiatives to consult with special education teachers or resource teachers to
provide differentiation for students with disabilities.

In a survey conducted by Special Education Inspectorate of the Ministry of Education in

Kalulushi District with urban, peri-urban and rural settings on the Copperbelt Province of
Zambia, attitudes of teachers were assessed to determine their willingness to integrate students
with disabilities (Mandona, 1997). The survey was conducted in ten basic schools that practice
inclusive schooling. The results of this study showed that it is very difficult to assess attitudes
and beliefs for inclusion of students with disabilities in general classrooms since these are
feelings which cannot be measured and the procedure used to collect data was not adequate
(GRZ, 1997b). However, this study also showed some negative and positive attitudes toward
inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms by general and special
education teachers.

The results of this survey further reveal that different teachers held beliefs about their work, their
students and the delivery of educational services to students with disabilities. These teachers
gave many reasons for their perceptions. Differences in culture, linguistic diversity where a
classroom could have 20 or more dialects spoken by pupils, large classes, scanty and inadequate

87
resources, lack of staff development programmes and modes salaries for teachers were some of
the barriers mentioned by the teachers to effective inclusion in general education classrooms.
These findings were in line with Ajzen’s (1980:1998) theory, which states that since people have
different experiences, they form different beliefs about similar behaviours. Beliefs may be
reasonable or unreasonable, true or untrue. These beliefs, however, can influence attitudes and
expectations, which in turn determine behaviours.

Overall, from this brief background, it is plausible to suggest that Zambian teachers’ perception
of the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classroom indicate that they
have insufficient resources, skills and training necessary for inclusion, compared to their
counterparts in the west. Their attitudes and beliefs toward integration of students with
disabilities vary considerably with the type and severity of the disability. The following are
some of the perceived attitudes teachers seem to exhibit (Nyambose, 1997):-

 General education teachers consider teaching disabled students as not being their duty
because they are involved in academic production unit classes which give them more money
than integrating the disabled. These teachers simply indicate that they shun inclusive
teaching because they do not receive extra monetary benefits for it.

 Specialist teachers consider themselves more knowledgeable, caring, and skilled. The extra
allowance specialist teachers receive seems to be more of an attraction for some mainstream
teachers to join special education than their actual readiness to individualise programmes for
special education classes. These classes have fewer students, a more flexible schedule, and
the teachers have higher salaries.

These perceptions as documented by Reynolds and Birch (1988), Frost and Common (1989)
and Waldron (1992) in the West, indicate strong roadblocks to co-operative planning for
students. To have teachers work together, there must be a philosophical shift from isolation
to integration. The researcher suggests that general education teachers should have some
special education training.

Summary

88
This unit has described the present situation in Zambia, both in socio-economic terms and in
terms of the education system. There has been some discussion of inclusive education, and of
teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion. These educational issues will be looked at in more depth
and from a theoretical context in chapter three.

RECUPITUJATION

1. What are attitudes?

2. Why do professionals have to study attitudes of teachers?

3. Discuss the characteristics of inclusive education

4. Critically discuss the three major policies in education sector in Zambia. What do they say
about the education of special needs children?

89
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