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 PALGRAVE STUDIES IN GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY

AFRICAN DEMOCRATIC
CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
REVISITED
d
Edited by
Yusef Waghid and Nuraan Davids
Palgrave Studies in Global Citizenship Education
and Democracy

Series editor
Jason Laker
San Jose State University
San Jose, California, USA
Aim of the Series
This series will engage with the theoretical and practical debates regarding
citizenship, human rights education, social inclusion, and individual and
group identities as they relate to the role of higher and adult education on
an international scale. Books in the series will consider hopeful possibili-
ties for the capacity of higher and adult education to enable citizenship,
human rights, democracy and the common good, including emerging
research and interesting and effective practices. It will also participate in
and stimulate deliberation and debate about the constraints, barriers and
sources and forms of resistance to realizing the promise of egalitarian
Civil Societies. The series will facilitate continued conversation on policy
and politics, curriculum and pedagogy, review and reform, and provide a
comparative overview of the different conceptions and approaches to citi-
zenship education and democracy around the world.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/series/14625
 Yusef Waghid • Nuraan Davids
Editors

African Democratic
Citizenship Education
Revisited
Editors
Yusef Waghid Nuraan Davids
Faculty of Education Faculty of Education
Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University
Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town, South Africa

Palgrave Studies in Global Citizenship Education and Democracy

ISBN 978-3-319-67860-3    ISBN 978-3-319-67861-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67861-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017956406

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
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does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Foreword

In the context of contemporary post-Westphalian nation-states, the ques-

tions of cross-border migration and settlements of various forms and
duration have intensified. Of particular significance is the policy implica-
tion pertaining specifically to citizenship, nationality, and political rights
fiercely debated, amidst the increasing neo-liberal globalization on a
world scale since the end of the twentieth century. Such rights are acquired
either through place of birth and/or labor. Education, as a social institu-
tion that continues to provide technical skills and values necessary for
economic and political participation, has a role to play in the provision
and acquisition of the tools required to exercise the relevant agency to
claim practically these rights. Additionally, in the context of ongoing
migrations, the vital grounds of active linkages to places of emigration
origin and destination, for instance, through African conceptualization
and lived experiences of family solidarity and obligations, calls for serious
examination of the assumed requirements of single spatial connection for
securing and exercising such rights. The claim for legitimate rights had
been put forth earlier by pan-African ideology and currently by some
aspects of the demand of contemporary Afropolitanism.
The topic of citizenship education has increasingly been addressed by
scholars and activists across the globe, highlighting broader trends and
similarities as well as local, national, and regional specificities. In African
Democratic Citizenship Education Revisited, co-editors Yusef Waghid and
v
vi Foreword

Nuraan Davids have raised thought-provoking questions such as “What

… does it mean to be African?” in conceptualizing and envisioning the
concrete context for citizenship education. This type of discourse and
concern for defining legitimate membership is not at all new, as it goes
back to centuries of the modern and contemporary eras during which
massive forced migration took place out of Africa due to the trans-­
Atlantic enslavement, which led to the emergence and claims of pan-­
Africanism. Similarly, during the same period, there was a reverse
migration to Africa that was partially voluntary (in the case of the colo-
nizers) and in part forced (in the case of the imported labor, for instance,
from Asia) and was linked to the same exigencies of empire, capitalist
accumulation, and colonization that led to the loss of humanity, and
subsequently, all rights of Africans and other populations subjected to the
policies of forced labor. The transition to independence and the gradual
consolidation of the externally drawn borders among current African
countries did not address fully the problematics of the initial rationale for
mapping the African continent based on external motives and the impli-
cations of separating and displacing different social groups while creating
artificial boundaries. All this led to the original pertinent question of
“What … does it mean to be African?” In essence, this question interro-
gates what it means to be a citizen of an African nation-state considering
the weight of history. What are the spatial component and implications
of “being African?”
The co-editors of this volume forcefully articulate the intricate rela-
tionship between “democratic citizenship” and the indispensable aware-
ness/consciousness by citizens of their rights. It is with this realization,
they contend, that “the ongoing dialogue calls for democratic citizenship
education.” It is worth recalling that the fierce battles waged by Africans
against colonization and in independence movements were triggered and
sustained by their quest for freedom, an essential part of the ability to
acquire and exercise citizens’ rights. In the non-colonized contexts, spe-
cific rights for members of different sociopolitical entities may have been
constructed on the lines of what has been labeled in some of the literature
in political science as “primordial ties.” Thus, the transition from coloni-
zation to independence, occurred relatively recently, considering what a
timeline entails when building political systems and nation-states. In the
 Foreword
   vii

transition, complete citizens’ rights were not fully and practically restored,
given the enduring neo-colonial framework of governance. Colonial rule
was essentially incompatible with the respect and teaching of the “sub-
jects” about their rights. Therefore, it is imperative that a relearning and
reclaiming of rights under post-colonial regimes transpire to function
effectively, considering the tendency of the persistence and reproduction
of some regimes that operate with African proxies of colonial systems
considering whose interests are being mainly served. Also, the continued/
resurgence of primordial ties may contribute to fragmentation of the citi-
zenry and pose a challenge in organizing processes of increased conscious-
ness about the rights of the citizens based on their objective conditions in
the contemporary nation-states without ambivalence in allegiance and
how to settle old grievances and clarify the new exigencies that can be
effectively addressed while empowering “democratic citizenship educa-
tion.” While doing so, legitimate questions need to be asked about what
type of democracy constitutes the reference in defining the type of citi-
zenship education.
Yusef Waghid and Nuraan Davids, as co-editors and contributors, and
the authors of the other chapters of the volume offer a timely and impor-
tant contribution to the critical examination of the persistent questions
of citizenship, political rights, and the prerequisites for acquiring compe-
tence in knowing and exercising such rights in the African context. They
provide theoretical frameworks and locate their respective case studies in
the broader global context and at the same time effectively elucidate the
specificities of national milieus and global-local dynamics. Historical fac-
tors related to the specific contexts of colonial, post-colonial, and national
experiences are authoritatively situated in these case studies amidst neo-­
liberal globalization and liberal democracy, together providing a powerful
analysis of the diverse and complex situations with expert insight point-
ing to the nuances.
The volume covers individual countries in different sub-regions of the
continent, specifically North Africa, Southern Africa, West, and East
Africa. While the authors do not claim to offer a template for action, they
convincingly provide arguments for deciphering the contradictions
between nationalism and democratic citizenship education, the hinder-
ing effects of neo-liberalism, and the role of education in general and
viii Foreword

especially higher education. They provide critical perspectives for forward-­

looking and action-oriented assessments of the imperatives for promot-
ing democratic citizenship education in Africa, which can enlighten both
the citizens and “those in power” to appreciate the potentially positive
effects of the capacity to exercise and respond to “accountability pres-
sures” which have salutary outcomes for all.
There is no doubt that this edited volume will be well received by
scholars, activists, policy makers, grassroots organizations, and the vari-
ous forms of civil society that are active in localities in specific countries,
at national and sub-regional levels to engage in rethinking democratic
citizenship education with renewed commitment for transformative
action.

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA N’Dri T Assié-Lumumba

 Preface

‘Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.’
—African proverb

Democratic citizenship education in Africa was heavily curtailed in

educational institutions during the period of colonisation, especially
between the 1950s and 1970s—not only because schools and universities
were subjected to the political control of colonised nation-states but also
as a corollary of ethnocultural allegiances among indigenous communi-
ties that tangibly showed an aversion to others and otherness. First, at a
political level, it did not behove colonised nation-states to act according
to values of democracy and citizenship primarily because of repression,
exploitation and exclusion. Of course, this does not mean that Africa’s
peoples did not resist their political exclusion and by implication
announced their democratic and citizenship aspirations. However, such
often-prohibited demands were easily quelled by the coercive powers of
the colonial authorities. Likewise, many indigenous communities by and
large succumbed to their own political dictatorships that mostly served as
political proxies to procure colonial rule. In addition, the post-colonial
period, mostly from the 1980s onwards, witnessed a deluge of political
resistance, in particular the demands of nation-states to be liberated from
foreign and colonial control and manipulation.

ix
x Preface

As we might know, many African indigenous communities succeeded

in liberating the continent from unwarranted external political exploita-
tion. As we might also know, neoliberalism and globalisation have become
manifest in the majority of nation-states on the African continent. And,
as with any new and often exploitative form of political dispensation —
considering that more than a third of the continent in the 1990s aspired
to establish democratic states—democratic citizenship education evolved
as a new politico-societal means to ensure the free and open exercise of a
neoliberal market economy that would supposedly enhance the political
and economic liberties of African nation-states. Inasmuch as such events
corroborated the decline of the colonised continent and by implication
colonised nation-state, African communities, nevertheless, became more
acutely aware of their political rights to liberty and the exercise of the
pursuit of their own indigenous forms of cultural living. In a different
way, post-colonial Africans began to narrate their own stories more
authentically and authoritatively. Today, although more than half of the
continent has assumed the status of democratic nation-states, Africans
remain entangled in a web of political manoeuvring that privilege indig-
enous patriotism often at the expense of liberal democratic action. This in
itself might not necessarily be debilitating to Africa’s political liberation.
However, as our own understanding of the contributions in this volume
suggest, it might also be the springboard that would further enhance
Africa’s embrace of democratic citizenship education—a matter of
Africans narrating their autonomous stories.
As we write and read these words, we live and reveal our stories. Stories
allow us to make sense of who we are. As they slip off our tongues or flow
through our fingers, our stories give meaning to who we are and what we
might become. Africa has always been a kaleidoscope of stories and sto-
rytelling—echoing through the dark night sky, as rhythmic bodies sway
to the emotion of the land. Much has been written and recorded about
Africa—from Joseph Conrad’s unsettling Heart of Darkness (first pub-
lished in 1899) to Karen Blixen’s romanticised memoir, Out of Africa
(first published in 1937), the African has been caricatured into that which
others have desired him or her to be. In turn, history reveals that Africa
has often been debased to what she should never have been—as encoun-
tered in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), Ngugi wa Thiongo’s
 Preface
   xi

A Grain of Wheat (1967), or Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country

(1948). What, therefore, does it mean to be African? What does it mean
to live on the African continent? Is being born and living in Africa that
accords Africans their citizenship? Is stating that we are African the same
as stating that we are African citizens? In this collection of essays, we
endeavour to address some of these questions in relation to conceptions
of democratic citizenship education.
Conceptions of democratic citizenship are seemingly inextricably
embedded in particular sets of rights—meaning that, in order for citizens
to lay claim to citizenship, they have to have a sense of their social, politi-
cal and legal rights. This particular understanding begins to explain the
ongoing calls for democratic citizenship education. Conversely, therefore,
the argument could be made that if a citizen is unaware of his or her
rights, he or she, seemingly, would not be able to lay claim to his or her
citizenship. The latter is certainly the view of Logan and Bratton (2006: 1),
who argue that the problem with citizenship in Africa is not that Africans
are not actively involved in their respective dispensations but rather that
‘democracy remains unclaimed by them [Africans]’. In this sense, Logan
and Bratton (2006: 1) maintain,

People in African countries may have begun to transform themselves from

the ‘subjects’ of past authoritarian systems into active ‘voters’ under the
present dispensation. But at the same time, they do not appear to fully
grasp their political rights as ‘citizens’, notably to regularly demand
accountability from leaders. As such, most African political regimes have
yet to meet the minimum requirements of representative democracy.

We might concur with Logan and Bratton’s (2006) argument that per-
haps the greatest challenge facing democratic citizenship education in
Africa is not the absence of democracy but rather the absence of account-
ability pressures—not only in relation to voters but especially on the part
of those in power. When we reflect on our home country, we can cer-
tainly see tragic evidence of not only an unclaimed democracy by the
majority of South Africans, but unclaimed lives as the plight of the his-
torically dispossessed remains unrelieved. Seemingly, while South Africans
might have succeeded in transforming themselves into active voters, their
xii Preface

lives remain untransformed. However, we would question whether

understandings of democratic citizenship can only be couched in relation
to political and legalistic contours of what it means to be a citizen.
Part of what makes conceptions of democratic citizenship education so
multifarious and complex is that its dynamism or fluidity is manifested in
how citizenship education is interpreted and lived. In other words, while
notions of democratic citizenship might emanate from legalistic frame-
works and political manifestos, it is lived and made visible through
human interactions, deliberative engagement, regard for the other and
compassionate action. In taking into account the deep intricacy and con-
testations which infuse democratic citizenship education, this anthology
has adopted an at once attached-to and detached-from gaze at manifesta-
tions of citizenship on the African continent. In this sense, while the vari-
ous authors write from particular worldviews, which might signal levels
of attachment to this or that African identity (of which there are many),
they are nevertheless detached from the (im)possibilities of democratic
citizenship education in Africa. This detachment stems from a recogni-
tion that inasmuch as Africa has the potential for democratic enactments,
it equally has the (im)potentiality not to do so. And inasmuch as reasons
need to be sought and offered in relation to the (im)potentiality of Africa,
equal attention has to be afforded to the (im)potentiality of democratic
citizenship education.
This anthology of essays or chapters comprises ten chapters, and one
coda, which explore seven different geographical, social and citizenship
contexts and challenges. As such, the chapters offer a cross-spectrum of
engagement with very particular African contexts, from a diverse group
of scholars, who share a collective interest in the difficulties and hopes for
a citizenship of humanity flourishing on the African continent. The
inclusion of these particular contexts has been influenced by a number of
factors. These have included a focus on an emergent democratic land-
scape, as represented by South Africa, which offers a fertile space for the
reimagining of a democratic citizenship and education. The focus on
South Africa, as examined by Hungwe and Divala, also raises critical con-
cerns about particular enactments of democracy, citizenship and educa-
tion in relation to foreign African students. Like the focus on South
Africa, the inclusion of a chapter on Egypt is concerned with the
 Preface
   xiii

­ ossibility and plausibility of an emerging democracy. Of course, the two

p
countries have had very different, yet equally, complex histories, but the
interest remains—in the aftermath of an Arab Spring—whether it is at all
feasible to imagine an Egyptian citizenship underscored by democratic
principles and values. Similar concerns are raised in the chapters on
Zimbabwe, where the concern is not only on the viability of a form of
democratic citizenship, but indeed on the social and economic sustain-
ability of its citizens. These are real concerns, which present particular
challenges for human and humane existence, which, as in the cases of
Egypt, and Kenya, have implications for migration and displacement
across the African continent and especially in South Africa. The types of
instability and hopelessness encountered in Zimbabwe is not unlike that
experienced in Kenya, where tribal and ethnic violence continues to sub-
ject citizens into lifetimes of fear and degradation. The attention to coun-
tries such as Namibia, Malawi and Nigeria serves to offer a more subdued
reflection on what can be aspired towards—albeit that these aspirations
will remain in potentiality. Of course, these three countries have intricate
challenges of dire poverty, unemployment, and their associated trials and
confrontations but the focus is on democratic initiatives, which interests
this anthology. While we recognise the profound differences within and
across African countries, there is an equally profound collective desire,
which is for peaceful co-existence, mutual respect and regard for human
life. There are also intense religious, cultural and ethnic languages, arte-
facts, and lived experiences, which can neither be undermined, nor dis-
counted from conceptualisations of African democratic citizenship and
education.
Very aptly, the book commences with Yusef Waghid’s ‘On the rele-
vance of a theory of democratic citizenship education for Africa’, which
bravely questions the relevance of democratic citizenship education as a
theory to explain Africa’s post-colonial political and socio-economic aspi-
rations. He argues that a theory of democratic citizenship education can
only be relevant to humans living on the African continent, if such a
theory ‘would foreground the significance of people engaging with one
another through speech’. In this regard, it is Waghid’s argument that,
regardless of the challenges that beset African communities, democratic
citizenship education has to recognise the right of all people to engage
xiv Preface

with one another through the use of language. To this end, ‘a theory of
democratic citizenship education pronounces the importance of people
recognising one another with their commonalities and differences’, which
according to Waghid, implies the non-alienation of people from one
another, irrespective of their disagreements and differences. He main-
tains, ‘a democratic citizenship education theory that does not consider
people as equal speaking beings would itself become vulnerable to kinds
of prejudice that drive people apart rather than including them collec-
tively in communication’. Following on Waghid, Nuraan Davids, in her
chapter, ‘Democracy, citizenship and religion in Egypt: on the necessity
of disrupting a post-Arab spring’, questions whether conceptions of dem-
ocratic citizenship in Arab communities are at all possible and desirable.
She asserts:

the very language of dissensus and disruption that gave the Arab Spring its
definitive voice is the same one that is used to highlight the volatile and
violent nature of democracy. It is therefore not too difficult to point to the
instability and violence of democracy as a means of detracting attention
away from the violation and violence of authoritarian and repressive
regimes.

To this end, she posits that the emergence of a democratic citizenship

in Egypt is as tied up in its disruption of an authoritarian state as it is in
unequal and repressive religious interpretations and practices. By draw-
ing on a particular historical Islamic understanding of citizenship, as a
social contract between an individual and the state, the premise of the
chapter is that contemporary notions of citizenship are reconcilable with
Islam, and therefore (ought to be with) a Muslim state. Consequently,
Davids argues that a democratic citizenship education, as constructed
through a social contract, is ‘critical to meeting the needs of a society,
which might desire democracy, but are unfamiliar with its practices of
participation, inclusion, recognition, and engagement’.
In their chapter, ‘Rethinking democratic citizenship education in
Africa: Towards moderate deliberation’, Rachel Ndinelao Shanyanana
and Joseph Jinja Divala interrogate democratic citizenship in relation to
the post-colonial contexts of Malawi and Namibia. They contend that
 Preface
   xv

the challenges facing contemporary Malawi and Namibia are primarily

the result of a narrow conception of democratic citizenship, which is pre-
occupied with an emphasis on an electoral democracy, rather than on
deliberative participation. Following on this, Shanyanana and Divala
argue for a moderate, deliberative democratic education framework as
one that is consonant with an African democratic experience. They main-
tain that, unless the African democratic states promote moderate delib-
erative democratic education, citizens may possibly not be able to engage
in matters of mutual concern and will inevitably fail to have meaningful
deliberations that can start addressing unjust encounters confronting the
continent today, thereby potentially thwarting the many advantages of
developing democratic communities Africa requires to promote. In the
next chapter entitled ‘Afrophobia in the South African higher education
system: a threat to internalisation and global citizenship initiatives’,
Joseph Pardon Hungwe and Joseph Jinja Divala bring into disrepute the
objectives of higher education to prepare student graduates as global citi-
zens. In this regard, the authors examine the prevalence of Afrophobia, as
a distinct form of xenophobia, at South African universities. In exposing
Afrophobia as an exclusive discriminatory practice, which emphasises the
non-state citizenship of foreigners of African origin, the authors consider
Afrophobia to be ‘a denial of the concept of global citizenship on the
basis that it negates universalism and/or contradicts the inherent worthi-
ness of individuals, and this sharply contradicts what most universities
proclaim to be promoting in their visions and activities’. Hungwe and
Divala argue that if universities are to serve the public good of local and
international or foreign students, then global citizenship education ought
to be an indispensable part of any university environment.
In Chap. 5, ‘Nationalism and/or the annihilation of democratic citi-
zenship education: A critical analysis of Zimbabwe’s citizenship educa-
tion initiatives’, Agrippa Chingombe and Joseph Jinja Divala depart from
the premise that what is touted as ‘citizenship education’ in Zimbabwe is
far removed from citizenship education. The authors argue that although
concerns of human rights and democracy have been centralised in citi-
zenship education in Zimbabwe, what has emerged instead is ‘an extreme
nationalist citizenship education project, which continues to be radical,
exclusionary, discriminatory and very partisan thereby tearing apart the
xvi Preface

very fabric of society which it intends to build’. In foregrounding the

Nziramasanga Commission Report (1999), Chingombe and Divala
attempt to redefine and reposition citizenship education in Zimbabwe.
They do so by arguing that ‘the success for a deliberative active citizenship
education that appreciates participatory democracy is dependent upon
the attitude and behaviour of the custodians of institutions of learning
and politicians who have the power to influence the curriculum’. In her
chapter, ‘On the [im]possibility of democratic citizenship education in
Kenya: Spheres of change’, Jane Chiroma contends that it is ethnic vio-
lence which undermines democratic practices within Kenyan higher edu-
cation. Because Kenya has, as yet, not managed to address the prevalence
of ethnic violence in its society, she asserts, that this is perhaps indicative
of Kenya not having reached its full potentiality yet. In this regard,
Chiroma argues for a democratic citizenship education that is in becom-
ing—one that transcends the boundaries of possibilities and impossibili-
ties in order to enhance education as a process of becoming in relation to
human experience, interactions and/with ethnic relations. In her opin-
ion, a reconsidered understanding of democratic citizenship education in
becoming has the potential to enable Kenyan policymakers, educators
and students to think and speak differently and to suspend quick judge-
ment about how policies, power and decisions in education are made.
Taking a different turn, the chapter by Zayd Waghid and Faiq Waghid,
‘[Re]examining the role of technology in education through a delibera-
tive decision-making approach: In the quest towards democratic educa-
tion in South African schools’, looks at the use of educational technologies
as ‘maps’ or as ‘pedagogical practices’ in enhancing students’ learning
experiences. They contend that these ‘maps’ might assist students in
extracting deeper meanings from their learning experiences, which might
‘allow for more equal, deliberative and inclusive pedagogical relations by
promoting spontaneity pertaining to debates and discussions in the South
African classroom’. In turn, Waghid and Waghid argue for educators to
adopt a deliberative decision-making approach supported by educational
technologies in classroom settings—‘This is because deliberation pre-
mised on reasonableness and amplified by rationality is aimed at cultivat-
ing students’ voices as active participants in their own learning.’ Staying
in South Africa, Tracey Isaacs’ chapter, entitled, ‘The politics of
 Preface
   xvii

s­chooling—imagining critical democratic citizenship education in the

age of neoliberalism’, offers an in-depth critique of post-apartheid citi-
zenship education policy in relation to educational practice, specifically
the South African National Curriculum Statement (NCS). She follows
with an attempt to align critical conceptions of democratic citizenship
education to South African education to imagine how political literacy,
civic duty and tolerance may be signified in a state of advanced capital-
ism. It is imagined, states Isaacs, that the latter reflections

are necessary to appreciate the complex and sensitive area of citizenship

education, the vacuity of positive models of citizenship (in political leader-
ship and the capitalist classes especially), and how ideas of citizenship may
be converted into social levers that serve the common good.

In Chap. 9, ‘Continuing professional development of teachers and

democratic citizenship education in Nigeria: A hopeful pursuit?’ Ruth
Ayoola and Nuraan Davids explore the link between democratic citizen-
ship education and the continuing professional development (CPD) of
teachers. In this regard, the authors seek to understand whether the pro-
fessional development of teachers contributes towards their cultivation as
‘democratic’ teachers. The authors contend that while CPD programmes
in Lagos State, Nigeria, propagate democratic ideals, these programmes
fail to create the spaces in which these ideals might be deliberated upon.
As a result, teachers are often unclear about how to implement their own
understandings of particular concepts practically. The glaring gap between
conceptual understandings and practices among teachers, state Ayoola
and Davids, holds particular implications not only for the cultivation of
democratic citizenship education in schools but also for democratic citi-
zenship in Nigeria. In her chapter, ‘Democratic citizenship education
revisited in Zimbabwean higher education’, Monica Zembere raises con-
cerns about the silences of higher education policy documents in relation
to democratic citizenship education. She cautions that, unless issues of
equality, equity, human rights and social justice are addressed, the coun-
try’s political and social crises cannot be alleviated.
The anthology concludes with a coda by Nuraan Davids and Yusef
Waghid, in which they reflect upon a conception of democratic
xviii Preface

c­ itizenship, which connects to the human experience along the lines of

deliberative engagement, responsible action, co-belonging and equality
of speech and action. In this regard, the authors raise questions about
being too dependent on a view of democratic citizenship education which
favours and privileges individual rights and collective autonomy, and
which might not be sufficient in realising the type of democratic citizen-
ship education desirous for the African continent. To this end, by draw-
ing on Agamben’s (2002: 58) idea of ‘bare life’, Davids and Waghid argue
for a particular kind of democratic citizenship for Africa that remains
open to liberal and communitarian understandings of the concept, yet
blind to and captivated by what might still ensue as human interactions
and co-­belonging manifested in their practices.
What can be deduced from the main arguments in the volume is that
the recognition of rights and responsibilities, coupled with an emphasis
on deliberative engagement among citizens can be considered as apt ways
in which an African notion of democratic citizenship could manifest in
educational activities. Although the aforementioned understanding of
democratic citizenship education seems commensurate with say, liberal
communitarian understandings of the concept, what makes the afore-
mentioned notion of democratic citizenship significantly African is its
inextricable connection with an African situatedness. This means that
inasmuch as a recognition of rights and responsibilities, together with an
allegiance to deliberative engagement might not be uniquely African,
there is ample evidence (from the arguments proffered by authors in and
about various nation-states in particular) that the concept can most
appropriately be realised in relation to its connectedness with experiences
of people living on the continent. Of course, our potential critic might
correctly assert that nearly half (if not more) of the countries on the con-
tinent have been subjected to military dictatorship, which implies that
quite a substantive part of the continent seems to be out of congruence
with democratic aspirations. We are not misrecognising that the latter
seems to be the case. However, our reason for focusing on countries that
have an overwhelming allegiance to democratic citizenship education is
in part an acknowledgement on our part that the concept in a different
form—that is, one enveloped by an Africanness—has the potential to
manifest in practices on the continent. And, perhaps, as our collective
 Preface
   xix

optimism surfaces throughout this book, highlighting the successes of

African democratic citizenship education might just be the way to go in
addressing the malaise of its implementation in many countries where
autocratic rule prevails. Hence, our aim in and through this book is to
show that African democratic citizenship education can work and that
our confidence in an Africanised notion or notions of democratic citizen-
ship education can only advantage educational pursuits on the continent.
This in itself is not a denouncement of indigenous communal African
practices but rather an acknowledgement that acting democratically and
exercising an African citizenry might be an achievable ambition.
Stellenbosch University Yusef Waghid
Cape Town, South Africa Nuraan Davids

References
Achebe, C. (1958). Things Fall Apart. London: William Heinemann.
Agamben, G. (2002). In K. Attell (Ed.), The Open: Man and Animal. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
Blixen, K. (2001). Out of Africa. London: Penguin Books.
Conrad, J. (1990). Heart of Darkness. London: Dover Thrift Editions.
Logan, C., & Bratton, M. (2006). Voters, but Not Yet Citizens: The Weak Demand
for Vertical Accountability in Africa’s Unclaimed Democracies (Afrobarometer
Working Papers). Cape Town: Afrobarometer.
Paton, A. (1948). Cry, the Beloved Country. London: Jonathan Cape.
Wa Thiongo, N. (1967). A Grain of Wheat. London: William Heinemann.
 Contents

1 On the Relevance of a Theory of Democratic Citizenship

Education for Africa   1
Yusef Waghid

2 Democracy, Citizenship and Religion in Egypt:

On the Necessity of Disrupting a Post-Arab Spring  13
Nuraan Davids

3 Rethinking Democratic Citizenship Education in Africa:

Towards Moderate Deliberation  31
Joseph Jinja Divala and Rachel Ndinelao Shanyanana

4 Afrophobia in the South African Higher Education

System: A Threat to Internalisation and Global
Citizenship Initiatives  53
Joseph Pardon Hungwe and Joseph Jinja Divala

xxi
xxii Contents

5 Nationalism and/or the Annihilation of Democratic

Citizenship Education: A Critical Analysis of
Zimbabwe’s Citizenship Education Initiatives  77
Agrippa Chingombe and Joseph Jinja Divala

6 On the [Im]possibility of Democratic Citizenship

Education in Kenya: Spheres of Change 103
Jane Adhiambo Chiroma

7 [Re]examining the Role of Technology in Education

Through a Deliberative Decision-Making Approach:
In the Quest Towards Democratic Education in South
African Schools 133
Zayd Waghid and Faiq Waghid

8 The Politics of Schooling: Imagining Critical Democratic

Citizenship Education in the Age of Neoliberalism 157
Tracey I. Isaacs

9 Continuing Professional Development of Teachers

and Democratic Citizenship Education in Nigeria:
A Hopeful Pursuit? 179
Ruth Ayoola and Nuraan Davids

10 Democratic Citizenship Education Revisited in

Zimbabwean Higher Education 199
Monica Zembere

11 Coda: Democratic Citizenship Education and the

Notion of ‘Bare Life’ 221
Nuraan Davids and Yusef Waghid

Index 231
 About the Editors

Yusef Waghid is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education at

Stellenbosch University. He is the author of African Philosophy of Education
Reconsidered: On being Human, and co-editor (with Ian Davis and others) of
Global Citizenship Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
Nuraan Davids is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education and
Chairperson of the Department of Education Policy Studies at Stellenbosch
University. Her interests include democratic citizenship education, Islamic educa-
tion, ethics in education, and educational leadership and management. Her recent
published works include Tolerance and Dissent Within Education (with Yusef
Waghid, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); and African Democratic Citizenship Education
Revisited (co-editor with Yusef Waghid, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

xxiii
 List of Contributors

Ruth Ayoola Born and raised in Nigeria, Ayoola has developed a passion for
policy studies as a tool for solving educational challenges. She holds a master’s
degree in Education Policy Studies from the Stellenbosch University, South
Africa, and a B.Ed. (First class honours) in Education Management (Accounting)
from Ekiti State University, Nigeria.
Agrippa Chingombe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational
Foundations at the Great Zimbabwe University.
Jane Chiroma is Lecturer in Foundations of Education and Head of Education
Department at the Jos ECWA Theological Seminary, Nigeria.
Joseph Jinja Divala is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education at the
University of Johannesburg. His research interests are aims and conceptions of
education; deliberative democratic citizenship theory; citizenship identities;
social justice; equity and governance in higher education systems; public policy
analysis. He has published in the areas of citizenship theory and education, aims
of education and higher education policy and practice. His recent works have
been published in The Sage Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Democracy
(2008), in Education Studies: History, Sociology, Philosophy (2016) and in
Knowledge and Change in African Universities. Volume 1: Current Debates.
African Higher Education: Development and Perspectives Series (2017).
Joseph Pardon Hungwe His research interests are internationalisation of
higher education, student international mobility, student body social diversity,
social cohesion in education and decolonisation of education.
xxv
xxvi List of Contributors

Tracey Isaacs Her dissertation Critical Student Agency in Educational Practice:

A South African Perspective opened up avenues for the researcher to explore the
dimensions of an ethical pedagogy. This position takes a serious look at issues of
culturally and economically marginalised students who navigate literacy and
numeracy development within a neoliberal school discourse. So the research
stance for this researcher is to better understand the complexities these students
face in order to help transform their social experience through schooling.
Rachel Shanyanana She is an assistant pro-vice chancellor at the University of
Namibia-Khomasdal Campus. Her research interests are higher education,
African ubuntu, deliberative democracy, citizenship education, education for
social justice, ethics of care, girls’ and women’s access to education in Africa and
transformative education in African university.
Faiq Waghid is a Lecturer of educational technology in the Centre for
Innovative Educational Technology (CIET) at Cape Peninsula University of
Technology. He is co-author of Educational Technology and Pedagogic
Encounters: Democratic Education in Potentiality (Sense Publishers, 2016).
Zayd Waghid is Lecturer in Economic and Management Sciences in the
Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape
Town, South Africa. He holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University in 2014, and
his areas of research interest include educational technology, economics educa-
tion, social entrepreneurship education and social justice. He is the co-author of
Educational Technology and Pedagogic Encounters: Democratic education in
Potentiality (2017).
Monicah Zembere Her area of research interests includes education and social
issues emanating from policy and conflicts.
 1
On the Relevance of a Theory
of Democratic Citizenship Education
for Africa
Yusef Waghid

Introduction
As I observe how my country, South Africa, faces tumultuous political
times in the midst of several unfavourable political wrangling, especially
in light of the replacement of a relatively good finance minister, I am
once again raising the issue about the ramifications of political autocracy
as a means to hinder the democratic aspirations of a citizenry that has
become too aware of socio-economic and political instability in the coun-
try and on the continent as a whole. I cannot help to conclude that after
almost 27 years of rule, the African National Congress—the party of
Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu—has compromised its
once credible status as a ruling party and seems to have regressed into one
that supports the meandering of a president that has thus far embarrassed
his own party and only seems to align himself with those politicians who
can profit from his political caricature. Much of my previous work on

Y. Waghid (*)
Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, WC, South Africa

© The Author(s) 2018 1

Y. Waghid, N. Davids (eds.), African Democratic Citizenship Education Revisited,
Palgrave Studies in Global Citizenship Education and Democracy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67861-0_1
2 Y. Waghid

democratic citizenship education on the African continent has revolved

around the debilitating consequences of political autocracy as a concept.
I now reconsider political autocracy not only conceptually. Rather, I bear
witness to political autocracy as it collides with enactments of democratic
engagement, against a landscape which has grown steadily disillusioned
with political deceit, especially after decades of apartheid rule. This chap-
ter addresses the issue of democratic citizenship education and its rele-
vance as a theory to Africa’s postcolonial political and socio-economic
aspirations.

 n the Relevance of a Theory of Democratic

O
Citizenship Education
Any theory ought to take into account the aspirations of those who
advance particular views on or about a concept and then set out to proffer
their articulations in a reasonable and persuasive fashion. So, to articulate
a view of a democrat as someone who engages others on the basis of lis-
tening and judgement about this or that, is to make apparent a theory of
such an act—that is, the act of democracy. What follows from the afore-
mentioned is that a theory of democracy, firstly, cannot avoid talking of
humans’ engagement, listening to one another and/or persuasive judge-
ments in defence of some form of deliberative mode of human enact-
ment. Hence, whether it is a Deweyan notion of communicative
rationality, a Rortyan pronouncement of dialogical determinism or a
Derridian tilting towards those engaging practices that are yet to be con-
stituted, democratic action cannot do without people functioning in
association with one another. In this way, talking about a theory of demo-
cratic engagement is relevant on the grounds that its relevance has some
connection to the concept involving people enacting their individual and
collective responsibilities.
Commensurate with the idea of acting democratically, secondly, is the
understanding that humans would not violate one another’s rights to
freedom of articulation and being. In a way, acting in democratic associa-
tion cannot be in violation of one another’s rights and responsibilities as
 On the Relevance of a Theory of Democratic Citizenship... 3

persons serving the interests of a democracy. In a way, people acting as

citizens in a democratic arrangement co-belong without being coerced to
do so—what Agamben refers as co-belonging without any condition of
belonging. In other words, people co-belong in a democratic association
without being coerced to do so. That is, their sense of belonging is con-
stituted by their association to act together without having been obliged
to do so.
Now that the notion of democratic citizenship has been elucidated in
relation to humans’ associational acts of doing things together without
any form of coercion, it becomes more apparent as to why democratic
citizenship, thirdly, cannot be disconnected from the very idea of edu-
cation. To be educated, in the first place, implies being brought into a
form of human living that recognises what the other does in relation to
himself or herself and others. In a way, being educated means to make
sense of events in the world and to justify to others and oneself as to
why one has assumed a particular stance on a matter or not—especially
in parts of the African continent, where dystopias of conflict, hunger
and displacement continue to pervade. In this way, education seems to
be connected to two acts: being in association with others, and engag-
ing and justifying one’s understandings in their presences. And, the act
of engaging with people and co-belonging with them in an atmosphere
of deliberative action is to become situated in others’ presence through
education. For now, a theory of democratic citizenship education
invokes a form of associational co-­belonging and engagement whereby
people come into one another’s presence. In any form of human action
that does not commensurate with engagement, co-belonging would be
contemptuous towards a form of education. It is for the latter reason
that a theory of democratic citizenship education, certainly for people
living on the African continent, remains highly relevant. The latter is
only possible if democratic citizenship education builds its forms of
human engagement around what it means to engage deliberatively, co-
belong associationally and being in one another’s presence. This brings
me to my next question: Is such a human encounter still relevant to
Africa?
4 Y. Waghid

 he (Ir)relevance of Democratic Citizenship

T
Education in Africa
I have specifically referred to democratic citizenship education in relation
to an association, and not for that matter an aggregation. If one were to
look at such an arrangement aggregatively, one would rely on numbers of
people to justify the act of democratic citizenship education. However,
enunciating the act in relation to the idea of an association takes care of
not looking at the concept in relation to only quantification. That is,
notions of association bring to mind images and practices of alliances,
support, connections and even friendship. This brings me to my first
argument: Political autocracies, certainly on the African continent, as
conceptions of autocracy imply, come into power by disregarding a
majority vote count, especially when that vote count acts against a par-
ticular political party or individual. In turn, even when majority vote
counts are taken into consideration, this majority support is often inter-
preted as some sort of extensive right to power, even when that support
might waiver and decide otherwise. In South Africa, the African National
Congress (ANC) hegemony has been held in place by its superior fran-
chise support its members have acquired. Similarly, many African politi-
cal autocracies, like in Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, and
Democratic Republic of Congo, have been kept in political power because
of the superior vote count. And, because many of these African leaders do
not wish to relinquish political power, they have remained in control,
often at the expense of political inclusion and democracy. The very idea
of a political autocracy undermines democratic citizenship education as
the latter puts the autocracy at risk for obvious reasons of which the most
poignant is that people engage collectively with one another. An autoc-
racy undermines engagement as only those in power are considered as
legitimate articulators of voice; it excludes others and hence, places co-­
belonging at risk; and it exercises power violently and by implication
reduces the chances of people coming into one another’s presence. The
idea of people coming into one another’s presence, as I shall argue later
on, has some connection to them (people) making claims to ­understandings
on the basis of their ways of situating themselves in relation to others in
the world.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
colados y sorbidos por la
garganta de aquel monstruoso
pez sin lision alguna del nauio
hasta llegar a lo muy espaçioso
del estomago, donde auia vnos
campos en que cupieran otras
veynte mil; y como el nauio
encalló quedamos espantados de
tan admirable suçeso sin pensar
qué podia ser, y avnque luego
estuuimos algo obscuros porque
cerró el paladar para nos tragar,
pero despues que nos tuuo dentro
y se sosego traya abierta la boca
a la contina, de manera que por
alli nos entraua bastante luz, y
con el ayre de su contino resolgar
nos entretenia el viuir a mucho
descanso y plazer. Pareçiome
que ya que no quiso mi ventura
que yo fuesse á las Indias por ver
allá, que era esta conuenible
comutaçion, pues fortuna nos
forçaua en aquella carçel a ver y
gustar de admirables cosas que
te contaré; y mirando alrededor
vimos muy grandes y espaciosos
campos de frescas fuentes y
arboledas de diuersas y muy
suaves flores y frutas, y ansi
todos saltamos en tierra por
gustar y ver aquellas estançias
tan admirables. Començamos a
comer de aquellas frutas y a
beuer de aquellas aguas alegres
y delicadas[1013] que nos fue muy
suaue refeçion. Estauan por alli
infinitos pedaços de hombres,
piernas, calaberas y huesos, y
muchas espinas y costillas de
terribles peçes y[1014] pescados, y
otros enteros que nos empidian el
andar. Auia tablas, maderos de
nauios, ancoras, gauias,
masteles, xarçia, artilleria y
muniçion, que tragaua aquella
fiera vestia por se mantener[1015].
Pero salidos adelante de aquella
entrada a vn grande espaçio que
alcançamos a ver desde vn alto
monte más de quinientas leguas
de donde atalayamos[1016]
grandes llanos y campos muy
fertiles, abundantes y hermosos.
Auia muchas aues muy hermosas
y graçiosas, de diuersos colores
adornadas en sus plumas que
eran de graçioso parecer. Auia
aguilas, garças, papagayos,
sirgueros, ruyseñores y otras
differençias espeçies y generos
de[1017] aues de mucha
hermosura. Pues proueyendo que
algunos compañeros que[1018]
quedasen en[1019] la guarda del
nauio, les sacamos fuego del
pedernal y dexamos les
mantenimiento de aquellos
manjares y carnes que trayamos
de nuestra prouision y matalotaje;
y ansi escogidos algunos
compañeros nos salimos a
descubrir la tierra[1020].
Discurriendo pues por aquella
deleytosos y fertilissimos
campos[1021] al fin de dos dias,
casi al puesto del sol,
desçendiendo de vna alta
montaña a vn valle de mucha
arboleda, llegamos a vn rio que
con mucha abundançia y
frequençia corria vino muy suave;
tan hondo y tan caudaloso que
por muchas partes podian
nauegar muy gruesos nauios. Del
qual començamos a beuer y a
gustar, y algunos de nuestros
compañeros se començaron de la
beuida a vençer y se nos
quedauan dormidos por alli que
no los podiamos lleuar. Todas las
riberas de aquel suaue y graçioso
rio estan[1022] llenas de muy
grandes y fertilissimas çepas
cargadas de muy copiosas vides
con sus pampanos y raçimos muy
sabrosos y de gran gusto; de
que[1023] començamos a cortar y
comer; y tenian algunas de
aquellas çepas figura y imagen de
mugeres que hablando en nuestra
lengua natural nos convidauan
con agraçiadas palabras a comer
dellas, prometiendonos mucho
dulçor. Pero a todos aquellos que
conuençidos de sus ruegos y
halagos llegauan a gustar de su
fruto los dormian y prendian alli,
que no eran libres para se mouer
y las dexar, ni los podiamos
arrancar de alli. Destas, de su
frecuente emanar[1024] destilaua
vn continuo liquor que hazia yr al
rio muy caudaloso. Aqui en esta
ribera hallamos vn padron de
piedra de dos estados alto sobre
la tierra, en la qual estauan vnas
letras griegas escriptas que
mostrauan ser de gran
antiguedad, que nos
significauan[1025] auer sido este el
peregrinaje de Bacho. Passado
este graçioso rio por algunas
partes que se podia vadear, y
subida vna pequeña cuesta que
ponia differençia entre este valle
de Bacho, desçendimos á otro no
menos deleyte[1026] y de gran
sabor. De cuyo gusto y dulçor nos
pareçia beuer aquella beuida que
dezian los hombres antiguos ser
de los dioses por su grande y
admirable gusto, que llamauan
nectar[1027] y ambrosía. Este
tenia vna prodigiosa virtud de su
naturaleza; que si alguno
escapado del rio de Bacho
pudiesse llegar a beuer deste licor
era marauillosamente consolado y
sano de su embriaguez, y era
restituido en su entero y primero
juizio, y avn mejorado sin
comparaçion. Aqui beuimos hasta
hartar, y boluimos por los
compañeros y quál a braço, quál
acuestas y quál por su pie los
traymos[1028] alli, y sanos
caminamos con mucho plazer. No
lexos desta suaue y salutifera
ribera vimos salir humo, y
mirando más con atençion vimos
que se descubrian vnas caserias
pobres y pajizas, de lo qual nos
alegramos mucho por uer si
habitaua por alli alguna gente
como nosotros con que en
aquella prision y mazmorra nos
pudiessemos entender y consolar.
Porque en la verdad nos pareçia
ser aquello vna cosa fantaseada,
o de sueño, o que por el rasgo
nos la descriuia algun
delicado[1029] pintor. Pues con
esta agonia que por muchos dias
nos hazia andar sin comer y[1030]
beuer sin nos defatigar, llegamos
çerca de aquellas casas, y luego
en la entrada hallamos vna vieja
de edad increyble, porque en
rostro, meneo y color lo monstró
ser ansi. Estaua sentada entre
dos muy perenales fuentes, de la
vna de las quales manaua vn muy
abundante caño de miel, y de la
otra mano corria otro caño muy
fertil y gruesso de leche muy
cristalino. Las quales dos fuentes
bajadas a un vallico que estaua
junto alli se juntauan[1031] y
hazian ambas el[1032] un rio
caudal. Estaua la dueña ançiana
con vna vara en la mano, con la
qual con gran descuydo heria en
la fuente que tenia a su mano
derecha que corria leche, y a
cada golpe hazia vnas
campanillas, las cuales corriendo
por el arroyo adelante se hazian
muy hermosos requesones,
nazulas, natas y quesos como
ruedas de molino. Los quales
todos quando llegauan por el
arroyo abajo donde se juntauan
con[1033] la fuente del miel se
hazian de tanto gusto y sabor que
no se puede encareçer. Auia en
este rio peçes de diuersas formas
que sabian a la[1034] miel y leche;
y como nosotros la vimos
espantamonos por pareçernos
vna prodigiosa vision y ella por el
semejante en vernos como vista
subita y no acostumbrada se
paró. Pues quando boluimos en
nosotros, y con esfuerço
cobramos el huelgo que con el
espanto auiamos perdido, la
saludamos con mucha humildad,
dubdosos si nos entendiesse la
manera de nuestra lengua, y ella
luego con apazible semblante
dando a entender que nos
conoçia por conaturales en patria
y[1035] naturaleza nos
correspondio con la mesma
salutaçion, y luego nos preguntó;
dezid hijos[1036] ¿quien soys
vosotros? ¿Acaso soys naçidos
del mar o soys naturales de la
tierra como nosotras? A la qual yo
respondi: señora, nosotros
hombres somos, naçidos en la
tierra, y agora çerrados por
infortunio en el mar, encarçelados
por nuestra desuentura en esta
monstruosa vestia, dubdosos
donde nuestra ventura nos
lleuará; y avnque nos pareçe que
viuimos, creemos que somos
muertos; y agora salimos por
estos campos por ver quien
habitaua por aqui, y ha querido
Dios que os encontrassemos para
nos consolar, y que viesemos no
ser nosotros solos los
encarçelados aqui; y ya que
nuestra buena uentura acá nos
aportó, comunicanos tu buena
naturaleza y quál hado te metio
aqui[1037]; y si de alguna parte de
diuinidad eres comunicada
prophetizanos nuestra buena, o
mala uentura: porque preuenidos
nos haga menor mal. Respondió
la buena dueña: ninguna cosa os
diré hasta que en mi casa entreis,
porque veo que venis fatigados.
Sentaros eis y comereis, que vna
hija mia donzella hermosa que
aqui tengo os lo guisará y
aparejará; y como eramos todos
moços y nos habló de hija
donzella y de comer, todos nos
regoçijamos en el coraçon, y ansi
entrando dixo la buena vieja[1038]
con vna boz algo alta quanto
bastaua su natural: hija, sal acá,
apareja a esta buena gente de
comer. Luego como entramos y
nos sentamos en vnos poyos que
estauan por alli salio vna donzella
de la más bella hermosura y
dispusiçion que nunca naturaleza
humana crió. La qual avnque
debajo de paños y vestidos
pobres y desarrapados
representaua çelestial
diuinidad[1039], porque por los
ojos, rostro, boca y frente echaua
vn resplandor que a mirarla no
nos podiamos sufrir, porque nos
heria con vnos rayos de mayor
fuerça que los del sol y[1040] como
tocaua[1041] el alma eramos ansi
como pauesa abrasados: y
rendidos nos prostramos a la
adorar. Pero ella haziendonos
muestra con la mano, con vna
diuina magestad nos apartaua de
si, y mandandonos asentar con
vna presta diligençia nos puso
vbas y otras frutas muchas y muy
suaues, y de vnos muy sabrosos
peçes; de que perdido[1042] el
miedo que por la reuerençia
teniamos a tan alta magestad
comimos y beuimos de vn
preçioso vino quanto nos fue
menester; y despues que se
leuantó la mesa y la vieja nos vio
sosegados començo a
regoçijarnos y a demandarnos le
contassemos nuestro camino y
suçeso; y yo como vi que todos
mis conpañeros callauan y me
dexauan la mano en el hablar la
conté muy por orden[1043] nuestro
deseo y cobdiçia con que
viuiamos muchos años en la
tierra, y nuestra junta y
conjuraçion hasta el estado en
que estauamos alli, y despues le
dixe; agora tú, madre
bienauenturada, te suplicamos
nos digas si es sueño esto que
vemos; quién soys vosotras y
cómo entrastes aqui. Ella nos dixo
con vna alhagueña humildad que
de contentarnos tenía
deseo[1044]. O huespedes y hijos
amados, todos pareçe que
traemos[1045] la mesma fortuna,
pues por juizio y voluntad de Dios
somos laçados aqui, avnque por
differentes[1046] ocasiones como
oyreis. Sabed que yo soy la
bondad si la aueis oydo dezir por
allá; que me crió Dios en la
eternidad de su sér, y esta mi hija
es la verdad que yo engendré,
hermosa, graçiosa, apazible y
afable, parienta muy cercana del
mesmo Dios, que de su cogeta a
ninguno desgraçió[1047], ni
desabrio si primero me
quisiessen[1048] a mi. Embionos
Dios del çielo al mundo siendo
naçidas allá, y todos los que me
reçeuian a mí no la podian a ella
desechar, pero amada y querida
la abraçauan[1049], como a sí, y
ansi moramos entre los primeros
hombres en las casas de los
prinçipes y reyes y señores que
con nosotras gouernauan y regian
sus republicas en paz, quietud y
prosperidad. Ni auia maliçia,
cobdiçia, ni poquedad que a
engaño tuuiesse muestra.
Andauamos muy regaladas,
sobrelleuadas y tenidas de los
hombres; el que más nos podia
hospedar y tener[1050] en su casa
se tenía por más rico, más
poderoso y más valeroso.
Andauamos vestidas y adornadas
de preciosas joyas y muy alto
brocado. No entrauamos en casa
donde no nos diessen[1051] de
comer y beuer hasta hartar, y
pessauales porque no reçibiamos
más; tanto era su buen deseo de
nos tener. Topauamos cada dia a
la riqueza y a la mentira por las
calles por los lodos arrastradas,
baldonadas y escarneçidas; que
todos los hombres por la mayor
parte por nuestra deuocion y
amistad las gritauan y corrian y
las echauan de su conuersaçion y
compañia como a enemigas de su
contento y prosperidad. De lo qual
estas dos falsarias y malas
compañeras reçebian grande
injuria y vituperio, y con rabia muy
canina vuscauan los medios
posibles para se satisfazer.
Juntauanse cada dia en consulta
ambas y echauanse a pensar y
tratar qualesquiera caminos
faboreçiendose de muchos
amigos que avn trayan entre los
hombres encubiertos y solapados
que no osauan pareçer de
verguença de nuestros amigos.
Estas malditas bastaron en
tiempo a juntar gran parte de
gentes que por industria de la
cobdiçia[1052] los persuadieron yr
a descubrir aquellas tierras de las
Indias, Nueva España, Florida y
Perú, donde vosotros dezis que
yuades caminando, de donde
tanto tesoro salio. Y estas se las
enseñaron y guiaron, dandoles
despues industria ayuda y fabor
como pudiessen en estas tierras
traer grandes tesoros[1053] de oro
y de plata y joyas preçiosas que
estauan tenidas en menos preçio
allá[1054]. Estas peruersas dueñas
los forçaron a aquel trabajo
teniendo por aueriguado que
estos tesoros les serian bastante
medio para entretener su opinion
y desarraigarnos del comun
conçibimiento de los honbres, en
que estauamos nosotras
enseñoreadas hasta alli[1055]; y
ansi fue, que como fueron
aquellos honbres que ellas
enbiaron en aquellas partes y
començaran a enbiar tesoros de
grande admiraçion, luego
començaron todos a gustar y a
tener[1056] grandes rentas y
hazienda, y ansi andando estas
dos falsas hermanas con aquella
parienta casi de casa en casa les
hizieron a todos entender que no
auia otra nobleza, ni otra feliçidad,
ni otra bondad sino tener[1057], y
que el que no tenía riqueza[1058]
en su casa[1059] era ruyn y vil, y
ansi se fueron todos
corrompiendo y depravando en
tanta manera que no se hablaua
ni se trataua otra cosa en
particular ni en comun; ya
desdichadas de nosotras no
teniamos donde entrar[1060] ni de
quién nos faborezer. Ninguno nos
conoçia, ni amparaua, ni reçebia,
y ansi andauamos a sombra de
texados aguardando a que fuesse
de noche para salir a reconoçer
amigos, no osando salir de dia,
porque nos auian auisado
algunos que andauan estas dos
traydoras vuscandonos con gran
conpañia para nos afrontar do
quiera que nos topassen;
prinçipalmente si fuesse en lugar
solo y sin testigos; y ansi nosotras
madre y hija nos fuemos a quexar
a los señores del Consejo Real
del Emperador, diziendo que
estas falsarias se auian
entremetido en la republica muy
en daño y corruptela della, y
porque a la sazon estauan
consultando açerca de remediar
la gran carestia que auia en todas
las cosas del reyno les
mostramos con argumentos muy
claros y infalibles, como era
la[1061] causa auernos echado
todos de si, la bondad y verdad
madre y hija, y auerse
entremetido estas dos[1062]
peruersas hermanas riqueza y
mentira, y la cobdiçia las quales
dos si se tornaua a expeler[1063]
nos ofreçiamos y obligauamos de
boluer todas las cosas a su
primero valor y antiguo, y que en
otra manera auia de yr[1064] de
peor en peor, y nos quexamos
que nos amenaçauan que nos
auian de matar; porque ansi
eramos auisadas, que con sus
amigos y aliados que eran ya
muchos nos andauan a
vuscar[1065] procurando de nos
auer; y los Señores del Consejo
nos oyeron muy bien y se
apiadaron de nuestra miseria y
fortuna y nos mandaron dar carta
de amparo y dixeron que
diessemos informaçion cómo
aquellas nos andauan a vuscar
para nos afrontar y que harian
justizia; y con esto nos salimos
del Consejo, y yendo por vna
ronda pensando yr más seguras
por no nos encontrar con nuestras
enemigas[1066], fuemos espiadas
y salen a nosotras en medio de
aquella ronda y tomannos por los
cabellos a ambas a dos y
traxieronnos por el polvo y lodo
gran rato arrastrando y dieronnos
todos quantos en su compañia
lleuauan muchas coçes, puñadas
y bofetadas, y por ruyn se tenía el
que por lo menos no lleuaua vn
pedaço de la ropa en las manos.
En fin nos dexaron con
pensamiento que no podiamos
viuir[1067], y ansi como de sus
manos nos vimos sueltas,
cogiendo nuestros andrajos,
cubriendonos lo más
honestamente que pudimos nos
salimos de la çiudad, no curando
de informar á justiçias,
temiendonos que en el entretanto
que informauamos nos tornarian a
encontrar, y nos acabarian
aquellas maluadas las vidas; y
ansi pensando que como en
aquellas tierras de la Nueua
España[1068] quedauan sin
aquellos tesoros, y las gentes
eran simples y nueuas en la
religion, que nos acogerian allá;
enuarcamos en vna nao, y agora
pareçenos que porque[1069] no
nos quiere reçebir[1070] nos ha
tomado en si el mar, y ha echado
esta vestia que tragandonos nos
tenga presas aqui rotas y
despedaçadas como veys.
Maravillados[1071] deste
aconteçimiento las pregunté como
era posible ser en tan breue
tienpo desanparadas de sus
amigos que en toda la çiudad ni
en otros pueblos comarcanos no
hallassen de quién se amparar y
socorrer. A lo qual la hija
sospirando, como acordandose
de la fatiga y miseria en que en
aquel tienpo se vióO huesped
dichoso! si el coraçon me
sufriesse a te contar en particular
la prueba que de nuestros amigos
hize, admirarte has de ver las
fuerças que tuuieron aquellas
maluadas: temome que
acordandome de tan grande
injuria fenezca yo oy. Tu sabras
que entre todos mis amigos yo
tenia vn sabio y ançiano juez, el
qual engañado por estas
maluadas y aborreçiendome a mi,
por augmentar en gran cantidad
su hacienda torçia de cada dia las
leyes, peruertiendo todo el
derecho canonico y çeuil; y
porque vn dia se lo dixe,
dandome un enpujon por me
echar de si me metio la vara por
vn ojo que casi me lo sacó: y mi
madre me le restituyó a su
lugar[1072]; y porque a vn
escriuano que estaua[1073] ante él
la dixe que passaua el arançel me
respondio que sino reçibiesse
más por las escripturas de lo que
disponian los Reyes que[1074] no
ganaria para çapatos, ni avn para
pan; y porque le dixe que porqué
interlineaua los contratos,
enojandose me tiró con la pluma
vn tildon por el rostro que me hizo
esta señal que ves aqui que tardó
vn mes en se me sanar; y de alli
me fue a casa de vn mercader y
demandéle me diesse vn poco de
paño de que me vestir, y él luego
me lo puso en el mostrador, en el
qual, avnque de mi naturaleza yo
tenía ojos más perspicaces que
de linçe, no le podia ver, y
rogandole que me diesse vn poco
de más luz se enojó. Demandéle
el preçio rogandole que tuuiesse
respecto a nuestra amistad, y
luego me mostró vn papel que
con gran juramento juró[1075] ser
aquel el verdadero valor y coste
que le tenía, y que por nuestra
amistad lo pagasse por alli; y yo
afirmé ser aquellos lexos de mí, y
porque no me entendio esta
palabra que le dixe me preguntó
qué dezia. Al qual ya repliqué que
aquel creya yo ser el coste,
cargando cada vara de aquel
paño quantas gallinas y pasteles,
vino, puterías y juegos y
desordenes en la feria y por el
camino auian él y sus criados
pasado quando fueron por
ello[1076].
Miçilo.—Y lo mesmo es en todos
quantos offiçios ay en la
republica; que no hay quien supla
las costas comer y beber, juegos
y puterias de los offiçiales, en la
feria y do quiera que estan; y halo
de pagar el que dellos va a
comprar.
Gallo.—De lo qual reçibio tanta
injuria y yra que tomando de vna
vara con que medir en la tienda
me dio vn palo en esta[1077]
cabeça que me descalabró
muy[1078] mal, y despues tendida
en el suelo me dio más de mil;
que si no fuera por gentes que
passaron[1079] que me libraron de
sus manos me acabara la vida
con su rabiosa furia; con que avn
juraua que se lo auia de pagar si
me pudiesse auer, por lo qual no
osé aportar mas allá[1080]. De alli
me lleuó mi madre a vn çirujano,
al qual rogo con gran piedad que
me curasse y él le dixo que
mirasse que le auia de pagar,
porque la cura seria larga y tenia
hijos y muger que mantener, y
porque no teniamos qué le dar, mi
madre me lo vntó con un poco de
açeyte rosado, y en dos dias se
me sanó. Fueme por todos
aquellos que hasta entonçes yo
auia tenido en mi familiaridad, y
hallé los tan mudados que ya casi
no los conoçia sino por el nonbre,
porque auia muchos que yo tenia
en mi amistad que eran armeros,
malleros, lançeros, espeçieros, y
en otros generos de offiçios llanos
y humildes contentos con poco,
que no se queria apartar del
regaço de mi madre y mio, vnidos
comigo; los quales agora aquellas
dos falsas hermanas[1081] los
tenian encantados, locos,
soberuios y muy fuera de sí, muy
sublimados en grandes riquezas
de canbios y mercaderias y
puestos ya en grandes honrras de
regimientos con hidalguias
fingidas y compuestas ocupados
en exerçicios de caualleros,
de[1082] justas y juegos de cañas,
gastando con gran prodigalidad la
hazienda y sudor de los pobres
miserables. Estos en tanta
manera se estrañaron de mí que
no los osé hablar, porque acaso
ayrados no me hiriessen y
uituperassen como auian hecho
los otros: y porque pareçe que los
eclesiásticos auian de
permaneçer en la verdadera
religion y que me acogerian me
fue a la iglesia mayor donde
concurren los clerigos y
saçerdotes[1083] donde solia yo
tener muchos amigos; y andando
por ella a vuscar clerigos no hallé
sino grandes cuadrillas y
compañias de monas o ximios
que me espantaron. Los quales
con sus roquetes, sobrepellizes y
capas de coro andauan por alli
cantando en derredor[1084].
Marauillauame de uer[1085] vnos
tan graçiosos animalejos criados
en la montaña imitar[1086] todos
los offiçios y exerçiçios de
saçerdotes tan al proprio y natural
a lo menos en lo exterior; y
viniendo a mirarlos debajo de
aquellos vestidos eclesiasticos y
ornamentos benditos descubrian
el vello, golosina, latroçinio, cocar
y mofar, rustiçidad y fiereza que
tienen puestos en su libertad en el
campo[1087].
Acordéme auer leydo de aquel
rey de Egipto, de quien escriuen
los historiadores[1088] que quiso
enseñar a dançar vna quadrilla de
ximios y monas, vestidos todos de
grana, por ser animal que más
contra haze los exerçiçios del
honbre; y andando vn dia metidos
todos en su dança, que las traya
el maestro ante el Rey, se allegó
a lo ver vn philosopho y echó
vnas nuezes en medio del corro y
dança; y como conoçieron los
ximios ser la fruta y golosina,
desanparando el teatro, maestro y
Rey, se dieron a tomar de la
fruta[1089] y mordiendo y
arañando a todos los que en el
espectaculo estavan, rasgando
sus vestidos echaron a huyr a la
montaña, y avn yo no lo pude
creer que aquellos eran
verdaderos ximios y monas si no
me llegara a vno que representó
mas sanctidad y dignidad al qual
tentandole con la tenta en lo
interior, rogandole que pues era
saçerdote y me pareçia más
religioso, me dixesse vna missa
por mis defuntos, y pusele la
pitança en la mano, y él muy
hinchado me dio con el dinero en
los ojos diziendo que él no dezia
misa, que era vn arçediano, que
no queria mi pitança; que sin dezir
misa en todo el año passaua y se
mantenia él y vna gran trulla de
honbres y mugeres que traya en
su casa[1090]; y como yo le oy
aquello no pude disimular tan
barbaro genero de ypocresia y
soberuia, viendo que siendo
mona representara vna persona
tan digna y tan reuerenda en la
iglesia de Dios[1091]. Acordeme de
aquel asno cumano, el qual
viendose vn dia vestido de vna
piel de leon, queria pareçer leon
asombrando con grandes
roznidos a todos, hasta que vino
vno de aquellos cumanos que con