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Abstract
In this paper, I revisit the popular position in British colonial education literature which suggests there is no evidence that Britain had any predetermined wish to dominate, subvert or control the minds of Africans with an official education policy emanating from Whitehall, the seat of the colonial office. I have used archival data and some critical testimonies from Cameroon to show that British colonial education was experienced and understood differently. Cameroon is relatively unrepresented in the colonial legacy discourse, especially in the context of education. I argue that the curriculum contents and the overall school culture at both the senior elementary and secondary school levels were essentially Eurocentric and therefore served purposes of cultural imperialism. This was not an unintended fallout of curriculum implementation, but a major goal of British colonial education policy initiated at the colonial office and sustained by various colonial administrations. I conclude that a discussion of British colonial education based on policy documents which advocated adaptation, without an emic perspective of their experience with implementation, is likely an unfinished appraisal of Britain’s goal in educating her colonial territories.
Acknowledgements
The study was undertaken as part of my postdoctoral research (PDRF) tenure at the University of Johannesburg–South Africa. I am grateful to those who attended my workshop on the topic on 11 September 2018 at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT-UJ) and to Prof. Linda Chisholm (my postdoc supervisor) and Prof. Salim Vally (CERT Director) for their academic and research support. I am equally thankful to those who attended my presentation at the South African Society for History Teaching (SASHT) Conference in Cape Town in September 2018, and especially Dr Sarah Godsell of the University of Witwatersrand for her feedback. Dr Neo Ramoupi, also of the University of the Witwatersrand, has remained inspirational in decolonial thinking. I am also indebted to the anonymous reviewers, the proofreaders and the editor(s) for their efforts in making this piece publishable. I received no specific funding for this study.
Disclosure statement
A disclosure statement reporting no conflict of interests has been inserted.
Notes
1 Markham, Return Passage, 50.
2 Ibid.
3 Ball, “Imperialism, Social Control and the Colonial Curriculum”; Madeira, “Portuguese, French and British Discourses”; Whitehead, “Medium of Instruction in British Colonial Education”; Whitehead, “Historiography of British Imperial Education Policy”; Bash, “Changing Patterns of Imperialism and Education.”
4 Kwabena, “British and Curriculum Development in West Africa”; Marsden, School Textbook; London, “Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Development of Colonial Imagination”; Katenga-Kaunda, “Are we Right to Blame It all on Colonialism?”
5 MacOjong, Philosophical and Historical Foundations of Education; Ihims, Century of Western Education in Cameroon; Tazifor, Cameroon History in the 19th and 20th Centuries; Fonkeng, History of Education in Cameroon.
6 The major research venues for this paper included the National Archives – Buea Cameroon (NAB) and the Presbyterian Central Archives and Library – Buea Cameroon (PCCCAL).
7 Gordon, “Reading the Archives as Sources.”
8 Ibid.
9 Webster, Debate on the Rise of British Imperialism, 2006.
10 In Ashcroft, Griffith, and Tiffin, Postcolonial Studies: The Key Concepts, 111; Also see Ndille, “Missionaries as Imperialists.”
11 This is explicit in the Memorandum of Education for British Tropical Africa and the Nigerian Education Ordinance.
12 See note 3 above.
13 Kipling, “White Man’s Burden,” 143.
14 Whitehead, “Historiography of British Imperial Education Policy,” 447.
15 Ibid., 447.
16 Ball, “Imperialism, Social Control and the Colonial Curriculum,” 237; Whitehead, “Historiography of British Imperial Colonial Education,” 447; Madeira, “Portuguese, French and British Discourses,” 32.
17 Whitehead, “Historiography of British Imperial Colonial Education,” 450.
18 Ball, “Imperialism, Social Control and the Colonial Curriculum,” 238.
19 Madeira, “Portuguese, French and British Discourses,” 34.
20 Bash, “Changing Patterns of Imperialism and Education,” 117.
21 In Whitehead, “Historiography of British Imperial Colonial Education,” 448.
22 Ibid.
23 Madeira, “Portuguese, French and British Discourses,” 33.
24 In Novick, Noble Dream, 395.
25 Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe, 23.
26 Europe Now, “Syllabus, Curriculum and Postcoloniality in Africa,” 2.
27 Burgess, “On Revisionism: An Analysis,” 609.
28 Dei and Imoka, “Colonialism, Why Write Back?,” 2.
29 See Fanbunmi, “Historical Analysis of Education Policy in Nigeria.”
30 Whitehead, “Medium of Instruction in British Colonial Education,” 2.
31 Ibid.
32 Colonial Office, Memorandum of Education Policy, 5.
33 Ibid., 5.
34 Ibid., 3. Pages 4 and 5 also outline the colonial government’s role as determinant of the curriculum.
35 Cameroons, Notes for the League of Nations Report, 3.
36 Ibid.
37 Jesse-Jones, Education in Africa.
38 Colonial Office, Memorandum of Education Policy. 4.
39 Ibid.
40 Hussey, Memoranda on Education Policy in Nigeria, 1931.
41 Southern Nigeria, New Syllabuses for Senior Elementary Schools, 1931.
42 Ibid., 16, 17, 21–23.
43 Ibid., 13–15.
44 Ibid., 18.
45 Ibid., 20.
46 File 343/1935, Schemes of Work for Cameroons Elementary Schools 1930–1935.
47 Ibid.
48 Southern Nigeria, New Syllabuses for Senior Elementary Schools; also see File Sb/a/1934/2 School Syllabuses, National Archives Buea.
49 Marsden, School Textbook, 4.
50 Wells, Outline of History, 1920.
51 In Sherborne, H. G. Wells: Another Kind of Life, 4.
52 Awasom and. Bojang, “Bifurcated World of African Nationalist Historiography,” 1–26.
53 Epitime, Interview with the author. Also in File Sb/a/345/1935 and File 236/1947, Schemes of Work for Cameroon Elementary Schools, Presbyterian Archives. as well as File Sb/a/1934/2, National Archives Buea.
54 Woods, 2015, Dark Origins of 11 Classic Nursery Rhymes, 2.
55 File Sb/a/1959/11, Education, Various Reports, National Archives; Atem, “Cameroon–Nigeria Relations 1884–1961,” 156.
56 Apang-Kode, Interview with the author.
57 See Ndille and Ngome, “Killing Our Spirituality”; and Jumbam, White Man of God.
58 Ikpeme, Interviewed by the author.
59 Katenga-Kaunda, “Are We Right to Blame It all on Colonialism?,” 4.
60 Ndille, “Perils of Secondary Education.”
61 File Sb/a/1938/13, Correspondences of the Director of Education, National Archives Buea. Confirmed by Ngalame, Interviewed by the author.
62 File Sb/g/1947/2, Examinations: London Matriculation and other Matters; File Sb/a/1956/3 Education Department, General Correspondences 1956–1957, National Archives Buea.
63 Ndille, “Our Schools, Our Identity,” 99.
64 Cameroons, Annual Report for the Cameroons; Nfi, Nigerians on Mission in the British Southern Cameroons, 61.
65 Mukete, My Odyssey, 16.
66 Asonganyi, “St. Joseph’s College Sasse,” 27.
67 Ibid.
68 Elume, “How Sasse Transformed Three Generations,” 32–3.
69 Ibid.
70 Awasum, “Challenging Beginnings of a Great Educational Project,” 17.
71 Nfi, Nigerians on Mission, 61.
72 Awasum, “Challenging Beginnings of a Great Educational Project,” 17.
73 File Sb/a/1956/3 Inspection Reports, Education Department, National Archives.
74 DeKorne, “Builders of Identity,” 97.
75 Cameroon Youth League, “Memorandum of Evidence”.
76 See note 3 above.
77 See note 3 above.
78 Taylor, “Nigeria’s Search for Curriculum Relevance,” 108.
79 Kwabena, “British and Curriculum Development in West Africa,” 420.
80 London, “Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Development of Colonial Imagination,” 100.
81 Bash, “Changing Patterns of Imperialism and Education,” 122.
82 Hobson 1902, 7, in Ashcroft, Griffith, and Tiffin, Postcolonial Studies: The Key Concepts, 113.
83 Brown, “British Colonial Education Policy, 375.
84 Colonial Office, “Privy Council Memorandum of 1847,” 9–10.
85 Ibid.
86 Aka, British Southern Cameroons 1922–1961, 66.
87 File Sb/a/1934/2, School Syllabuses, Schemes of Work, 35.
88 Read, Africans and Their Schools: British Commonwealth Affairs No. 8, 1953,13.
89 Wane, “Mapping the Field of Indigenous Knowledges,” 197; Rodney How Europe Underdeveloped Africa; Schofield Philosophy of Education: An Introduction; UNESCO, “Educational Process and Historiography in Contemporary Africa.”
90 In Ngoh, Cameroon 1884–1985, 215–52.
91 Ndille, “Our Schools, Our Identity,” 98.
92 MacOjong, Philosophical and Historical Foundations of Education.
93 Luguard, Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa.
94 MacOjong, Philosophical and Historical Foundations of Education.
95 Ngoh, Cameroon 1884–1985, 40.
96 Fanso, Cameroon History for Secondary Schools and Colleges.
97 Ndille, “Our Schools, Our Identity,” 99.
98 SWAHT, Schemes of Work for Junior Secondary Schools.
99 Cameroon GCE Board, New Syllabuses, provides a subject-by-subject appreciation of curriculum reform.
100 Grosfoguel, “Epistemic Decolonial Turn,” 223.
101 Mignolo, Darker Side of the Renaissance, 20.
102 Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa, 5.
103 Diang, “Colonialism, Neoliberalism, Education and Culture in Cameroon,” 210.
104 Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, 159.
105 In Williams, People’s History of the Civil War, 10–1.
106 Ibid., 11.
107 Madeira, “Portuguese, French and British Discourses,” 33.
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Additional information
Notes on contributors
Roland Ndille
Prior to his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Johannesburg, Dr Roland Ndille served as a senior lecturer in history and history education, Head of Service for Teaching and Research at the Faculty of Arts and Head of the Department of History at the University of Buea-Cameroon. His research is in social history (education and religion) and history education (curriculum pedagogy) with a focus on decolonisation. His recent works appear in Yesterday & Today, Social and Education History and the International Journal of Religion and Spirituality, and in edited volumes such as Kashim and Ngange’s Anglophone Lawyers and Teachers Strikes in Cameroon (2016–2017): A Multi-Dimensional Perspective (Yaoundé: Presse Universitaires de Yaoundé, 2019); Takougang and Amin’s Postcolonial Cameroon: Politics, Economy and Society (New York: Lexington Books, 2018); Ebongue and Nkwescheu’s L’ Insécurité Linguistique dans les Communautés Anglophone et Francophone du Cameroun (Paris: l’Edition Harmattan, 2018); and Cross and Ndofirepi’s Knowledge Change in African Universities (with Neo Ramoupi; Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2017). Dr Ndille operates an education and development social sciences research laboratory (Centre for Education and Development) in Buea-Cameroon.