Essay

Section A

The method of customary learning in Africa was intimately integrated with the communal, cultural, creative, religious, and recreational life of the ethnic group. That is, 'schooling' and 'education', or the discovering of skills, social and cultural standards and norms were not divided from other spheres of life. As in any other humanity, the education of the African progeny 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.” Watkins (1943: 666-675), Ociti (1973), Scanlon (1964), Mbiti (1967), Kenyata (1965), Boateng (1983: 335-336) and others 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: 95-124). Watkins (1943: 666-675) 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 lesson teaching are furthermore 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 ...