Liberating African Minds Through Education

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the MIND of the oppressed” — Steve Biko

When I think back on my decision to get a Masters degree in Education Technology, Steve Biko and the quote above played a big part.

He is one of the biggest influencers of my personal philosophy and the picture above has been my Facebook avatar for forever.

Meet Steve Biko

I got introduced to Steve Biko and his works in 2004. My good friend, Bende Mark gave me I Write What I Like by Steve Biko as my parting gift when I left South Africa for Europe.

The book was a collection of essays by Biko, whose words were so potent that the apartheid government banned him from writing (yes, you read right). He used to hide his papers in his baby’s diapers when the police came on their usual raids.

Yet he continued to publish articles under the pen name Frank Talk. Eventually, the apartheid government had to kill him to silence him but his words lived on.

Read his story in Cry Freedom by Donald Woods or watch the 1987 biopic starring Denzel Washington to know more about Steve Biko.

Black Consciousness

Steve Biko is widely regarded as the father of the Black Consciousness movement.

He had a firm belief, which he lived out, that the way to liberate the black race (and oppressed people wherever they may be) was to liberate their minds.

He never tired of challenging the status quo and all the tools of our oppression including language, power dynamics, economy, culture, attitudes etc. This for me is a fundamental element of the education system Africa needs.

Challenging The Current Dysfunction

The system, as we have it right now, is not giving us the desired results in terms of development and the quality of life our citizens deserve.

Rather that stay stuck in this faulty system, in the false belief that after all it made other nations prosperous, we need to be bold enough to tear it down and build a more fit for purpose system.

We need to be clear what a liberated mind would be and mean for our citizens and we need to put the pieces in place to make that happen.

The mark of achievement would not be in certification but in application of knowledge to transform the lot of our citizens and our continent.

Remembering Who We Are

We would need to dig into the virtues of our societies, beyond all the lies that have been woven into its fabric by the oppressors who have written our history for so long in a bid to keep our mind enslaved.

We would take urgent and critical steps to re-write our history to make us remember that, contrary to popular opinion shaped by the oppressor’s telling and the amplification of their media outlets, we come from great stock.

Our ancestors were working bronze and other metals at a time when the west as we know it was in the dark ages. We had great kingdoms with intricate administrative systems long before Europe organised itself. We had the first major learning centre in Timbuktu, where knowledge seekers world over came to learn and share.

We had in the library of Alexandria, before it was destroyed, by raiding outsiders, an impressive catalogue of wisdom and scientific knowledge and discoveries way before the Western-dominated scientific establishment was created.

We may not have the barbaric value system to plunder and conquer others but we were no slouches. We were (and still are when we regain our memory) great people.

Resetting Our Minds

Our minds need to be reset so we can see and know ourselves for who we are again. This is the purpose of the education system Africa needs. One the breaks through all the negative stereotypes we have about ourselves to display our real essence.

Right now, we have made our oppressors our model of success. That was the purpose of the education system they bequeathed us and therein lies our problem. We now see them as what we want to become and measure ourselves on the wrong scale as a result.

Paulo Freire in his seminal book Pedagogy of the Oppressed identified this behaviour as natural amongst oppressed people.

“During the initial stage of their struggle the oppressed find in the oppressor their model of “manhood”.”

“It is a rare peasant who, once “promoted” to overseer, does not become more of a tyrant towards his former comrades than the owner himself.”

“Although the situation of oppression is a dehumanized and dehumanizing totality affecting both the oppressors and those whom they oppress, it is the latter who must, from their stifled humanity, wage for both the struggle for a fuller humanity; the oppressor, who is himself dehumanized because he dehumanizes others, is unable to lead this struggle.”

Renewed Minds Expressed

In becoming, we would have to transcend this way of seeing ourselves and what our societies need to become.

We need our Wakanda to look up to as a model of what the developed African society would look like. Not trying to become like the US, UK and all those us other places that are NOT US.

The success of our education system is intricately linked to the advancement of our societies brought about by the liberated minds it is able to produce.

The mental liberation, for me, is the mission.

Please share your thoughts on my views here and how we can liberate the African continent through education in the comments below

#Day20 of #PostADay Challenge