On a Colonial Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25749/sis.21559Keywords:
colonial, education, Higher Education, dehumanization, postcolonial, decolonizationAbstract
In its most common forms around the world, higher education is an enculturation process that perpetuates colonial attitudes, hierarchies, institutions and logics. Based upon perspectives from beyond the Euro-West, this article offers a critical assessment of this systematic entrenchment. Following an analysis of the crafting and experiences of higher education, an exploration of the impacts of implicit and explicit dehumanization, discrimination, oppression and privilege are explored. Drawing entirely upon traditions that have largely been excluded from textbooks and required reading lists of higher education institutions, radical directions are reflected upon, which point toward new horizons. These futures do not focus on de-centring the Euro-West per se, but rather upon cultivating processes of (re)becoming ourselves, within our own cultures and traditions.
Downloads
References
ABDI, A. A. (2009). Recentering the Philosophical Foundations of Knowledge: The Case of African with a Special Focus on the Global Role of Teachers. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 55(3), 269-283.
ABDI, A. A. (2013). Decolonizing Educational and Social Development Platforms in Africa. African and Asian Studies, 12, 64-82.
AL-GHAZALI, M. (1095). Tahaafut al Falaasifa [The Incoherence of the Philosophers].
ACHEBE, C. (2000). Home and Exile. New York: Oxford University Press.
ADESANMI, P. (2020). Who Owns the Problem? Africa and the Struggle for Agency. East Lansing: Michigan State University.
AMIN, S. (1976). Unequal Development: An Essay on the Social Formations of Peripheral Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
AMIN, S. (1988 original, 2009 translation). Eurocentrism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
AMIN, S. (1997). Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary Society. London: Zed.
AMIN, S. (2004). The Liberal Virus: Permanent War the Americanization of the World. New York: Monthly Review Press.
ASAD, T. (2018). Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self and Calculative Reason. New York: Columbia University Press.
BALDWIN, J. (1963). The Fire Next Time. New York: Dial Press.
CABRAL, A. (1977, 2016 translation). Resistance and Decolonization. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
CESAIRE, A. (1950 original in French, 1955 English translation). Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
CHANG, H.-J. (2003). Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. London: Anthem.
DIOP, C. A. (1960, 1987 translation). Precolonial Black Africa: A Comparative Study of the Political and Social Systems of Europe and Black Africa, from Antiquity to the Formation of Modern States. Brooklyn, New York: Lawrence Hill.
FANON, F. (1952). Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove.
FANON, F. (1963). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove.
IBN KHALDUN. (1377, 2015 translation). Al Muqaddimah [The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, by Princeton University Press].
IBN SINA. (1025). al Qanun fi al Tib [The Canon of Medicine].
IBN SINA. (1027). Kitab al Shifa’ [The Book of Healing].
KANAFANI, G. (1999). Men in the Sun. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
KIROS, T. (2005). Zera Yacob: Rationality of the Human Heart. Trenton: Africa World.
MAMDANI, M. (1996). Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
MAMDANI, M. (2001). When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
MANDELA, N. (1994). Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Toronto: Doubleday.
MBEMBE, A. (2013 original, 2017 translation). Critique of Black Reason. Durham: Duke University Press.
MBEMBE, A. (2016 original, 2019 translation). Necropolitics. Durham: Duke University Press.
MBEMBE, A. (2020). The Universal Right to Breathe. (translated by C. Shread). Retrieved from: https://africasacountry.com/2020/06/the-universal-right-to-breathe
MEMMI, A. (1957). The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon.
NKRUMAH, K. (1965). Neocolonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism. London: PANAF.
NKRUMAH, K. (1968). Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare. London: PANAF.
OUSMANE, S. (1976). Xala. Chicago: Lawrence Hill.
QUIJANO, A. (2000). Coloniality of Power and Eurocentrism in Latin America. International Sociology, 15(2), 215-232.
RODNEY, W. (1972). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: Verso.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon.
SHIVJI, I. (2007). Silences in NGO Discourses: The Role and Future of NGOs in Africa. Oxford: Fahamu.
THIONG’O, N. (1986). Decolonizing the Mind. London: James Currey.
THIONG’O, N. (2012). Globalectics. New York: Columbia University Press.
WRIGHT, Z. V. (2013). Islam and Decolonization in Africa: The Political Engagement of a West African Muslim Community. International Journal of African Historical Studies, 46(2), 205-227.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Sisyphus — Journal of Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) belongs to Sisyphus - Journal of Education. However, we encourage issued articles to be published elsewhere, provided that Sisyphus authorization is asked for and that authors integrate our original source citation and a link to our website.
Author Self-Archiving Policy
Author(s) are permitted to self-archive the final published version in institutional or thematic repositories, and in their personal or institutional websites.
DORA Signer
The Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa, Sisyphus' Publisher, is a San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment signer.
