1st Edition
Conflict and Harmony in Education in Tropical Africa
Originally published in 1975, this book was something of a pioneering study. It examines the three main traditions of African educational development – indigenous, Islamic and ‘Western’ – and the resulting harmonies and conflicts that arise from these traditions. Its contributors are all specialists writing about their own particular area of interest covering many countries of tropical Africa. They include a number of well-known African scholars as well as some comparatively new names in the field of African Studies at the time. A feature of the book is the attention that it gives to the education of women – an aspect of ‘nation-building’ that had often been rather neglected.
This study is an inter-disciplinary work, calling into contribution History, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, Linguistics, and Medicine, as well as Education. It seeks to show how complex the educational situation is in Africa – and how this complexity needs to be appreciated as a background to educational planning. Nobody who has read this volume will be inclined to dismiss educational reform in Africa as ‘a relatively simple matter’ – a point of view too frequently implied by those who have not studied the subject in depth. ‘Off with the old – on with the new’ cannot be so easily implemented as critics within and without the continent sometimes seem to think. More constructively, however, this volume provides many useful insights into ways in which social tension may be reduced and harmony promoted in, and through, education.
Although it is likely to be of most immediate value to those who are concerned with African education and its administration (especially in teacher-education), the book constitutes a significant contribution to understanding problems of ‘development’.
Contributors. Notes on Transliteration. Introduction G. N. Brown and M. Hiskett Part 1: Indigenous African Education 1. Introduction G. N. Brown and M. Hiskett 2. Indigenous Education in Yoruba Society Helen Callaway 3. Akan Indigenous Education F. L. Bartels 4. Indigenous Education in Sierra Leone T. J. L. Forde 5. Values in Indigenous African Education N. K. Dzobo Part 2: Islamic Education in Tropical Africa 6. Introduction G. N. Brown and M. Hiskett 7. Conflict, Education and New Awareness in the Southern Sudan (1898–1956) Lilian M. Sanderson 8. Interaction between Traditional and Western Education in the Sudan: An Attempt towards a Synthesis Yusuf Fadl Hasan 9. Islamic Education in the Traditional and State Systems in Northern Nigeria M. Hiskett 10. Government and Islamic Education in Northern Nigeria (1900–40) J. P. Hubbard 11. The Islamic Education of an African Child: Stresses and Tensions L. O. Sanneh 12. The Modernisation of Islamic Education in Sierra Leone, Gambia and Liberia: Religion and Language H. J. Fisher 13. Religious Education among Muslims in Uganda M. L. Fitzgerald 14. Educational Progress and Retrogression in Guinea (1900–43) R. W. Johnson 15. Girls’ Education in the Northern Sudan (1898–1956) Lilian M. Sanderson 16. Western Education and Muslim Fulani/Hausa Women in Sokoto, Northern Nigeria Jean Trevor Part 3: Interaction and the Current Situation 17. Introduction G. N. Brown and M. Hiskett 18. Secular Skills and Sacred Values in Uganda Schools: Problems of Technical and Moral Acculturation D. Ocaya-Lakidi and Ali A. Mazrui 19. Nationalism, Education and Imperialism in the Southern Sudan (1920–70) K. J. King 20. English versus African Languages as the Medium of Education in African Primary Schools B. W. Tiffen 21. Literary Studies and Cultural Context: A Comparative Study H. L. B. Moody 22. Traditional and Western Education in Mainland Tanzania: An Attempt at Synthesis? J. Cameron 23. The Organisation of Support and the Management of Self-Help Schools: A Case Study from Kenya J. E. Anderson 24. The Harmonisation of Traditional and Western Legal Education in Africa J. S. Read 25. Medical Ideas in Africa D. Stevenson 26. The Case for Teacher Participation in Development R. J. Smyke 27. An Educational Strategy for Reducing Conflict between the Traditional and the Western in African Education G. N. Brown 28. Obote’s Milton and Nyerere’s Shakespeare Ali A. Mazrui. Appendix. Index.
Biography
Godfrey N. Brown and Mervyn Hiskett
