TRANSFORMATION: Educating Afrikan Teachers

[Baba Ahmed]

Purposeful Transformation: Educating African Teachers(1)

"Whether degree holding people working in classrooms or wise elders found in barber shops and community centers, African teachers hold the future of African people in their hands. If the African teachers who have access to our children are prepared, conscious, and willing, the development of African children knows no bounds. Preparation, however, is the key, and befoe beginning the educational relationship with students, African teachers must first become whole, productive, and conscious beings. Only then can they transform students.

"Any approach to educating African teachers, and any teachers who will work to transform African students must take into account two realities: 1) the African cultural tradition and 2) the political and economic environment within which people of African descent are situated - especially for the last four centuries. The intersection of culture and the political economy has produced the context for socialization and education which is our current problem.

"The deep well of traditional African education and socialization processes were rooted in a world view where there was a belief in human perfectibility, the belief that humans could indeed become more like god. Basic skills were merely the lowest level of education. The development of character, humanity and spirituality were higher levels of attainment.

Background

"The African continent was the home of the original human population. For nearly 100,000 years Africa was home to the only human population (Homo sapiens) on the earth (Diop, 1991). Later migrations scattered Africans all over the world to develop new human societies an phenotypes (falsely referred to as 'races'). Those who remained on the continent continued to develop African cultural forms including designs of how those intending to teach could go about the purposeful education and socialization of students.

"Africa is made up of many cultures and while they are not homogenous, they have many commonalities. Cheikh Anta Diop (1978) has argued that at the cultural deep structural level, the African continent, as a whole, formed a cultural 'cradle,' the southern cradle. This shared continental cultural deep structure evolved and spread in an African cultural diaspora which extended around the world. The spread of this cultural deep structure began before the slave trade and the colonial period, and it continued during and after both. Study of the shared continental culture shows that Africans have an age old pattern of having faced and solved many of the problems related to the design and effective implementation of education and socialization processes. This design was a part of Africa's broad cultural evolution.

"This discussion is necessary because of the commmon practice of beginning an analysis of African education and socialization problems as if there were no preslavery antecedents, or as if preslavery indigenous African education antecedents were 'primitive,' 'pagan' or 'savage,' and ehtrefore irrelevant. Even where these views are not held explicitly, few educators demonstrate a knowledge of African educational and socialization practices before slavery, during slavery or after slavery. In fact, the main knowledge that most educators have of Africans comes from the media (i.e. films, television, magazines, text books, etc.) which provide false, degrading and incomplete representations.

"A Belief in Human Perfectibility
[indent]One problem with current forms of teacher education is that most are attached to a world view that asserts the exact opposite of human perfectibility. Some of the more accepted ideology is, in fact, directly counter to the concept. For example, Irving Kristol, one leader of right wing ideology, has gained popularity and respect among a variety of people (i.e. Marxists, libertarians, liberals, conservatives, etc.) (Neuchterlein, 1995). Kristol proposes:

...not a retreat to a preideological politics-under modern conditions, he understood, a politics entirely without ideology was a politics disarmed - but rather a politics of bourgeois modernity. He urged a social philosophy based in the modrat 'Anglo-Scottish' Enlightenment (e.g. Adam Smith), attuned to the modest optimism of the American Revolution and expressed in a democratic capitalism dedicated to human advance but inociulated against dreams of human perfection. (Neuchterlein, p.A16)

"This view counters that held in many African cultures where it was believed that the purpose of education itself was to help students become more like God. Thus, they produced an educational system that had to be directed at the mind, the body and the spirit - inseparable parts of our human, individual and community whole. The African world view does not emphasize individuals. The individual is a part of a group, an ethnic group, a collective. The individual is bonded through the education process. The ideal for both the individuals and the group was to become godlike, specifically in adhering to the principles of MAAT (truth, justice, order, reciprocity, harmony and balance) (Obenga, 1995). As explained in Chapter One, MAAT is a core African value system.

"Africans expected that, with cultivation, the African mind could be developed to higher levels, from the concrete to the abstract, from the profane to the divine. One expression of these levels of mental attainment that comes as a consequence of a [i]spoiritually oriented training process is seen in the tradtional practices of the Dogon. Education is a lifelong process for the Dogon. The first level of development is Giri So which Marimba Ani describes as the word at face value, or simply perception without undertanding (1994). As students increase in depth of knowledge and understanding, they reach the second level, Benne So, or the 'word from the side,' which means having sight and developing a perspective. The third level is Bolo So, or 'the word from behind,' which means development of insight. The final level was So Dayi, the 'clear word,' meaning the development of vision. Two French anthropologists (Friaule, 1972; Griaule & Dieterlen, 1986) who spent more than a decade being initiated into Dogan secret society did not reach the level of the clear word. This process is said to take many years.

"The aim of African education for the mind could not be separaed from education for the body. The body was seen as a divine temple, housing a spirit. As a result, the education for mind and body was also linked to education for the spirit. Therefore, in African tradition, it is the role of the teacher to appeal to the intellect, the humanity, and the spirituality in their students. In order to make such an appeal, one must first be convinced of the inherent intellectual capability, humanity, physical capabilty and spiritual character of students.

"An education process with such a firm moral foundation requires a corresponding quality teacher education. African methods of education emphasize the tutorial, apprenticeship and social learning. The content of the education process included those things that would help the student to advance individuallly and with their ethnic family. It is significant to note that invaders, colonizers and slavers met Africans who were excellent ot teaching and learning, and who remained excellent during slavery, colonization and apartheid."
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1. Hilliard, Asa G., SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind; p.107-110. Makare Publishing Company, Gainsville FL. 1997-98.
2. Diop, C.A. (1991). Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology. Brooklyn, N.Y. Lawrence Hill Books.
3. Diop,C.A. (1978). The Cultural Unity of Black Africa. Chicago: Third World Press.
4. Neuchterlein, J. (September 14, 1995). King of counterintellecturals. The Wall Street Journal. A16.
5. Obenga, T. (1995a). A lost tradition: African philosophy in world history. Philadelphia: The Source Editions.
6. Ani, M. (1994). Yurugu: An african centered critique of european thought and behavior. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press.
7. Griaule, M., & Dieterlen, G.C. (1975). Conversations with ogotemmeli. Oxford University Press.
8. Griaule, M., & Dieterlen, G. (1986). The Pale Fox. Chino Valley, Arizona, Continuum Foundation. P.O. Box 636, Chino Valley, Arizona 86323 (First Published in Paris 1965)

[DarkManJah]

As always brother Ahmed u r on point! What is so unfortunate brother Ahmed is that so many of the teachers who have daily access 2 Afrikan youth are not enlightened, and, worse, are adamant about staying the way they r. To them, if being liberated means abandoning Eurocentric beliefs, values, and assumptions, then there will b no struggle worthy of their time. It kan b so frustrating being around them! But i guess their attitude is 2 b expected.i mean, u can't get water from stone. But let me ask u this: u enlightened me a while back about the importance of simply having our own Africentric schools. Here in saintlouis we have several. It is just i never seem to run into any of the students in the hood. And many of the sisters and brothers i meet in public schools don't seem to have relations with anyone who attends Africentric schools. i guess my question is how do you account for the reality that sisters and brothers being educated in Africentric environments r not communicating with or hanging out with the unenlightened? i mean, each one, teach one, right? i overstand that there is a Conscious Community (s) in every city, but i am thinking that they are self-contained to the point that they do not venture out into the hood in an act of organizing the unenlightened around re-educating for Afrikan-centered enlightenment. Am i wrong in this assessment? Maybe they R out there organizing in this fashion, but i just don't c or hear about it. Is there an explanation for this "privitazation of consciousness" as i term it? Doesn't it counter the Afrikan proverb each one, teach one? Over the years, i have dialogued with conscious folks about this phenomenon and many, if not all, have stated that it is a waste of time, that most of our people are NOT intererested in liberating their minds. Do u agree with this? U once posted that it is best we just create our own schools, if i recall. (Correct me if i am incorrect.) Our org. (The Warriorscholars Project, formerly The Lumumba-Tubman Project) is about taking consciousness to the streets, literally, by creating community outreach programs. We r planning consciousness-raising, street-corner theatre, for example. i am currently trying 2 organize some conscious sisters and brothers for this effort.
This is my first post in a while because of computer problems the last three months. And u r the first post i have read since i have been back (15 min. ago). i am looking forward to your response, my brother.

[Baba Ahmed]

Giv thanks to the Creator(s) to be where we are.... now!

I'll defer for a minute, and hope one of our newest members, to read what Akyeame Kwame writes. Even tho I'm at least 2X's older, take my word - in fact stay tuned u'll see - he's worth a "hearing." And he's not alone... OK?

u've touched a coupla areas that many others have seen, written about and some acting on it.

But let me say this. Information and knowledge alone do not transform a person; less so a people. Again until Akyeame responds, I defer and close with one mo' lil word: at this stage every individual's contribution is helpful, and groups will do well to organize think tanks. Then if topics of needs b addressed and thought through logically, they'll see one glaring lack, expressed in your question re interactions with those not into b n Afrikan and what happens to many who've lets say graduated from some level of acquiring info re Afrikan cultures. Think about it...

I'm honored and ask that our ancestors be pleased.