EUROCENTRIC CULTURE
Decolonising education entails a rise in critical literacy to prod at ‘truths’
Reflecting on the notion of decolonisation, Frantz Fanon wrote that "he who is reluctant to recognise me opposes me". The well-educated person nowadays is not simply the one who has acquired knowledge or skills, but the one who possesses the capacity to interrogate that knowledge. After all, the acquisition of knowledge is never a neutral process; knowledge is generated by particular groups in society for particular purposes. Without understanding the sources of the knowledge acquired, or whose interests that knowledge serves, people risk becoming pawns to tyrants. "A functioning, robust democracy," stated Chinua Achebe in an interview with Monitor Africa correspondent Scott Baldauf, "requires a healthy, educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership." The development of these relies on an education system fit for that purpose, an educational programme that requires critical engagement with knowledge. The demand for decolonised education is, there...
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