It’s important to create spaces where the global South’s problems can be presented, debated and solutions developed - including some that can be applied in similar economies.
President Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe for 36 years.
Reuters/Juda Ngwenya
Outsiders might not understand how someone who led his country’s downfall from breadbasket to basket case has remained in the presidency for so many years
They might be certain, but they don’t have to be brutal.
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Tax systems in post-colonial Africa need to be reformed. For instance, there ought to be rebates for advancing moral good or educating future taxpayers.
Schools and universities in post-colonial contexts still operate within the logic of coloniality. This is starkly illustrated by their language policies.
Decolonising the curriculum is far more nuanced than replacing theorists and authors. Universities first need to define how they approach the development and dissemination of curricula.
Lithograph, ‘Burning of the Garden Palace, Sydney’, Gibbs Shallard and Company, Sydney, 1882.
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney.
Sydney’s Garden Palace, which burned to the ground in 1882, was a monument to empire’s glory. Indigenous artist Jonathan Jones is now working on an epic exhibition that will explore this historical epoch from an Aboriginal perspective.
In South Africa there’s a value judgment attached to students who take part in universities’ English for Academic Purposes programmes. This shouldn’t be the case.
Brazilian educator Paulo Freire wrote extensively about education that oppresses.
Nic Bothma/EPA
The lessons Paulo Freire learnt nearly 90 years ago and the theories he developed from painful personal experience still resonate across Africa’s schooling systems today.
A traditional rainmaker in Kenya. How can indigenous knowledge become part of university curricula?
Department For International Development/International Development Research Centre/Thomas Omondi/Flickr
Decolonisation of the curriculum doesn’t have to mean the destruction of Western knowledge, but it’s decentring. Such knowledge should become one way of knowing rather than the only way.
Transforming the curriculum isn’t as simple as replacing some books with others.
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Africa has been called a “consumer continent” by many, but in reality much of what its people consume is produced elsewhere. Technology is key to Africa becoming a self-reliant producer of goods.
Utopianism is a neglected prism through which to view Africa. It is the space where the intricacies of decolonisation and independence can be properly comprehended.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace. Mugabe has been in power since 1980.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
It is normal for resistance movements to adopt rough survival strategies and techniques while fighting an oppressive regime. Unfortunately that culture takes root and is permanently nurtured.
Nearly 20 million South Africans live in rural areas. Why are the country’s universities so dismissive of rurality?
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
South Africa’s educational policies and curricula tend to be biased against rural lifestyles - even though nearly 20 million people live in the country’s rural areas.
A curriculum can’t be decolonised by simply removing content. This denies students the chance to participate in local policy debates and the global job market. A more nuanced approach is needed.