Intertwining Critical Pedagogy and Ubuntu: The Essence of Reshaping and Contextualising Ethical Education in Postcolonial States

Despite political decolonisation, education systems across postcolonial Africa remain structurally and epistemologically tethered to colonial legacies.These systems privilege Western knowledge frameworks, curricula, and pedagogies that were designed for purposes of colonial control rather than intellectual emancipation (wa Thiong 'o, 1986;Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013).The continued dominance of Eurocentric epistemologies in African education systems perpetuates a deep-seated alienation of learners from their cultural and historical realities.This disjuncture between indigenous knowledge systems and lived African experiences compromises the relevance and efficacy of education in addressing local challenges.In the Zimbabwean context, the issue is further complicated by the medium of instruction, which is predominantly English, even in teacher education programmes that include courses on Philosophy of Education.While students are introduced to indigenous philosophies such as Ubuntu, indigenous socialism, and indigenous epistemologies, the linguistic and conceptual framing remains largely Western.Mignolo and Walsh (2018) contend that language is not merely a vehicle of communication but a carrier of world views, and its imposition can silence local ways of knowing.This observation is pertinent in Zimbabwe, where only in subjects like ChiShona and IsiNdebele is the language of instruction partially localised, though even there, complex concepts are often delivered in English, undermining epistemic autonomy.Colonial education systematically privileged Eurocentric knowledge while marginalising African epistemologies.Santos (2014) refers to this as epistemicide-a deliberate erasure of indigenous