Lifelong learning and decolonisation in Africa

Abstract Today, the idea and practice of learning as a lifelong process are evident across civilisations. The Western idea of lifelong learning is preserved through its written culture. However, the same is not true of Africa, whose Indigenous people have traditionally lived via unwritten culture – orality. It is therefore understandable that the framing and practice of lifelong learning between Western and Indigenous African perspectives vary. The difference between both perspectives is clearer when colonialism is factored in. The author’s reference to decolonisation presupposes and acknowledges colonialism and its impact. Numerous scholars have identified colonialism as the root cause of the failure of governance and institutions in some African countries. Lifelong learning and decolonisation are two concepts with global recognition and importance. It is within this context that this article attempts a critical review of lifelong learning and decolonisation in Africa, drawing on the author’s personal experiences of early induction into the Indigenous and holistic oral tradition of West Africa and later exposure to more “linear” and Eurocentric educational norms. The article analyses African Indigenous holistic lifelong learning and offers it as a viable and non-disruptive complement to Western understandings. It concludes with the argument that Indigenous lifelong learning and linear educational systems are not mutually exclusive. Rather, both can and must promote decolonisation and advance active citizenship.