Modernist education and the myth of development in Africa

Abstract Arguments that link education to development are overwhelmingly rooted in functionalism as a grand theory and lean heavily on modernisation and human capital theory, with the assumption that African societies must be modernised and that education paves the way to a modernised Africa. However, the concept of what is modern and what constitutes valid and viable ways of modernising often conform to Western notions of modernity, emphasising the human capital development orientation of educational policies. In this context, Africa’s historical conceptions of her modernisation processes have been undermined. Through an analysis of articles from the International Review of Education from the past 70 years, this article explores the link between education and development in Africa and illustrates how colonialism is manifest in and perpetuated through education, thus creating a myth of development. The authors’ analysis of articles shows that education intended to support modernisation in postcolonial Africa has ultimately led to continued cultural and economic dependency while alienating African societies from their roots. The elevated status of European languages at the expense of vernacular languages has played a particularly important role in this process. This article relies on the African philosophy of uBuntu and theory of Cosmo- uBuntu to point us towards a system of education and development in Africa that is rooted in ancestral wisdom and that allows for the creation of an African future not bound by Western notions of modernity.