Education

General influences and policies of the colonial powers

During the colonial period, the first direct “educational” influences from outside came from religious missionaries—first Portuguese (from the 15th century) and then French, Dutch, English, and German (from the 15th to the 19th century). Starting from coastal bases, they undertook to penetrate the interior and begin campaigns to convert the black populations. The missions were the first to open schools and to develop the disciplined study of African languages, in order to translate sacred texts or to conduct religious instruction in the native tongues.

The partition of Africa by the colonial powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries led first to the establishment of mission schools and then to the establishment of “lay” or “public” or “official” schools. The importance of either the lay or the religious system depended on the political doctrines of the mother country, its institutions (a firmly secular state or one with a state religion), and the status of the colony and its history. But, whatever the system, the fundamental purpose of colonial instruction was the training of indigenous subaltern cadres—clerks, interpreters, teachers, nurses, medical assistants, workers, and so forth—all indispensable to ... (200 of 123,993 words)