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STUDY NOTES
INDIGENOUS EDUCATION IN THE PRECOLONIAL PERIOD
What is the definition of indigenous education?
Can be defined as codified wisdom, customs and traditions of people that have been
transmitted orally.
Indigenous education aimed to integrate the young into various social roles because children’s
future depended on their understanding of the past.
What were the western views of indigenous education?
The Western people viewed indigenous people as savages with no history to transmit.
This was a primitive view that indigenous people did not know how to bring up their children.
What did indigenous education consist of?
Oral history
Tales of heroism and treachery
Practice in skills necessary for survival.
Language Acquisition:
Languages are a critical resource for those who want to understand culture.
Verbal interactions that are established between mother and child can be regarded as
culture that is embedded.
Pre-colonial education is oral and transmitted through people’s own languages.
Children learned through folklore.
Verbal aspects of creative life of indigenous people were found in tales and riddles.
Language learning took place through storytelling.
Proverbs were used to transmit and enhance language learning.
Initiation Ceremonies:
Initiation ceremonies mark the passage from childhood to adulthood.
Initiation rituals include any system of rites that are done regularly where a child is made a
member of society.
Acquisition of Practical Skills:
Men and women played different roles in the pre-colonial period.
Men were responsible for guarding animals; boys were taught to make utensils and poison
arrows.
Boys would learn by watching what older members of society did.
What was education through socialization?
Indigenous education was integrated with social, cultural, artistic, religious life of indigenous
people.
Education took place through socialization.
, What are some examples of cultural rituals that formed a part of indigenous education?
San People: The Eland:
The San People’s rituals revolved around the Eland.
Boys had to learn how to track an eland and about how it falls once it has been shot.
Khoi: Learning Through Observation:
Before birth, the Koi mother to be taken to a hut where se stayed until 7 days after the birth.
During the period of seclusion, the mother learned how to take care of the baby.
San Culture: The Trance Dance:
A trance was a institutionalized, altered state if consciousness.
Was induce through intense concentration.
Was performed around the carcass of a recently killed animal.
Central to the belief was the San’s belief that any animal has invisible energy.
Puberty Ritual:
When girls started menstruating, a puberty ritual was held.
The girls were isolated in a hut.
During this process the girls learned about the roles of motherhood and other
gender-appropriate skills.
Music and Dance Education
Indigenous music equipped young people with knowledge about the past and present traditions.
Social norms, traditions and beliefs were depicted through music.
The common feature of indigenous music is rhythm which engages all members of a group to
respond to a beat.
Co-existence of different rhythms created a strong sense of community.
Indigenous music relied entirely on oral transmission.
Musical knowledge was learned through social events and rituals where music is an important
means of communication.
It also played an important role in the history of Bantu speaking people.
Bantu-speaking people used bow instruments, whistles, drums, xylophones on special
occasions.
CRITICAL READING: CORNELL NOTES
The Church And Education
Three Views On The Roles Of Missionary Schools
Missionaries spread the Christian faith among African tribes and bought education and
Western medicine.
Missionaries were the main teachers of black education before Bantu education took over.
Missionaries broke down African culture by imposing Western culture and work patterns.
Mission Education Before 1953
Missionaries, merchants, and traders:
At the same time when merchants, traders and farmers were moving across Africa,
missionaries were also there.
Missionaries came from Europe with the purpose of:
Spreading Christianity
, Working closely with merchants
Educating people.
The magistrate, the missionary and the merchant worked closely together.
In the 1800s European merchants were looking for markets in Africa.
This was the time of merchant capitalism.
Merchants often used moral or Christian arguments to justify taking over Africa.
Missionaries also had certain idea about how life should be led by civilized people.
Missionary Schools
Missionaries came to South Africa from different European countries.
Mission stations were first started in the Cape and Natal.
By the end of the 19th century there were many missionaries in South Africa.
They wanted to establish themselves and convert people to Christianity.
The missionaries also started mission schools.
Missionaries believed education was a way for them to spread the gospel.
Activities Taught At Mission Schools:
Basic reading and writing
Christian Doctrine
Reading the Bible, singing Hymns
Manual work and practical training.
Training people to spread the gospel.
Different Views About The Curriculum
Many educators had different ideas about what black people should be taught.
Some missionaries thought black people should be given the same education as white people.
Others thought the curriculum should be adapted.
Some missionaries thought blacks were inferior and should rather be trained to be labourers.
African Responses To Mission Schools
Missionaries found it difficult to find converts and educate them.
African leaders sometimes accepted missionaries as intermediaries, traders and healers.
They resisted any attempts to break down their own values and authority structures.
People who came to mission stations had their own reasons for doing this.
Not many people came for religious reasons, many of them mainly came to look for work or to
seek refuge from difficulties in their own communities.
Later when the independence of tribes was being threatened, leaders allowed some of their sons
to attend school.
African people did not always take mission education seriously.
They often had their own reasons for sending children to mission schools.
If they didn’t participate in the white-controlled economy, they did not see much value in
learning to read and write.
New Demand For Education
By the end of the 19th century, SA was changing fast.
African chiefdoms were defeated by white conquest and the structures changed.
Because the economy was colonized, there was wide movement of people looking for work.
The discovery of gold and expanding economic activity meant more black people were
interested in wage labour.
People’s attitudes towards education also began to change. Education was seen as a way to get
into the dominant economic and social system.
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