An Afrocentric Perspective on Knowledge: Finding a Middle Ground Between the Indigenous and Cosmopolitan Pedagogies

Introduction

Knowledge construction has always been at the heart of education. This would still be the case even in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Despite the alternative pedagogical strategies which come with the pandemic, educators should still prioritize knowledge construction as the core business of all educational offerings (Horsthemke, 2013). As such, education without epistemological production would not be considered conceivable (Derry, 2019). As a sub-discipline of philosophy, epistemology deals with issues of knowledge acquisition or how individuals come to know something (Sefotho & Du Plessis, 2018). From this philosophical standpoint, epistemological issues are considered fundamental in education and curriculum reform.

The problem in Africa is that the curriculum is decontextualized (Kumalo, 2018). The issue of the decontextualized knowledge results from perpetual advancement of Eurocentric knowledge on the African learner at the expense of the Afrocentric pedagogies (Leibowitz, 2017; Zembylas, 2018). The western approach to African education has proven not to adequately link theory with practice. The recipients of this education are prone to being inadequately prepared to deal with the challenges in their African communities (Kaya & Seleti, 2013). Until recently, the indigenous knowledge was considered irrelevant, unscientific and obsolete (Abah, Mashebe and Denuga, 2015). Little attempt was made to incorporate indigenous knowledge into formal education regardless of its potential in solving contemporary problems. As a result, school education was restricted to classrooms and learners were detached from their culture and environment (Abah et al., 2015). Furthermore, the pedagogical practices were predominantly teacher-centered. Such pedagogical practices contradicted the constructivist theory which posits that ‘children actively construct their knowledge, rather than simply absorbing ideas spoken to them by teachers’ (Abah et al., 2015). The aforementioned pedagogical practices overlooked the fact that an African child learns meaningfully through practical applications which resonate with their community.

Due to continual inadequacy of modern/cosmopolitan pedagogical practices in Africa, there is a need to critically review African education from an Afrocentric perspective (Abah et al., 2015). However, this would not imply a total exclusion of cosmopolitan pedagogical practices which have proven to be useful, such as constructivism. There is a need to find a middle ground by integrating complementary aspects of both the indigenous and cosmopolitan pedagogies. Integration should however, be handled with caution not to compromise the very indigenous values that need to be revoked. Conscious efforts need to be made to safeguard against a perpetual elevation of Eurocentric values at the expense of the Afrocentric values. It can therefore be agreed with Fataar (2018) who argues that there is indeed a need for founding African educational transformation within an Afrocentric perspective. A move to decolonize or Africanize education is construed as justifiable (Sefotho, 2018).