A Pragmatic Tradition

The Past in Ghanaian Education

Bibliographic Data

ID3751143
AuthorsDel Mar (corresponding author), Sdel Mar del Mar, Del Mar Del Mar
Year2012
Volume59
Issue2
Pages23
Publication date2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9887 • E-ISSN: 1527-1978
PublisherIndiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2979/africatoday.59.2.23
OpenAlexW2044716467
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited39

This paper assesses how recently published Ghanaian social studies textbooks portray Ghana’s history and traditions. Unlike many histories written for adults, which urge Ghanaians to overcome the legacy of colonialism by cultivating ancient traditions, the textbooks often criticize indigenous practices and praise colonialism’s consequences. They judge tradition or culture to be useful, inasmuch as they contribute to unity and development, but although this pragmatic approach to education and historical interpretation seems dismissive of Ghanaian tradition, it is in fact deeply rooted in Ghana’s past. Ghana is rich in history and tradition. One of West Africa’s most powerful empires, Asante, expanded to control roughly the extent of the nation’s modern-day boundaries and fought off the British for generations. Africa’s “Black Star” became one of its first colonies to achieve independence, in 1957. Led by one of the continent’s most celebrated patriots and PanAfricanists, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the young nation inspired and attracted black nationalists across the world. Some of the nation’s intellectuals, however, have worried that the old ways are being forgotten in the rush toward Westernization and modernity. Ghana’s most distinguished novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah, has been perhaps the most eloquent advocate of precolonial tradition. His first two novels— The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) and Fragments (1970)—are ruthlessly realistic portrayals of young, idealistic protagonists mired in corruption, cynicism, and materialism. In Two Thousand Seasons, by way of contrast, Armah finds in the past both perfect evil (white Arabs and Europeans) and perfect good (traditional black Africa), which he identifies as “the way” and “our way”: “Our way is reciprocity. The way is wholeness. Our way knows no oppression. The way destroys oppression” ([1973] 2000:76). Wright argues that this racial or moral dichotomy is calculated, that Armah is engaged in “a therapeutic exorcism” calculated “to cure an errant Africa of its diseased distrust in its own indigenous forms and values, not to reproduce the exact historical origins and developments of those forms and

Linguistics · Political science · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · African Education and Politics · Philosophy