Abstract
Both local and global forces impact on educational and human development. This disrupts Africa's capacity to own, generate, and share knowledge. A disorganizing hybridism between African, Eastern and Western heritages exacerbates the difficulty. A social Darwinian perspective disparages but exploits Africanity. Furthermore, no extant theory captures the complex braids of Africanity, which tend to be reduced to evolutionary templates, therein trivializing them and misguiding interventions. We offer the concepts of a learning posture and a diversity paradigm as discovery constructs to bring Africa's hidden knowledge out of the traditional closet; into synergy with new technologies and into application for competency building for local knowledge generation and development.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agar, M.H. (1986) Speaking of Ethnography, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 79pp.
Ayandele, E.A. (1982) ‘Africa: the challenge of higher education’, Daedalus 112(1): 165–177.
Buchert, L. (1998) ‘Education sector analysis in Africa: an evolving case in mutual North-South learning’, Prospects 28 (3): 353–363.
Cameroun. (1981) Encyclopedie de la Republique Unie du Cameroun [Encyclopedia of the United Republic of Cameroon], Douala, Cameroon: Eddy Ness, 338pp.
Creekmore, C. (1986) ‘Misunderstanding Africa’, Psychol Today 12: 40–45.
Davidson, B. (1969) The African Genius: An Introduction to African Cultural and Social History, Boston: Little Brown & Co, 367pp.
Dei, G.J.S. (1996) ‘African development: the relevance and implications of indigenousness’, Paper Presented at the Learned Societies' Meeting of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID); June St Catherine, Ontario, CA: Brock University.
Easton, P., Capacci, C. and Kane, L. (2000) ‘Indigenous knowledge goes to school: potentials and perils of community education in the Western Sahel’, IK Notes 22: 1–4.
Ellis, J. (1978) West African Families in Great Britain, London: Routledge, 142pp.
Erny, P. (1968) L’Enfant dans la pensee traditionnelle d’Afrique Noire [The child in traditional African social thought], Paris: Le Livre africain.
Erny, P. (1973) Childhood and Cosmos: The Social Psychology of the Black African Child, New York: New Perspectives.
Fafunwa, B. (1974) A History of Education in Nigeria, London: Allen & Unwin, 264pp.
Fanon, F. (1967) The Wretched of the Earth, Penguin: Harmondsworth, 255pp.
Ford, J. (1971) The Role of Trypanosomiasis in African Ecology, Clarendon: Oxford.
Glanville, R.R. (1933) ‘Sierra Leone: rice cultivation’, Report of a visit to Ceylon and South India with proposals for Sierra Leone Freetown: Government Printer.
Howe, S. (1998) Afrocentrism: Mythical Past and Imagined Homes, London: Verso.
Lahlou, M. (1996) ‘Piaget, education and intercultural perspectives’, Prospects 26 (1): 121–129.
Larson, J. (1998) ‘Indigenous knowledge systems in sub-Saharan Africa: an overview’, Indigenous Knowledge Notes 1: 1–4.
Liebenow, J.G. (1986) African Politics: Crisis and Challenges, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 297pp.
Masefield, G.B. (1972) A History of the Colonial Agricultural Service, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Mazrui, A.A. (1986) The Africans, New York: Praeger, 348pp.
Ngaujah, D.E. (2003) ‘An eco-cultural and social paradigm for understanding human development: A (West African) context’, Graduate Seminar Paper (supervised by Dr Dennis H Dirks) Fall: Biola University, CA.
Nsamenang, A.B. (1992) Human Development in Cultural Context: A Third World Perspective, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 255pp.
Nsamenang, A.B. (2004a) Cultures of Human Development and Education Challenge to Growing up African, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 192pp.
Nsamenang, A.B. (2004b) The Teaching-learning Transaction: An Africentric Approach to Educational Psychology, Bamenda, Cameroon: HDRC Publications, 243pp.
Nsamenang, A.B. (2005) ‘African culture, human ontogenesis with’, in C.B. Fisher and R.M. Lerner (eds.) Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science Vol 1 Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 58–61..
Ogbu, J.U. (1994) ‘From cultural differences to differences in cultural frames of reference’, in P.M. Greenfield and R.R. Cocking (eds.) Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 365–391.
Piaget, J. (1952) The Origins of Intelligence in Children, New York: Norton, 419pp.
Popper, K.R. (1959) The Logic of Scientific Discovery, New York: Basic Books, 480pp.
Prakash, S. (2003) ‘The African virtual university and growth in Africa: a knowledge and learning challenge’, Findings 223: 1–4.
Richards, P. (1985) Indigenous Agricultural Revolution: Ecology and Food Production in West Africa, London: Hutchinson, 195pp.
Rogoff, B. (2003) The Cultural Nature of Human Development, New York: Oxford University Press, 298pp.
Saraswathi, T.S. (1998) ‘Many deities, one God: towards convergence in cultural psychology’, Culture and Psychology 4 (2): 147–160.
Scott, J.C. (1998) Seeing Like the State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Serpell, R. (1992) ‘Afrocentrism: what contribution to science of developmental psychology’, Paper Presented at the First ISSBD Regional Workshop in Africa on the theme Child Development and National Development in Africa; April Cameroon: Yaounde.
Serpell, R. (1993) The Significance of Schooling., New York: Cambridge University Press, 345pp.
Serpell, R. (1994) ‘An African social ontogeny: review of A. Bame Nsamenang (1992): human development in cultural context’, Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin 28 (2): 17–21.
Tingbe-Azalou, A. (1994) ‘The social sciences and the challenge of development in Africa’, UNESCO-Africa 8: 76–81.
Vessuri, H. (1998) ‘The pertinence of higher education in a changing world’, Prospects 28 (3): 378–391.
Westermann, B.T (2001) ‘The place and function of vernacular in African education The International Review of Missions 1925. 14. Cited in Kishani BT On the interface of philosophy and language in Africa: Some practical and theoretical considerations’, African Studies Review 44 (3): 27–45.
World Bank. (2000) ‘Entering the 21st Century: World Development Report 1999/2000’, Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Zimba, R.F. (2002) ‘Indigenous conceptions of childhood development and social realities in southern Africa’, in H. Keller, Y.P. Poortinga and A. Scholmerish (eds.) Between Cultures and Biology: Perspectives on Ontogenetic Development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 89–115.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nsamenang, A. Educational Development and Knowledge Flow: Local and Global Forces in Human Development in Africa. High Educ Policy 18, 275–288 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300090
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300090