Abstract
This chapter puts education at the center of the nation-building process in two postconflict African countries: Rwanda and Liberia. In particular, we examine these two countries’ education policy to argue that education is a developmental issue as well as a security issue. We seek to contribute to the growing body of work that situates education at the core of state-making processes: education as a weapon of war and of cultural repression; as a means to suppress identity through language, tradition, religion, and culture; as a tool to manipulate and recreate state histories and reinforce racist attitudes; or as a way to heal the scars caused by centuries of belonging to the social and political underclass (Smith 2005; UNICEF 2000; Obura 2005; King 2005).
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© 2012 Marisa O. Ensor
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Godwyll, F.E., Magadla, S. (2012). Educating Postconflict Societies: Lessons From Rwanda and Liberia. In: Ensor, M.O. (eds) African Childhoods. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024701_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024701_13
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