“African magic” or “African science”: Issues of technology in African higher education
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
British Journal of Educational Technology
Abstract
African ideas, science, technology, scholarship and
worldviews have been disproportionately displaced
and marginalized in relevant global dialogues. In aca demic circles, African methods of knowing have been
questioned, undervalued, mocked, misconstrued,
and disregarded, causing apprehension. These neg ative attitudes are internalized via the educational
system, stifling agency and conditioning African
learners to rely on technology from outside sources,
resulting in the exteriorization of innovation and crea tivity. African inventiveness becomes “African magic”
with no real desire to interrogate, explain, or grasp its
basic mechanics. This article contends that technol ogy and creative imaginations exist in African socie ties. The task, however, remains the exploration and
integration of African knowledge systems into higher
education. The study aims to demonstrate how the
interaction of two components of traditional African
education—a sense of community and informal
learning—could assist in the embrace, facilitation,
and mainstreaming of marginalized African technol ogies. Although the paper may appear eclectic, it is
intended to conscientiously push the paradigm that
technology has been integral to African education.
Regardless of Africa's technical challenges, salva tion does not lie in excessive external reliance but
rather in investing and building on Indigenous African
knowledges/practices in order to establish an African
technological identity.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
African knowledge, African knowledge, African science, African technological identity, informal learning