In this study, we employ the theory of deconstruction to challenge and reject the
contention that a knowledge paradigm was non-existent among the indigenous people of
Zimbabwe before the arrival of the colonisers. This is necessary because the imposition
of the colonisers’ knowledge paradigm was premised on the supposed absence of an
epistemology among the indigenous people. In defending the thesis that education and
indeed an epistemology was in existence among the indigenous people of Zimbabwe, we submit that education is part of any given culture. In the light of this, it becomes
untenable to deny the existence of education among the indigenous people of Zimbabwe
before the arrival of the colonisers. Knowledge ceases to be the exclusive preserve of the
colonisers. It must be noted that the imposition of the colonisers’ knowledge paradigm
was accompanied by the suppression and partial destruction of the epistemology of the
indigenous people.
The suppression and partial destruction of the indigenous people’s epistemological
paradigm is called epistemicide. The epistemicide that the colonisers inflicted on the
indigenous people led to the exclusive dominance of their knowledge paradigm in the
school curriculum at the expense of that of the indigenous people. In the light of this
status quo, we present transformation and Africanisation as corrective to the unjustified
dominance of the present day curriculum by the epistemological paradigm of the
colonisers. We argue that despite the commendable proposals contained in the Report of
the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training (1999: 24) to
change the curriculum so that unhu/ubuntu becomes its organising principle and to allow
the co-existence of the indigenous people’s epistemological paradigm and others, in
practice the dominance of the colonisers’ epistemological paradigm remains in place. We
submit that the Africanisation of the curriculum is a matter of justice that demands the
end of the dominance of the knowledge paradigm of the colonisers and the co-existence
of the indigenous people’s knowledge paradigm and others / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Litt et Phil. (Philosophy)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/20951 |
| Date | 01 1900 |
| Creators | Masaka, Dennis |
| Contributors | Ramose, Mogobe B., Mungwini, P. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (vii, 158 leaves) |
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