Colonial Era: (Hearts and Minds — Colonial Education Reflecting the Ascendancy of Association over Assimilation, Schooling Mostly at Primary Level in Mission…

Colonial Era: (Hearts and Minds — Colonial Education Reflecting the Ascendancy of Association over Assimilation, Schooling Mostly at Primary Level in Mission Hands, Boys More Likely to Attend Than Girls, the Vast Majority Lacking Access to Schools of Any Kind, Few Institutions of Higher Education, and Education Sowing the Seeds of Political Discontent by Exposing Elites to Democracy and Civil Rights Denied to Africans): Colonial education policy reflected the ascendancy of association over assimilation — education should be made relevant to Africans’ own cultural background, and for most, only up to a certain level. Only small minorities were exposed to education, mostly at the primary level, which for many years remained in the hands of evangelical Christian orders south of the Sahara and Muslim instructors in the north. Boys were more likely to attend than girls, and the vast majority lacked access to schools of any kind. In North Africa, European education systems produced a new class steeped in European language and culture. South of the Sahara, most Africans who converted to Christianity after about 1900 did so through schooling. Mission schools may have been unevenly spread and served a narrow elite, but they had a profound impact — children were made literate, made aware of the civilizing properties of the colonial state, and sometimes exposed to vocational training. Education was seen as purely functional by colonial administrations — bureaucracies needed literate Africans for translating, assisting, and clerking, but beyond this no great value was placed on education as a force for social transformation. Comparatively few institutions of higher education existed. In taking so little interest in universal education, European powers arguably rendered the task of creating viable nation-states virtually impossible — illiteracy was one of the most important factors behind the failure of participatory politics in the post-colonial era. Yet members of the educated elite had been made aware of democracy and civil rights, and were conscious these had been denied to Africans — education thus sowed the seeds of political discontent, a paradox at the heart of the civilizing mission.