The Importance Of Afrocentric Education As A Paradigm Shift

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Kojo Essuman 12 years ago

Thank you for your interesting article.Could you please elaborate on how Christianity has done more harm than African Religion.

Thank you for your interesting article.Could you please elaborate on how Christianity has done more harm than African Religion.
GHFUO, be serious & change ur MENtali 12 years ago

IT MUST BE MANDATORY FOR ALL STUDENTS TO LEARN AFRICAN HISTORY IN SHS. FROM OLD AFRICAN EMPIRES TO PRE COLONIAL, INDEPENDENCE N POST INDEPENDENCE.

IT MUST BE MANDATORY FOR ALL STUDENTS TO LEARN AFRICAN HISTORY IN SHS. FROM OLD AFRICAN EMPIRES TO PRE COLONIAL, INDEPENDENCE N POST INDEPENDENCE.
AKASI MARTHA NZEMA 12 years ago

"GIVEN THAT HUMANITY IS AN EXISTEN- TIAL FUNCTION OF MINDS, SPIRITS, BODIES, AND SOULS COLLECTED IN A SEA OF COMPLEX MATRICES OF RELATIONS, WE ARE, THEREFORE, BOUND TO RELATE TO OUR PERSONAL SELVES, SPORADICALLY,THOUGH THE E ...
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"GIVEN THAT HUMANITY IS AN EXISTEN- TIAL FUNCTION OF MINDS, SPIRITS, BODIES, AND SOULS COLLECTED IN A SEA OF COMPLEX MATRICES OF RELATIONS, WE ARE, THEREFORE, BOUND TO RELATE TO OUR PERSONAL SELVES, SPORADICALLY,THOUGH THE EXTENAL SELVES OF KNOWLEDGEABLE OTHERS. THAT MAKES US THE MOST INTELLIGENT OF SOCIAL ANIMALS". FRANCIS YOU ARE RIGHT; THE STRONG ANIMALS BULLY ORDERS, HUMANBEING TOO THE STRONG TAKES ALL. "AFRICAN RELIGION ALONGSIDE NON-AFRICAN RELIGION. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY HAVE DONE MORE HARM TO AFRICA THAN AFRICAN RELIGION". BEFORE JESUS CHRIST, HUMANBEING (WHITE OR BLACK). WORSHIPING IDOLS BUT AFTER CHRIST WE ALL STATED TO FOLLOW HIS TEACHING IN OUR OWN WAYS CALLING OUR gods TO LEAD US TO SUPREME GOD.THE BLACKMAN FROM ALGERIA ST FRANCIS BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY TO EUROPE. THE DEFFERENT BETWEEN THE BLACK WORSHIP, WE DID NOT BUILD BIG HOUSES(CHUCHES) LIKE WESTERN WORLD, ALSO THE PRIEST (FETISH PREIST)DRESS ORIGINAL AFRICAN WAY. DON'T FORGET SIMON THE BLACK CARRIED JESUS CROSS. WE BLACK DON'T ASK GOD FOR DEVELOMENT. WE DON'T ASK THE POWER OF THE "HOLY SPIRIT" THAT WMPOWER'S, WE DO NOT KNOW 'HIM' ONLY FEW PEOPLE. MY TRIBE NZEMA BEFORE WHITE MAN CAME WERE GOLD MINERS, OUR FOREFATHERS WERE GOLDSMITH BUT I CAN SAY A EDUCATION HAS KILLED THE TRADE. ALL THE GOLDSMITH CHILDREN ABOUDANT THE TRADE BECAUSE OF EDUCATION KWAME NKRUMAH WAS ONE OF THE EXAMPLES. NOT THE NZEMAS ALONE THE FARMERS CHILDREN TOO. I AM NOT SAYING EDUCATION IS NOT GOOD BUT I WANT 'YOU' TO EDUCATE US ON OUR FOREFATHERS TRADES THAT EDUCATION HAS HARM US.
James Appiah 12 years ago

On Christianity and African Religion,I noticed that one of the readers requested you to elaborate on how Christianity has done more harm to Africa than African Religion,I am also keen on getting more information.Please,help ...
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On Christianity and African Religion,I noticed that one of the readers requested you to elaborate on how Christianity has done more harm to Africa than African Religion,I am also keen on getting more information.Please,help us.
soundjata 12 years ago

actually, i would like to ask you in turn what good has christianity and islam done to black africans? will u agree that africans are worse off today than before the arrival of these alien religions? when the europeans arrive ...
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actually, i would like to ask you in turn what good has christianity and islam done to black africans? will u agree that africans are worse off today than before the arrival of these alien religions? when the europeans arrived, they could not defeat the africans because we were strong spiritually so the only means was to draw them away from their spirituality and make them weak. so they state traditional religion is demonic and some other nonsense. all this is false. our fathers and mothers having practising this religion for centuries and got on very well. look at us today we are even afraid to die silently while our lands are being robbed and desecrated. this is in sharp contrast to our ancestors who did not hesitate to kill the first missionaries who helped bring africa to its present state. i was raised a christian and i am proud to be african. however, the bible specifies jews as God's chosen people. don't u think that takes the african mind from his roots? i want to stay african, not jew or any other race.

if u r still not convinced try to read on fela kuti (great nigerian singer who convinced me islam and christianity r not for black africans) or see a video on youtube in which King Leopald III? adresses missionaries to africa that is indeed to make them weak and rob their lands

of course some people use the traditional religion for bad purposes but that does not make the religion bad. if it were true, the same could be said of christianity and islam (false prophets and terrorists)
Repugnant. 12 years ago

This lesser Ghanaian have not even read Nkrumah's consciencism; the inner sense of what is right or wrong in ones conduct or motives, yet has the audacity to conflate his own emotional shifts and vague impulses as paradigmati ...
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This lesser Ghanaian have not even read Nkrumah's consciencism; the inner sense of what is right or wrong in ones conduct or motives, yet has the audacity to conflate his own emotional shifts and vague impulses as paradigmatic shifts to palliate African disorientation. These exaggerations and generalizations of ones feeling is not an acceptable criterion for truth.

Even though you may have managed on your own to get yourself idiotized, 'you can still run toward Africa' yet in the main, this is what Socrates fought in vain against, man's own habitual thinking and unintelligent parroting.

Modern education rather, makes man a memory robot, there is nothing wrong with traditional Africa. Your effort should have been directed toward the universal disorientation that physical delights and enjoyments are the best things in life.
Godfried Akorli 12 years ago

The shortcoming of this article and for that matter other writings of its type is the failure to note the cultural difference between Africans and others from the northern hemisphere. Hence we are unable to innovate social in ...
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The shortcoming of this article and for that matter other writings of its type is the failure to note the cultural difference between Africans and others from the northern hemisphere. Hence we are unable to innovate social institutions that enable development, particularly in the post-independence era. Illustratively, Nrkrumah assumed that socialism by its nature would enable us to effectively synthesize the different cultures. That assumption fails because it underestimates the the depth of the culture of exploitation that resides in the people of the northern hemisphere. In short, Afrocentric education, while important, is not particularly effective, if it is geared towards innovation of social institutions that enable development
Brother 12 years ago

I am particularly thrilled at the level of references that go with Brother Kwateng's articles and I believe it takes a lot to form opinions and to create knowledge. One could therefore refer to these books, juxtapose that wit ...
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I am particularly thrilled at the level of references that go with Brother Kwateng's articles and I believe it takes a lot to form opinions and to create knowledge. One could therefore refer to these books, juxtapose that with what we have always been fed with by our colonial masters and you 'agents' of the west who feel everything of theirs should be the best can learn too. I am however repulsed by the insults that people bring to these intelligent sharing of ideas.
NON-ALIGNED 12 years ago

PART 1
Francis, once again, you have made my day! God Bless! Unfortunately, the NPP and NDC serial commentators of insults and emptiness will not contribute to such sensible debates. And if they do…………..I’m sure yo ...
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PART 1
Francis, once again, you have made my day! God Bless! Unfortunately, the NPP and NDC serial commentators of insults and emptiness will not contribute to such sensible debates. And if they do…………..I’m sure you can imagine the level of insults and NOTHING to contribute…………

However, in my humble opinion, the basic problem we have in Africa, especially Ghana is that, our understanding of ‘Education’ is all about perfecting other peoples ‘powerful tools’ (language) based on collecting knowledge without the basic understanding of its origins and values. It is all about aping other humans’ lifestyles, totally contrary to our good cultural values, heritage and good traditional beliefs. A system which basically breeds ‘educated illiterates’ who behave like ‘zombies’, posing around with other people’s ‘lingos’.

We end up breeding citizens who then grow up to become AFROPEANS……..who see no good in their own citizens and as a result, grow to collaborate with their slave masters to rape their nations dry, at the expense of their children’s future.

Our so-called ‘Education’ system which is deeply-rooted i n the concept of reading books (in someone else’s language), memorizing it again, again and again, regurgitating it out of the ‘memory box’ (that is, if one has one), unto an exam paper, get good grades and eventually attain a degree/masters and forget everything after the process.……………Another sequence for this kind of education system is called – ‘chew’, ‘pour’, ‘pass’ and ‘forget’. (That gives no room for any form of analytical thinking throughout our formative years to adulthood and as a result hindering our own development).

It is all about theory, theory and speeches from all sorts of people advocating technology and so on and so forth but, to no avail. Why is that?

Because we have over the years ignored our own local ‘wise-men’ and ‘wise-women’ whom……………in our warped minds, considered uneducated because they cannot express their God-given gifts in someone else’s ‘lingo’. And a s a result, millions of them end up expiring with their God-given talents without contributing an iota of their ‘being’ to change our society for the better………which I can best describe as “wasted talents from cradle to the grave”. We even fail and halt our talented AFRICAN children's progress because they can't express themselves in English??? What on earth is wrong with us??????????

It is a real shame how our true local ‘wise-men’ and ‘wise-women’ expressing their talents in their own ‘lingos’ are looked down upon, instead of being encouraged. A typical example…………………is the Suame Magazine, with artisans who have taken the bull by the horn and making things happen and work for their communities in any positive way they can. With better support and encouragement from the government and business entities they can and will go on to transform our communities as they develop and grow technologically. I am aware of efforts being made to team up with KNUST…….which is good sign of better things to come. But such talk needs to be put into practice.

That is how most nations have developed through their own trial and error methods of testing their own creations and inventions over the years and have been perfected. The likes of UK, US, Germany, France, Japan, Russia and many more others like China, India, Singapore…………they all went through their own trials and tribulations with their technologies in their own ‘lingos’ till it was perfected.
GOD BLESS GHANA!
AFRICAN FOREVER!

PART 2 TO CONTINUE
AKASI MARTHA NZEMA 12 years ago

NON-ALIGNED I HOPE GHANAIANS WILL READ FRANCIS ARTICLE BECAUSE ITS BRINGS HIDDEN DISCERNING POEPLE OUT TO TALK ABOUT GHANA/AFRICA PROBLEMS. THE IDEAS ARE THERE BUT STRANGE LAUGUAGE (ENGLISH) IS NOT HELPING US TO CONTRIBUTE MU ...
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NON-ALIGNED I HOPE GHANAIANS WILL READ FRANCIS ARTICLE BECAUSE ITS BRINGS HIDDEN DISCERNING POEPLE OUT TO TALK ABOUT GHANA/AFRICA PROBLEMS. THE IDEAS ARE THERE BUT STRANGE LAUGUAGE (ENGLISH) IS NOT HELPING US TO CONTRIBUTE MUCH, THIS IS ANOTHER PROBLEM AS YOU SAID.

Kojo T 12 years ago

Non aligned you confused schooling with education. Education has nothing to do with schooling as you can gain knowledge and apply it with no schooling. What we have is schooling The tragedy is that 99% of our people go to sc ...
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Non aligned you confused schooling with education. Education has nothing to do with schooling as you can gain knowledge and apply it with no schooling. What we have is schooling The tragedy is that 99% of our people go to school memorize a lot of stuff and simply reproduce
NON-ALIGNED 12 years ago

Kojo, good to hear from you bro! I am not at all confused sir! Kojo, why didn't you do yourself a favour to expalin the two to yourself.....what schooling and education are?

Kojo, I think you are confused with the tw ...
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Kojo, good to hear from you bro! I am not at all confused sir! Kojo, why didn't you do yourself a favour to expalin the two to yourself.....what schooling and education are?

Kojo, I think you are confused with the two. Come on Kojo....you can do better than that!!! I NEVER mentioned schooling in my response. Please be clear in your mind....Kojo!

Let me help you out here okay!.......

A school is - a building in which you can seek out knowledge through educational professionals.

SCHOOLING (a noun) means
- instruction, education, or training, esp. when received in a school.

- the process of being formally educated at a school.

Another use of SCHOOLING is
- discipline; reproof; reprimand;
as, for example......."he gave his son a good schooling".

- the training of an animal (especially the training of a horse for dressage)....................... Unfortunately, that is how we educate ourselves in our schools with the so-called education systems I have elaborated extensively.

Kojo T, I hope you get it now.......
My brother, the English language is fluid and NOT static....so please don't confuse yourself and hope I have schooled you enough to help educate you with the use of the English language appropriately within contexts.

Moreover, is that all you could gather from my response? Just knit-picking on things you yourself can't comprehend?? Come on Kojo T you could have asked?

Anyway, no offense there and look out for my PART 2 on this, which I can't seem to get it on to the forum.
I would appreciate your contributions on that too.....that is if I manage to get it on here! God Bless!!!!

GOD BLESS GHANA!
AFRICAN FOREVER!
NAKED 12 years ago

Good one there at least I have seen a sensible person who can reason and think, first and foremost, what is education at all? In a country where I come from, they defined education as anyone who can read and write English lan ...
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Good one there at least I have seen a sensible person who can reason and think, first and foremost, what is education at all? In a country where I come from, they defined education as anyone who can read and write English language that is how they defined education in Ghana. A country where a lot of people look down upon those who can't speak and write English language do you think such country can develop no wonder Ghana is a country with good resources but the citizens are mentally weak unable to think and reason as well, they are still slaves to the so-called Europeans. They are still colonized mentally and physically but the reason is that they don't know that they are still under colonization. So in s nutshell that is how illiteracy is defined in Ghana. Then one may ask that how about the countries who are using their own language to study are they illiterates? a country like France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Finland, Norway, China etc can we classify their education system as substandard because they are not using English language to teach in their institutions? Africans will always embraced everything from west and east without thinking deep and its side effect in the future and we hate our own things so tell me are we humans? We always lionize the oppressors and disowned ours and we called ourselves educational elites now listen to a proverb from Europeans to Africans “you can take a monkey from bush but you can't take bush from monkey" how are we going to interpret it? it's simple to Europeans, Africa is bush let's see how they describe Africa they use the word Sub-Saharan and the question is do we have sub-Europeans or sub-Asians or sub-Americans, etc look how they have cited Africa in a World map, Africa as a continent is always at the bottom of the World map, the question is why they didn't cite Europe, Asia, America and Australia at the bottom but only Africa think about it brothers and sisters, the proverb means an African a monkey can come to western or eastern country to study or do anything but because he/she is from Africa you can't take Africa mentality from him or her then the stereotype goes, they are less humans, they don't have food to eat, always fighting among themselves etc so why Africans shouldn't cling to their own and abandoned their stupid act but yet still Africans are upholding their language and their barbaric culture, 500 years we are still slaves so when are we going to emancipate ourselves as a people created by YHWH.
The time has come for Africans to come together as one people and put their difference away and unit as people it has been a long time in slavery and colonization. The time has come for Ghanaians to put away their difference and unit to develop their nation it has been a long time in slavery and colonization.
God of our fathers have mercy on us especially banana republic of Ghana. Ghana, Ghana a country with good resources I had wanted to gather my people under one canopy as hen gathered it chicks but my people have abandoned their wisdom through thinking and now following the way of westerners through their devilcracy which is called democracy so now my people cannot be able to manage their own affairs, my people do not appreciate things manufactured in their country, my people preach devilcracy and practice vices, my people preach patriotism but they are not patriotic, my people have lost their sense of judging and now we are in a doom state they can't differentiate good things from bad ones and now engulf with tribalism which has become a canker in the country through bogus so-called educational elites and stomachticians who called themselves as politicians to separate the people in other not to come together to fight against their evil planning. A voice calling from within shouting my people, my people come together to build your nation we were created in the same image not let this stomachticians separate you they are doing it for their own selfish gain so wise up, awake from your slumber, the day is far spent and the night is near so let's ignore all these tribalism stuffs and come together as one people because together we can build a better nation.
The only way Africans can develop is to use their own language to study and do everything and stop patronizing anything from east or west, a small country like Ghana we can’t develop it why? Because we have pseudo intellectuals who always claims that they are the best but in reality they are at the bottom of the pit, our education system is not good, our education system does not allow us to think inside and out outside the box so for Ghana to develop it needs critical thinkers and nature incliners who can put things together other than that it will take millions of years we will still be where we are. Anyone who wants to study Nature University can contact me wellsbrains2000@yahoo.com, whatspp 008613566124757 when you contact me tell me which my article that you are interested so we can discuss it deeply because I have presented numerous articles on this web
NON-ALIGNED 12 years ago

Naked, WOW! Good to know that there are free minds out there!..............
YOUR QUOTE: "stomachticians who called themselves as politicians".....HA! ha! I love that!

It's a shame how our colonized minds through our so-ca ...
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Naked, WOW! Good to know that there are free minds out there!..............
YOUR QUOTE: "stomachticians who called themselves as politicians".....HA! ha! I love that!

It's a shame how our colonized minds through our so-called education system doesn't allow millions of our people think for themselves..........to the extent of importing toxic waste from the west and toothpicks from China????

Even the application of COMMON SENSE, has been thrown out of the window in our nation Ghana.....and has totally been taken over by lawlessness.

We are a lost nation and we will one day be enslaved again.....as the process has already been established through our colonized minds.

GOD BLESS GHANA!
AFRICAN FOREVER!
francis kwarteng 12 years ago

Hey Guys,

How are you all? I have been reading all the comments and I shall directly respond to your questions in other essays.

I believe some of the answers require essays, not merely casual comments. Also, I believe ...
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Hey Guys,

How are you all? I have been reading all the comments and I shall directly respond to your questions in other essays.

I believe some of the answers require essays, not merely casual comments. Also, I believe the discussions going here are fruitful.

I have decided not to say much but to leave you to discuss the essay and to critique my ideas. This is what we all need--constructive criticism. Sometimes a writer has to lay back (keep quiet) and learn from his/her well-informed critics.

At the appropriate time, I shall say more about your questions in the sequels. To Kojo T, NON-ALIGNED, AKASI MARTHA NZEMA, Essuman, Brother, in fact, all of you, I have learnt alot from you.

Thanks
mother'schild 12 years ago

Francis, it will be nice to have your comments on the new kid on the African block - Nana Kobina Nketsia's: African Cutlure in Governance and Development, its a tour de force which every real African must read

Francis, it will be nice to have your comments on the new kid on the African block - Nana Kobina Nketsia's: African Cutlure in Governance and Development, its a tour de force which every real African must read
mother'schild 12 years ago

Some of us were privileged to have been his students and every minute of his presence was stimulating and thought-provoking and very very African in his outlook. thanks

Some of us were privileged to have been his students and every minute of his presence was stimulating and thought-provoking and very very African in his outlook. thanks
francis kwarteng 12 years ago

Dear friend,

I have taken note of your positive views here.

Let's see what we can do with them.

Thanks

Dear friend,

I have taken note of your positive views here.

Let's see what we can do with them.

Thanks

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The Importance Of Afrocentric Education As A Paradigm Shift

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