The Mis-Education of the African: Why Africa’s Schooling is Western Indoctrination But Ignore Resou

Kangmwa Gofwen examines how Africa’s education system, far from being a tool of liberation, was structured to produce disconnection from history, power, and self-determination. It argues that colonial schooling did not simply sideline African knowledge and identity, but also deliberately failed to teach generations of Africans how global systems actually work, from international finance and resource extraction to shipping routes, geopolitics, and the institutions that shape the modern world. The result is an education that rewards memorisation over critical understanding and produces graduates who can speak the language of development without being equipped to challenge the systems that keep the continent dependent.This is a call to rethink what education in Africa should be for. It urges a shift away from inherited curricula that centre Europe and detach African students from their own realities, and toward an education rooted in African history, practical knowledge, and strategic understanding of global power.