EDUCATION in Africa has a history reaching back many centuries. Certainly the achievements of the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Ethiopia are well known. Then, early in the first millennium of the Common Era, the Moors and other peoples on the northern fringe of Africa made notable contributions to world education and culture. And during the past 1,000 years the Saharan and sub-Saharan peoples had several centers of learningu2014Timbuktu, Agadez, Gao, Katsina and Borno, where books written in Arabic were in great demand.
More than 800 years ago at Timbuktu, in Mali, colleges provided advanced education. Katsina, in northern Nigeria, has been a center of learning since before the sixteenth century. It was there that, about 200 years ago, Muhammed ibn Muhammed became noted as a specialist in numerology.
The aforementioned cities were dominated by Moslem culture, and mosques were the centers of learning. However, the cost of learning under the tutorship of the mallams was very high and so few persons could afford it. The educated minority exercised tremendous influence, and were the key administrators, lawyers and clerks. But the majority remained illiterate.
In the non-Moslem, sub-Saharan cultures, education was largely nonliterate, by oral instruction rather than by use of reading material. Educational systems varied from tribe to tribe, and there were different degrees and levels of training, depending on the social and cultural development of a particular tribe. The training covered a fairly wide range, with specialized instruction at different age levels. Each educational system had specific forms of preparation for the roles of individuals in society. A look at the system of education among the Yorubas in precolonial Nigeria illustrates this.
Among the Yorubas, training in obedience, etiquette, speech and
counting came early in the child's life and was given within the family
circle. Children quickly learned to express themselves in their
language. Progressively, they mastered the proverbs, poetry and folklore
of the community or tribe. In this way they learned the history and the
moral and philosophical attitudes of their people. They had to learn a
variety of greetings, recognition of levels of social seniority and the
proper etiquette in connection with these. Religious education included
training in rituals, sacred festivals and the roles of diviners.
At
an early age, children were taught to count up to 20 on their fingers
and toes and to do simple addition and subtraction with the aid of
stones. As they progressed in knowledge, they were taught weights and
measures, the use of cowrie shells (which served as money) and the art
of bargaining.
Specialized training for boys focused on farming,
working in metals and wood, hunting and the use of herbs and drugs in
medicine. Skills were passed on from father to son. Inclination and
natural abilities also were considered, and children were encouraged to
develop their aptitudes. Therefore, many were apprenticed to artisans
outside the family clan.
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