Recently an eyewitness told me the following story. The minister of education visited the Waldorf School Windhoek. He was giving a speech, where he supported the traditional values of Namibian education – among others – that the father is the head of the family and children have to obey him. Some of the students, reportedly especially girls didn’t approve of this notion and booed in protest. Otherwise the minister was delighted by the school, which is one of the most successful schools in his domain. So how does it come to this discrepancy in ideology and why are schools which share the traditional stance of the government less successful?
My guess is because traditional African ideology makes students dumb! And to extend the provocation I guess it also makes governments dumb. Not that Waldorf School is an especially clever or revolutionary concept of education. I think their ideology is already quite petrified (versteinert), but it shows what already the absence of archaic tradition can achieve.
Everybody complains about the poor performance of the Namibian education system and government throws plenty of taxpayers’ money into the sector to improve the brains of the upcoming generation. In my opinion it is a waste as long as they don’t change one of the mayor obstacles that prevent young Namibians to become creative and productive thinkers instead of replicators of an obsolete and outdated culture. Their culture is for most Africans a holy cow, because that’s how they define their identity. For a considerable majority it also secures privileges they don’t want to abolish.
At independence Namibians decided to adopt the concept of western democracy, which is not well developed and understood in African tradition, I would even say in many aspects it contradicts African traditions and feelings. The African way of ruling a family, a village or a tribe is very authoritarian. African leaders claim high degrees of power and accept no criticism or interference from ordinary citizens. Exactly this system of patriarch ruling is what some of the Waldorf students didn’t like. They probably prefer a more equal distribution of power. I think they know exactly what the patriarchic rule means. Of course not every father is a despotic tyrant, but many African men see their ‘natural’ role like this and fight anybody who wants to change it. This system is highly hostile to development, which is a main reason for African underdevelopment. It also doesn’t promote education and intellectual interests. For instance many Namibians complain about the school fees. Traditional African men may own 5000 head of cattle, but would not sell a single one to pay the school fees of their children, especially not the girls. Most of these patriarchs are poorly educated themselves, but what they say is truth for their families even if it is not. If an African leader claims e.g. that homosexuality is ‘unnatural’ and un-African and must be eradicated and suppressed as an evil brought by the white colonialists, then that is what his subjects take for granted; even though it contradicts any scientific evidence. The same is true for the claims of witchdoctors and priests. In such an environment the natural curiosity and quest for enquiry of children, the development of critical thinking and accumulation of knowledge cannot flourish. Instead these needs are filled with rural or urban legends, gossip and plain nonsense. Additionally elders tend to never admit that they don’t know, they just invent an answer, instead of researching one, they are lying for a purpose. Not knowing means a loss of face and respect for traditional authority (which is quite stupid!). Children who grow up in an intellectual setup like this and believe in these contents have a lot of problems to acquire scientific sound facts. They even might lose any interest in learning. I guess most teachers know this phenomenon. That is why I said traditional African ideology makes dumb – the figures of the examination results confirm this.
I don’t believe African children are genetically dumber than other children; they are deprived of the opportunity to learn freely and joyfully. Namibian leaders have understood the enormous importance of education for the development of the country, but they don’t know how to successfully implement proper education. Their standard approach to throw as much money as possible into the educational sector didn’t achieve the desired results. I propose they must start with an essential new concept, which tries to change some basic rules and say goodbye to some tribal traditions, which hamper development already since 2000 years in Africa. Your children will be thankful.
