Colonial Echoes in Kenyan Education: a First Person Account
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Spring 2006 Social Sciences Colonial Echoes in Kenyan Education: A First Person Account Molly Cunningham In this paper, I critique the educational system in Kenya through Class of 2008 personal narratives from a visit I took there in 2004. By examining Cultural and Social Anthropology, English the history, curriculum, and language difficulties of this system, I paint a complicated portrait of a system that is overburdened and underfinanced. Deliberately avoiding any normative conclusions, my purpose is to expose the postcolonial currents that run through the educational system, continually stunting its success and compro- mising the autonomy of its subjects. Education must become a site for transitions to independence, not only for the young minds in the classroom, but also for a nation still plagued by postcolonial ghosts. arrived at New Hope Children’s She also sends them all to school. Some me to praise God. Centre in the Uplands district out- of them even make it to secondary school, SMy students in my English composi- side of Nairobi, Kenya on March 13, and “Mama” Chege prays she may even tion class at the local school were no dif- 2004. The two-story orphanage is have the resources to send a couple of the ferent. In their writing, every student was Ilocated off the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway, girls to university. “as happy as a peasant marrying a king’s right on the Great Rift Valley. It houses The notes started to come in the sec- daughter,” or vowed to remember some 65 girls, most of who are between the ages ond week of my visit. Throughout my event until “the worms ate [their] corpse.” of 12 and 16. I was there to live and vol- day, between chores, games, or prayers, a Besides these identical idioms, most of unteer in the home and teach at the local little hand would slip a little piece of pa- their writing was incoherent, filled with school. Most of the girls were orphaned per into mine. They were each decorated muddled spelling and grammatical er- by the AIDS epidemic; many of them had with unique flair and signed with a unique rors. This did not deter me; in all of my suffered some combination of sexual and name. But they all read the same: earnest ignorance, I only wanted my stu- physical abuse, malnourishment, and molly, dents to discover some joy in writing. I homelessness. There are 1.7 million such first of all recieve a lot of greetings like a asked them to dream of something wild children in Kenya, approximately 40% of sand in the ocean. next is to thank you and exciting and then put it to words, in a who lost their parents to AIDS (Unicef). because of the love that you love us with. story. I told them not to fret over the rules may God bless you. and in the last day, New Hope offers sanctuary to a lucky few they had been taught, but just to have fun. you shall be called. sons of God. and you of these kids and, in many ways, rehabili- will see the kingdom of God. bye bye. Eight of my 37 students turned something tation. The home was founded in January from your lovely friend in. Only three of those were stories; the 2000 by a woman named Anne Chege, Elizabeth Wangui other five had just copied what I had writ- who explains her dedication to the girls More than half of the girls referred to ten on the board. I was excited about the as “answering God’s call.” She brings up “the sand in the ocean.” Many quoted the stories that I had, especially one involving the kids in the Christian faith and gives Bible or just jotted down “John 3:14.” All a girl who escaped rape by telling her tor- them practical training for the real world. sent greetings to my family and called on menters that she was HIV/AIDS positive. 37 Book 1.indb 37 10/9/06 5:25:09 PM SURJ Spring 2006 When I boasted of this student’s story in as a kitchen, and besides the small, ratty systems (Ntarangwi 221). the teacher’s lounge, the other teachers couch that I am sitting on, there is no Here begins the legacy of the colonial laughed and explained that the class had more furniture. Our legs awkwardly min- education of Africa: the first school in read that same story in a different class gle, hanging off the couch onto the single Kenya was created by a church mission- earlier in the week. They did not feel I patch of floor space. ary society. Its purpose after evangelism “I am lucky to have this place. It is quite should penalize the student; on the con- expensive to live in the city, especially was to develop labor and staff for the new trary, she was given good marks for her with no job.” My host is an unemployed, colonial administration (Ntarangwi 213). good penmanship and grammar. unmarried, middle-aged woman. She is The colonial government’s mandate for I believed my students were miss- personable, welcoming, and bright. But development amounted to defining native ing something—some main point. But she constantly laments her status and customs, health, and food as bad while es- how could I understand what it was? Their prospects, concerned for her financial tablishing itself as the authority of change world means slums, unemployment, de- future. She showers me with questions in education and Kenya (Ntarangwi 220). veloping—stagnantly, desperately. Their about the United States, but eagerly cuts The colonial powers needed to start country’s history reveals insidious colonial off my answers. capitalizing on their investment. They be- takeover, strife and struggle, and a hard- “I wish that is how it could be in Kenya! It gan injecting their own ideas of capitalist must be so nice there. Many single men! earned, twisted version of independence. And with jobs! Our country is such a ideas of production, exchange, industrial- Their lives outside of the classroom mean mess, so many without jobs and poor. The ization, and agriculture into Kenyan cul- everything to how my students will learn government takes all of the money. It is so ture. It was in this “waxen pot of colonial to think and what their education will corrupt. Sometimes I wish the white peo- urbanization [that] ethnic particularism represent. We must come to understand ple, you know, that Britain would come and African nationalism developed simul- their present and their past and begin to back and rule for us!” taneously” (Ochieng` 66). However, the ask ourselves: what will be their future? new modes of economics introduced by I have sought to question and under- The Context: History and the the British clashed with the traditional, in- stand what I experienced in Kenya, ex- Economy digenous methods, and by the 1920s, pro- ploring its history and economy, and ex- duction as dictated by the settlers began to Some Kenyan history textbooks gloss amining the educational system in terms fail (Ochieng` 104). the country’s colonial history positively. of its curriculum and language practices. Tension began mounting as the effects They characterize the British as a savior of These explorations have revealed inces- of the Great Depression began to reverber- some sort, “out to eradicate the slave trade tuous connections between the legacy of ate around the world in the 1930s. Conflict and spread a ‘civilizing mission’ designed colonialism and the psyche of a people, and consciousness were rising, as Africans to make [Africans] all full human beings, being perpetuated—despite its better in- suffered the friction and failure of colonial on earth and in heaven” (Independent Ke- tent—by the educational system. It is a misrule (Ochieng` 140). The British set- nya 3). In this light, British colonization dense and sensitive topic, and while I have tlers reacted by attempting to exacerbate appears as a benevolent, Christianizing tried to tease out some questions and nu- differences between ethnic groups. De- force, implemented with the Africans’ best ances, I cannot boast of any definitive con- spite these efforts, the resistance, especial- interest in mind. clusions. ly of the powerful union movements, was However conciliatory this view This is by no means my story. My in- powerfully multi-ethnic and tended to is, it is flagrantly incorrect. Kenya was sight cannot offer any candid portraits of organize around class lines (Independent snatched up in the Scramble for Africa at the culture and the institution I wish to ex- Kenya 9). Tensions peaked in the early the beginning of the twentieth century as a amine. My words can only show the colli- 1950s when anti-colonial militants broke means of protecting Britain’s naval ‘sphere sion of multiple voices and stories. Hope- out into violence against colonial powers of influence’ (Ochieng` 12). “Direct ter- fully this polyphony can shed some light and loyalists. A state of Emergency was ritorial take-over was a way of forestall- on the relationship between Africa and the declared, and the “Mau Mau Rebellion” ing competition and controlling areas of West, focusing on the base of socialization was eventually quelled. In the ensuing re- strategic economic value” (Independent and the vehicle that will lead us into the taliation undertaken by the British, 11,503 Kenya 3). British settlers came in by the future: the education of our children. Africans were killed, though some experts masses, snatching the best agricultural As a guest, I accept the hot tea that is of- estimate the numbers actually spanned far land.