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Why true African history is not being taught in schools?


Nothing is as degrading as being a native who has little or no knowledge of their own roots. That’s equivalent to a vertebrate that does not comprise a cartilaginous spinal colum.

I’m uncertain whether our government is oblivious to what’s taking place in South African schools(which I doubt), or the education system is blatantly uprooting the young South Africans in order to produce more individuals who have little or no knowledge of their history, in attempts to withdraw certain memories from the memory banks of the natives. History can never be erased; if it remains concealed, chances are it might be reincarnated, but if the young ones are taught about their history, they will eschew repeating the mistakes of the past generations. Learning about your history is akin to acquiring self-knowledge, and the more knowledge you obtain about your origin, the stronger you become as an individual, and united you shall never be broken down. The role of history to an individual is equivalent to a role of roots to a plant. 

When a nation lacks knowledge of its origin, the people of that nation end up abhoring and fearing their own, and giving their full trust to their oppressors. Which is why you often find most South Africans assaulting and using derogatory names to address their fellow Africans from neighboring countries, and we offer the authors  of “White Jesus” the best treatment any human can attain.  

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not attempting to commit an act of arson on the querencia of the lovely rainbow nation, I’m just articulating my perspective of the state of mind of the modern South Africa. This state of mind, also affects the people economically. The Jews, for instance, have a great reputation for their economic excellence. I’m not saying they’re better than us, they bleed, they have brains like us but what is that significant attribute which makes them peculiar? They stick to their beliefs and their mantra is CYO (create your own), considering how the list of inventors and nobel prize winners is filled with Jews.

Us on the other hand, we are a country that imports more than it exports, let alone consuming more than it creates, and we end up blaming the government and infer that the current minister of finance be demoted when the economy no longer dances to the rhythm of our financial states. Our lack of history, is the reason why we live in a society whereby individuals who are deemed “educated” depend solely on foreign capitalists to find ways to make a living or to obtain what the general population believes is a more secure way of living, instead of using the skills they’ve attained and the experience they’ve obtained from working for Caucasians, to contend them economically nor uplift their fellow Bantu people. A nation that lacks knowledge of its history, is more likely to be bludgeoned by segregation and a separated nation cannot create a stable or strong economic structure.

How many of the models of cars or clothing brands that are ubiquitous in our streets of Mzansi and public places, which are made from this soil? We end up hating our own brands and seeing the European ones as more appealing, to be honest they’re endearing but we need to start using the skills we obtain from institutions and the talents we have to our advantage, and that advantage must include obtaining a strong economic backbone like the Jews or Islams. Most of the things have been westernized and materialized in this modern world, including some of the African cultures and religions.

A tree without roots will never bear a single fruit. That means our habit of sending every unit of the rand out of the country’s borders each time we’re at shopping complexes will never benefit us in any possible known way. Imagine a nation that has no knowledge of itself, but knows more about other nations that are nowhere near consanguineous to theirs. A few weeks ago, I was engaged in a compendious profound conversation with an interlocutor who is still in high school. During my high school days, we were taught mostly about Europeans such as Adolf Hitler, Jews, the massacre at Treblinka, Henry XVI, Mary Antoinette and other vaunted Europeans that are utterly irrelevant to us. 

The only African we learned about was our semi-deity, The late Nelson Mandela. I had to depend on my inquisitiveness in order to  gain more knowledge about the real African history, the greatness of Africa and the Africans who are not equally vaunted as “Mandela". My reason for selecting this subject as a central point of my conversation with my interlocutor was to check if the education system had changed their dish, but unfortunately my interlocutor utterly disappointed me by enlightening me that things are still the way they were.

Imagine how embarrassing it is when an African cannot utter the days of the week, months of the year, or even count from 1 up to 100 in their native language, but does so fluently in English. That’s an utter bereavement! I still find it frivolous for South African pupils to be sent to school all weekdays, but are still oblivious to names like: Tsietsi Mashinini, Bantu Biko, Tembisile Hani, Charlotte Maxeke, Solomon Mahlangu, Samora Machel, Masediba Ngoyi, Prophet Mdliwamafa Shembe, Prophet Simon Kimbangu, Kind Badu Bonsu II, Queen Nzinga Mbandi, Emperor Menelik II, Sofasonke Mpanza, Bhambatha kaMancinza, to name a few.

Why is even the subject of history optional at schools?

That alone is a symbolic way of telling the public that history is not that important. Let us start emanating the mindset of making everyday a Heritage day in every African's mind. The department of education should reconsider the idea of making history optional, I’m certain it would positively contribute a lot in our African economic structure, and also include financial literacy as an extra subject in schools. We can’t always have the new generation but same results. We need to breed a generation that will contend the non-African races in the economic and corporate world because we are also capable of achieving that goal as Africans.

However, it should not only be the primary objective of the formal education system to teach this knowledge to the young, but it should also be the parents' duty.

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