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Project

Cultural hybridity at the post-colonial school. The cultural identity of Congolese elitist post-colonial secondary education

This research project studies the cultural identity of elitist Congolese post-colonial secondary education. Partly due to the inherited colonial educational system and, at the same time, as a reaction against it, post-colonial education in Congo seems to have remained fundamentally ‘Western-oriented’ and ‘Westernizing’ up till the present day. Attempts at reforming schooling, especially as inspired by the authenticity-campaign launched by Mobutu in 1971, seem to have missed their goal: to ‘reconnect’ the Congolese population to their ‘own cultural roots’, and to reject ‘foreign’ (equals Western) influences that have been imposed upon her. At least, this is a complaint that is made by several national and international educational experts from the 1960s onwards. How did the internalisation and assimilation of educational learning processes that did not have a primarily African bias, pass off in practice? In other words, to what degree did the assimilation of the metropolitan culture pass off? What ‘intermediate cultures’ were created by these learning processes?

Although there exist studies about colonial education and about post-colonial educational policy, a micro study of pedagogic and didactic actions relating to the post-colonial period has not yet been produced. This research project wants to penetrate into the concrete classroom level to gain insight in how pupils experienced and remembered their time at ‘Westernizing’ schools in a society that was simultaneously striving for ‘authenticity’. Methodologically this is done by combining several historical sources with case studies, namely catholic boys’ schools of secondary education in the large cities of the country, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. Archival documents are combined with oral history interviewing of former pupils and teachers and with textbook analysis. The focus is laid on the history and French courses. It is exactly the combination of the sources that will give a more nuanced and, undoubtedly, individually differentiated view on the educational practice in a post-colonial country.

Date:1 Oct 2012 →  31 Dec 2019
Keywords:History of education, Congo, Cultural identity
Disciplines:Biological and physiological psychology, General psychology, Other psychology and cognitive sciences
Project type:PhD project