The aim of this assignment is to discuss indigenous and missionary education in particularly in

Zambia. The paper will be discussed based on what is known about indigenous African
education. Therefore, to discuss this, a comparative way will be used to outline and compare
indigenous education and missionary education in Zambia as well as the impacts on the current
Zambian education system.
It cannot be argued that education existed for as long as humans started living in groups. This
type of education is known as indigenous African education. This type of education existed
before the coming of the missionaries. However, the missionaries came along with what is
known as western education. Each form of education had its own strengths and weaknesses.
When the missionaries came, they only considered the weaknesses of traditional African
indigenous education and concluded based on what they saw that Africans were uneducated.
Little did the missionaries consider the merits of indigenous African education even neglecting
the fact that African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived.
Kelly (1999:1) define education as a lifelong process in which the older generation impart skills,
values and knowledge into the young ones for their own survival. Education is not the same as
schooling, but it is a lifelong process conducted by many agencies. Education is the action done
by adult generation.
African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived because they acquired Informal
education which is the life-long process whereby every individual acquires attitudes, values,
skills and knowledge from daily experiences and other educational influences and resources in
each one’s environment for their own survival. This is the type of education where one 1earns
how to survive in life through experiences and instructions from the elders by adapting to the
environment.
Survival education teaches individuals to adapt to the environment by finding out means of
surviving on their own void of others. It is clear in Africa and Zambia in particular today that
there is no any other form of education taught for the survival of the children as it were in the
indigenous African education. Individuals acquired most of their knowledge, skills, attitudes
and values through informal education, that is, in the home, from the media, on the streets
etcetera. African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived simply because their type
of education looked mainly at the well being of an individual and it can be eloquently said that
education existed in every society around the world. If education never existed, then people
would never have managed to survive. However, the provision of education may have differed
depending on the social needs of the people in a particular society. Thus, it would be imperative
to argue based its nature that African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived in
every respect.
Before the introduction of education brought by the missionaries in Africa, there was a form of
education that was aimed at preparing people for a better life in the society. This type of
education started from childhood until such a time when an individual attained adulthood. Kelly
(1999) states that although indigenous education systems can vary from one place to another,
the goals of these systems are often strikingly similar. He further argued that the aim of
1indigenous education concerned with instilling the accepted standards and beliefs governing
correct behavior and creating unity and consensus. This looked mainly at the role of an
individual in society. On the contrary, modern education or the type of education that was
brought by the missionaries was aimed at making Africans learn how to read and write so that
Africans can easily be converted to Christianity. Thus, the missionaries were motivated to give
formal education, that is literacy and numeracy so that Africans could read the Bible
(evangelization) and spread the gospel to others. The missionaries rejected much of tradition
way of life because their desire was to convert as many Africans as possible to Christianity
religion. Thus, the education provided was biased towards religion. The more the indigenous
people learnt how to read the Bible the higher the chances that they would be drown -to the
Christian faith. This kind of education did not teach African children to adapt to their
environments.
African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived as seen in the way their education
system was organized. In terms of organization, Ocitti (1973) argued that in African indigenous
education, the powers were limited to tribal social division family, lineage or village, clan,
chiefdom. Organizations mainly describe the social relationships that existed, that are the rights
and duties of husbands, wives and children. It also looks at whether a particular tribe is
patrilineal or matrilineal that is children belong to the husband or matrilineal where descent is
towards the mother’s side or family. The relation between relatives (for example mothers or
father’s brother) was also seen to have special importance to a child’s growing up. This strongly
strengthened learners to be oriented towards what they were doing.
African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived as their education was organized
and administered in the way that learners could easily adapt to it. In African indigenous
education, administration was done by the elders who determined what was best for their
generation and those generations to come. The entire tribe or chiefdom would be administered
by the kings or chiefs who would either be elected or put in power through hereditary. The chief
was mainly assisted by the council which composed of the elder men of the tribe. It was some of
these elders who would play a bigger role in the provision of indigenous education by
establishing was children were encountering in their daily lives. This is because the education
was mainly towards the inculcation of good morals.
The content of indigenous education had much stress on the communal and social aspect rather
than on an individual. This was done mainly to prepare boys and girls for adult life in
households, villages and tribes. That is why the type of education provided was described as
“static”. This means that it was unchanging from generation to generation, in other words it was
rather conservative with little innovation. Thus it was the same education that was practiced
over and over for years. (Mwanakatwe, 1974)

The content of indigenous education had its paramount importance on the detailed knowledge
of physical environment and the skills to exploit it. For instance, hunting on the part of men and
farming the part of females. It also had its stress on togetherness or unity as well as
understanding the rights and obligation of each individual in a particular society. The concept of
togetherness would teach the indigenous people on how to live and work with others within the
societies or chiefdoms. The rights and obligations will put in place the extent and limitations of
individual rights. This was responsible for making sure that boys and girls understand what is
required of them in a particular society.

In its content, indigenous education also included laws, moral principles obligation to ancestral
spirits, to relatives and to others in groups or tribe. (Mwanakatwe: 1996). It is from these
lessons that children would learn to respect elders as well as pay allegiance to the spirits if they
wanted their days of their lives to be extended.

In contrast, the content of the education provided by the missionaries was only biased towards
religion. Snelson (1974) argued that the education provided had stress on bible doctrines,
agriculture, Carpentry, black smithering and other skills that would help people raise their
standards after which they would be drawn to the Christian religion. This type of education had
no appeal to the way people had hitherto transmitted wisdom knowledge and experiences from
one generation to the next. This means that the missionaries did not consider the indigenous
African education to benefit them in any way neither did they consider how helpful it was even
to the Africans themselves.
Indigenous education encouraged togetherness or corporation rather than competition as it is
today. In short, competition was discouraged in any way possible; instead unit was always the
talk of the day in indigenous education rather than today’s education which encourages
competition.
African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived because the methods of teaching
used in indigenous education were plain and similar because they were action oriented and all
based on doing. It was planned from childhood to adulthood for children to adapt to their
environments. So children would learn through “imitations” Men would work, hunt or play and
boys would imitate. Women would also do the house chores in the presence of their daughters
and later tell them to do likewise. Sometimes, especially at evening time, children would learn
through oral literature as elders told education stories while sited around a fire. This was
actually the time when fear and punishment was used as motivators for learning and behavior.
For instance, children would be told to stand still if elders are passing and never to answer
harshly if elders are rebuking them. They used to be told that defaulters would grow hair on the
neck or the earth would open and swallow them. Thus the children would adhere to the
instructions out of fear.

The other methods used were through social ceremonies and initiation ceremonies. The later is
where a boy or girl was taken in seclusion after attaining puberty. The men were taught to work
hard and provide for their families while the women were taught to care for their husbands,
children and the entire family. It was during this time that men and women were taught to
participate in adult activities fully (that is, fishing, hunting, housekeeping etcetera). (Kelly
1999). All these justifies that African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived
African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived due to the fact that traditional
education was meaningful, unifying, holistic, effective, practical and relevant to the individual as
well as the community at large. It created strong human bonds because it involved the whole
community. It was also recommended for the fact that there was separation between education
and the world of work. Thus, it reached out to and educated the whole person.
African indigenous education was valuable to both the individual as well as the society. An
individual benefited in that emphasis was much more concerned with instilling the accepted
standards and beliefs governing correct behavior. In addition, indigenous did not encourage
competitiveness in intellectual and practical matters instead it created unity consensus among
members of a particular society or tribe. Thus indigenous education was not only concerned
with socialization of younger generation into norms, religion, moral beliefs and collective
opinions of the wider society, it also laid a very strong emphasis on acquisition of knowledge
which was useful to the individual and society as whole. (Kelly 1999).

In a recap, indigenous forms of education served the needs of the community as a whole
justifying that African children in pre-colonial period learnt what they lived. Hence, indigenous
education theory hold that each of the individual’s relationship affects and is affected by all the
other members of the community. There is need to harmonize and integrate the best elements of
both indigenous and today’s education system in order to create more viable system of
education in Africa.

References
Blakemore and Cooksey (1980). A Sociology of Education for Africa. London Allen and Unwin
Publishers.
Bray M and Stephens (1986). Education and Society in Africa, London : Edward Arnold
Kelly, M.J. (1998). Origin and Development of Schools in Zambia , Lusaka : Image Publishers
Limited.
Mwanakatwe M.J. (1974). The growth of Education in Zambia Since Independence, Lusaka :
Oxford UNZA Press.
Ocitti, J.P (1973). African Indigenous education. Nairobi: East Africa Literature Bureau