Paper Status Tracking

Journals by Title

Journals by Subject

Contact us

	[email protected]
	3275638434

	Paper Publishing WeChat

Useful Links

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Article

Open Access

Colonial Education System in Africa: The German Experience in Cameroon 1884-1916

Author(s)

René Ngek Monteh

Full-Text PDF Download XML 1225 Views

DOI:10.17265/2159-5526/2018.05.003

Affiliation(s)

University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon

ABSTRACT

In early colonial times, European scientists and politicians explained and justified the aggressive and devastating expansion of Europe to nearly every corner of the world. Africans, for example, had been dehumanized, infantilized, and bereft of history. The legacy of this colonial enterprise can still be observed in various activities of the African especially in the domain of education. The German colonial effort only began in 1884 with the scramble for Africa but was short-lived in their stay in Africa. As a result, they implemented their own form of education in their colonies in Africa and that was the case in Cameroon. In this sphere, the German colonial authority realized that they gained strength over colonized nations not only through physical control, but also through mental control. This mental control was carried out through their education system. The German educational goal in Cameroon, like elsewhere in Africa, was to expose Africans to a superior culture with the hope that education will usher the natives into the modern world and will make them more civilized. Captured from this background, this paper, in the first segment, analyze the political objectives of the German educational system in Cameroon with emphasis on their desire to extend overseas culture to the natives. Secondly, the characteristics of this educational system in the domains of school premises, teaching style, curriculum contents, and educational organization are examined. At the end, this paper investigates the difficulties faced and the drastic impact of such education especially in the domain of traditional administration in the study local.

KEYWORDS

African, Cameroon, colonial education, western culture

Cite this paper

Sociology Study, May 2018, Vol. 8, No. 5, 220-231

References

Altbach, P. G. and G. P. Kelly, eds. 1978. Education and Colonialism. New York: Longmans.

Atangana, E. 1996. Cent ans d’éducation scolaire au Cameroun réflexion sur la nature, les moyens et les objectifs de l’entreprise (1885 à nos jours) [One Hundred Years of School Education in Cameroon Reflection on the Nature, Means and Objectives of the Company (1885 to Present Day)]. Paris: Édition L’Harmattan.

Austen, R. 1977. “Douala versus Germans in Cameroon: Economic Dimensions of a Political Conflict.” Revue D’Histoire D’Outre Mer 64(237):477-497.

Basung Gwanfogbe, M. 1995. “Changing Regimes and the Development of Education in Cameroon 1886-1966 (With Special Reference to the Basel Mission).” PhD thesis, Department of History, Humanities and Philosophy/Department of International and Comparative Education, University of London Institute of Education.

Eyongetah, T. and R. Brain. 1974. A History of Cameroon. London: Longmans.

Fanso, V. G. 1975. “Background to the Annexation of Cameroon, 1875-1885.” ABBIA 29-30:231-280.

Madiba, E. 1980. Colonisation et Évangélisation en Afrique: L’Heritage Scolaire du Cameroun (Colonization and Evangelization in Africa: The School Legacy of Cameroon). Bern: Editions Peter Lang.

Mannoni, O. 1956. Prospero and Caliban: The Psychology of Colonisation. London: Mathuen.

Mballa Owono, R. 1986. L’école Coloniale au Cameroun: approche historico-sociologique (The Colonial School in Cameroon: Historico-Sociological Approach). Yaoundé: Edition de l’imprimerie Nationale.

Mbassi, J. 1973. “L’œuvre culturelle allemande au Cameroun 1884-1914” (German Cultural Work in Cameroon 1884-1914). Postgraduate doctoral thesis, Université de Paris III.

Mveng, E. 1984. Histoire du Cameroun (History of Cameroon). Vol. 1. Yaoundé: CEPER.

Neil, S. 1966. Colonialism and Christian Missions. London: Butterworth Press.

Ngoh, V. J. 1987. Cameroon, 1884-1985: A Hundred Years of History. Yaoundé: Navi-Group Publications.

Njeuma, M. Z., ed. 1989. Introduction to the History of Cameroon: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Owona, A. 1973. “La naissance du Cameroun (1884-1914)” [The Birth of Cameroon (1884-1914)]. Cahiers d’Études Africaines 49:16-36.

Rudin, H. 1938. Germans in the Cameroons 1884-1914: A Case Study in Modern Imperialism. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Santerre, R. and C. Mercier-Tremblay. 1982. La quête du savoir: essais pour une anthropologie de l’éducation camerounaise (The Quest for Knowledge: Essays for an Anthropology of Cameroonian Education). Montréal: Les presses de l’Université de Montréal.

Stoecker, H., ed. 1986. German Imperialism in Africa: From the Beginning Until the Second World War. Translated by B. Zöllner. London: Hurst Publishers.

Wolfgang, H. 1986. “Education Policy.” In German Imperialism in Africa: From the Beginning Until the Second World War, edited by H. Stoecker. New Jersey: Hurst and Company.