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Open Access

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

Author(s)

René Ngek Monteh

Full-Text PDF Download XML 804 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

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