NMU explores ‘African renaissance’ in education
Africanisation, decolonisation and how to interpret the world through an African lens — these are among the topics under discussion at the two-day Africanisation-Decolonisation Indaba at the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) ocean sciences campus.
The indaba, which began yesterday, aims to explore if and how the issues are being integrated into NMU’s curriculum.
Economics department lecturer Dr Asanda Fotoyi said SA’s education system was still broadly colonial, and more debate on the curriculum was needed to identify and support the implementation of a new “African renaissance agenda”.
“We need to ask what is the context and what is the aim of what we are teaching, is it integrated into the lived experience of our students, how are we presenting it and are our textbooks aligned?
“We need an anchor we can all agree on,” Fotoyi said.
NMU Business School executive education Prof Grant Freedman said the aim of his department was to prepare students for a hi-tech future that also took cognisance of their African roots and lived experience.
“The idea is to produce agile young adults for the future in an uncertain world that includes low bandwidth technology and successful co-operation with colleagues that are not human.”
He said artificial intelligence was being integrated across all sectors in a way that could help SA development.
“One of our former students is using it to improve agricultural husbandry. It can be integrated into spectacles to help us better understand what we are seeing.
“It is being used for drone farming, mining in dangerous areas where you don’t want to send miners, psychometric profiling and by lawyers to find legal loopholes.”
Earlier, NMU deputy vicechancellor of engagement and transformation Prof Andre Keet said the indaba was fundamentally important.
“We are here because we regard the Africanisation and decolonisation of the university as key and worthwhile pursuits in higher education.
“This meeting is an open invitation for us to collectively grapple with these questions.”
He said the #FeesMustFall movement of 2015 had reintroduced the issue of decolonisation into SA’s higher education debate.
NMU agricultural sciences head of department Dr Musa Khapayi said there was a huge gap in tertiary education between science and indigenous knowledge systems.
“We teach about pesticides but we don’t teach about traditional methods that are used to control pests like the use of urine, for instance.
“We must bridge the gap between science and indigenous knowledge systems.”
NMU George campus agriculture lecturer Dr Rhoda Malgas said she found it helpful to regularly introduce African examples into her teaching whether it was canola crops in Zambia or Nguni cattle or fattailed sheep in SA.
NMU George conservation lecturer George Sekonya said his students immediately became more interested and engaged when he used the isiXhosa name for a mole snake, for instance.
“People growing up in the Xhosa culture know that species should not be harmed, so when I refer to inkwakhwa, my Xhosa students become alert and want to contribute.”