ALL education is value-based. All values are cultural. They contain a people’s philosophy of life and principles for living.
They are inculcated in a people from childhood to adulthood and from birth to death. They are taught in school from nursery to university.
Everything that a people do is done according to their culture. They govern themselves and their land according to the philosophy of life and principles for living contained in their culture. They defend, protect and preserve their land and environment and resources according to their culture.
Those whose totem is Nzou or Ndlovu protect and defend the elephant from extinction, as a symbol of their culture. They will be outraged by the merciless slaughter of the elephants by the heartless hunters for ivory in our forests and game reserves.
Those whose totem is Dziva are protectors of rivers and other sources of water in the land such as lakes, springs and waterfalls. They will be outraged by any wanton destruction of fish, crocodiles, hippos and pollution of water bodies and all things that live in them.
Those whose totem is Mhara or Mpala are protectors of the Impala. Those whose totem is Nyathi protect the Buffalo.
Those whose totem is Soko, Phiri or Ncube protect the Baboon and Monkey as symbols of their culture, identity and oneness as a people.
The Hungwe and Nyoni are protectors of birds from wanton shooting by hunters. Those whose totem is Mbizi protect the Zebra from destruction.
The Shumba or Sibanda protect the Lion. The Mheta protect the python and the Beta, are protectors of ants and anthills from destruction.
All cultures whose totems identify with nature will protect the environment as a sacred habitat and sanctuary of symbols of their identity and being if the importance of their cultures and totems are inculcated in them throughout the process of their upbringing and are taught in school as an integral part of African education curricula across the disciplines.
In this way, culture as the source of a people’s totems and principles for living, becomes the living law in peoples’ everyday lives much in the same way as The 42 Principles of Maat in the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Ten Commandments of Moses in the Bible.
Each people will carry the dictates of their culture in their heads and cherish them in their hearts as their code of conduct in whatever they do and whatever their status or station in life may be.
For culture, in this way, determines their identity and sense of being. It defines who they are, what they are and what they have to do in order to survive as a people.
This is another way of saying that culture is a source of a people’s self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-pride, which we call, patriotism. This is what the sign on the door at the entry to the Shrine of the Oracle of Delphi in Greece meant which said MAN KNOW THYSELF.
An education devoid of culture and content which leads to conscious self-knowledge cannot escape from producing a people who are as good as mere robots without principles or values or a mind of their own to defend and protect their own.
They don’t know who they are. They don’t know what they are. They don’t know what they have or its value to them as a people. Anyone can take it from them without them ever caring to prevent them. This is how Lobengula was cheated into signing the Rudd Concession and giving away the mineral wealth of this country and consigning us to a life of destitution which we continue to suffer today.
He was not fully aware of the value of the minerals and wealth of the land he was conceding to white people. When he came to realise it, it was too late. His land was gone. He became a hollow King and a hollow man.
For, as Malcolm X says, a man is human according to his culture, worldview and values. Man without culture is but an animal. The first task of colonising Africa and enslaving Africans was to destroy African culture and reduce Africans to the level of mere animals.
Again, as Malcolm X explains: “It is no accident that a high state of culture existed in Africa and you and I know nothing about it. Why? The white man knew that as long as you and I thought we were somebody, he could never treat us like we were nobody. So he had to invent a system that would strip us of everything about us that we could use to prove we were somebody.
“Once he had stripped us of all human characteristics – stripped us of our language, stripped us of our history, stripped us of all cultural knowledge, and brought us down to the level of an animal – he then began to treat us like an animal, selling us from one plantation to another, selling us from one owner to another, breeding us like you breed cattle.”
Chinua Achebe explains how it was done: “The white man was clever. He came quietly with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act as one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
The way forward for Africa should be clear by now. African education curricula must include the teaching of African culture as the source of African philosophy and principles for living from nursery school to university level, across the curriculum.
Africans should study their history, indigenous knowledge systems, health sciences, arts, architecture, languages, worldview, philosophy and religion, from an African-centred perspective.
The enlightenment and benefits that come from knowledge of one’s culture, history and heritage is summarised beautifully in the following concluding words from Malcolm X: “A man doesn’t know how to act until he realises what he’s acting against. And you don’t realise what you’re acting against until you realise what they did to you. When you tell the black man who he is and what he had, he’ll look around and ask himself, ‘Well, what happened to it, who took it away from us and how did they do it?’
“When you tell the black man what he once had, he only needs to look at himself now to realise something criminal was done to him to bring him down to the low condition that he’s in today.
“Once he realises what was done, how it was done, where it was done, when it was done, and who did it, that knowledge in itself will usher in your action programme.
“We must launch a cultural revolution to un-brainwash an entire African people. Armed with the knowledge of our past, we can with confidence charter a course for our future. Culture is an indispensable weapon in the freedom struggle.”