Sub-saharan Africa: Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi or Neo-neo-colonialism?

Abstract

This chapter offers a survey of education development in Sub-Saharan Africa, dynamics of global forces and Sub-Saharan African context. First, the regional context of Sub-Saharan Africa is surveyed. This is followed first by an overview of the incoming tide of global forces impinging on education in the sub-continent, followed by a discussion of education developments in Sub-Saharan Africa as co-shaped by contextual contours. It transpires that the contextual realities of sub-Sahara Africa not only have a powerful mediating role on the impact of global forces but also are in their own right an agency in shaping the education response of societies in the region. The other common thread running through the chapter is the lack of knowledge explicating the interrelationship between education and societal context in the region. This lacunus is evident from the fact that no country in the region has ever been included in international surveys such as the TALIS survey, to lack of research on, for example, informal settlements or the informal economy and its intersection with education. Such research, when placed on the Comparative and International Education research agenda, will not only be of significance to Sub-Sahara Africa, but also to the entire world, many aspects of the contextual architecture of the region are becoming increasingly evident world-wide.

Citation

Wolhuter, C.C. (2022), "Sub-saharan Africa: Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi or Neo-neo-colonialism?", Wolhuter, C.C. and Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) World Education Patterns in the Global South: The Ebb of Global Forces and the Flow of Contextual Imperatives (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 43B), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 173-189. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-36792022000043B010