University of Venda Discourses on Difference and Oppression

Gone are the days for the primacy of hegemonic education rooted in Eurocentric and white ....dominated traditions( Goduka 1996: 73)

The education system in South Africa is based on the scientific model, which is a Eurocentric approach to knowledge and reality. It ignores the African Traditional Thought and where the African perspective is included, it is unsystematic and ad hoc while hegemony through emphasis of the Western view makes this inclusion ineffective.

The Africans comprise the largest section of consumers of social services in South Africa. Africans form the majority of suppliers of that service.. While they themselves have specific experiences as Africans, their education ignores or invades the African cultures resulting in confusion and alienation from their own culture. This results in the realities of the African consumer of social services being totally ignored as the African service providers themselves are not equipped either to render a sensitive service or to defend this act, making the African cultures esoteric.

This chapter examines the influence of apartheid on the curriculum process in South Africa and analyses the link between multicultural education and racism with special reference to how racism still continues to permeate the education system in South Africa. The voice of the African is stifled and is virtually silent especially at tertiary education level.

The objectives of this chapter are to :

- examine and analyse the influence of racism and apartheid in the curriculum process in tertiary institutions in South Africa.

- analyse the course content and learning material in various schools in selected tertiary institutions, for the Africanist perspective.

The aim is to synthesise the findings and related literature in order to suggest an Afrocentric approach to non-racial multicultural tertiary education in South Africa.

The arguments in the chapter are based on the data collected in various ways. Secondary data collected from professional nurses in 1998, for a paper on Towards a dialogue Between The Biomedical Model of Health Care and the Africanist Perspective - A Challenge to Nursing Education in South Africa was analysed. Course content of programmes in the faculties of arts and schools of health of six South African tertiary institutions was carried out. Focussed participant observation in the past five years or so during the course of my work as an academic was carried out. Conversations at the following international conferences were analysed-

Indiana-University - Purdue University, USA 1998 - Women in Africa and the African Diaspora: Health and Human rights.

Wits 1999 with theme Taking the lead in Health Care - A Celebration of 30 years of degree of nursing at Wits.

University of Natal 1999- Contemporary education for the health of Africa

Peninsula Technikon 1999 - Reconstruction of high education in South Africa -The role of SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) and NQF (National Qualifications Framework.

My own experiences as an African who has lived all my life in South Africa influences my view on the need for using the African perspective as central to the curriculum process in South Africa.

Based on this information, suggestions and recommendations are made for an approach that will allow for a dialogue between the western and Afrocentric approach to tertiary education in South Africa.

THE INFLUENCE OF APARTHEID ON THE CURRICULUM PROCESS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

During the colonisation of Africa, including the apartheid system of South Africa, the value system and the realities of the African experiences and their consciousness were distorted and attuned to White values ( Okolo, 1985). The colonisers' intention was to enslave the African mind and destroy the African soul in their endeavour to perpetuate their imperial supremacy over the peoples of Africa. ( Mbeki, 1997).

It was for this reason that Africans were educated to facilitate the objectives of the apartheid system in South Africa. According to Leo (1965),

...Education qualified Africans for priest, teacher and interpreter. In these occupations Africans functioned for African society, teaching and serving their own people. Their role was not unlike that of switches in the telephone exchange passing the word .... from whites to Africans....The occupational role , like that of the social role, was intermediate between the two societies, and instrumental role shaped by others and not independent or creative ... Non African intellectuals fashion thinking and hand it to the African educated elites, who in turn disseminate it among their people...( Leo, 1965 : 147).

...The problem lies in the cultural decolonization which was endured by Africans under colonialism and settler colonialism. This experience has installed an elite which in its formation constantly turns its back to its origins ...(Pra 1995: 19)

Although Leo mentions only the teacher, the minister of religion and the interpreter, this education was true for all Africans. In actual fact this alienated the educated from the rest of the ordinary illiterate African people who were and still are in the majority in South Africa.

The self concept of the African has been devalued and the culture has been invaded through educational programmes and teaching strategies.

Since the British colonisation in the 1820's until the end of apartheid in 1994, through different institutions, including education, the dominant culture rooted in European tradition utilised and maintained forms of cultural hegemony to exert domination and control over Africans... as they begin to accept uncritically the values , the standard and the goals of the invaders, while they are denied the power base... and adopt uncritically the ideology of the European culture. These learners are silenced and their cultural experiences negated and ignored, while they are systematically educated into the discourse of the European culture.. (Goduka 1998:51)

During this era of the African Renaissance, tertiary education is obliged to challenge the exclusively Western criteria of reasoning and criticism. There is need to recognise diversity and multiculturalism in the South African society. Tertiary education should take cognisance of the realities of the indigenous people within curricula , through teaching strategies and material used in the facilitation of learning.

This chapter is inspired by the observations made in the recent debate on the African Renaissance since South Africa became democratic and the government became predominantly African. One wonders if the Africa vukuzenele(Africa wake up and do it for yourself) saga will only be noises without concrete visible efforts from all Africans, especially the educated African, and not just the politicians. It would seem the quest to challenge the Western perspective has been suggested before as this statement observes:

... Although there is a call to combine or integrate various paradigms, it is seldom accompanied y specific suggestions or guidelines about how to create a new theoretical approach for the study of Africa (Bradshaw, Kaiser & Ndengwa 1995: 38).

It is evident that teaching is a political activity. In the hidden curriculum there are subtle messages about what is valuable, as well as who is in power and control. In South Africa this message is manifest in a number of ways. This is inherited from the racist education of the apartheid system. One would argue that that system has been dismantled since 1994.It would seem it is going to take time to dismantle a system that was in place for 50 years as illustrated by some incidences both in the general lives and life in institutions of learning.

There are news of racist violence in the media. The worst one is a case of Angelina a six year old African child shot and killed by a white farmer. This was a six month old daughter of an African worker in the employ of the said farmer. During the shooting, Angelina was on her nine year old cousin's back. Francina the cousin, was reportedly harassed by a white and African detectives while recovering in hospital. These are some of the remarks from the farmer's white neighbours '... He must have had a good reason to shoot the children... There are far more whites being killed by blacks but look at the fuss about this one black kid...'( O'Loughlin, 1998:6).

The fights between African and white students in tertiary institutions when white institutions were opened to African students after 1994 became a frequent spectacle on the South African television. High schools are also affected by this problem as seen on television recently, six years after the democratic non-racial government came into being. In one school an African boy stabbed a white boy with a knife. In another an African boy was attacked by a group of white boys. The attacked African boy's remark was 'Racism is rife in the so called integrated schools and we Africans have got to know who we are in order to survive'.

New forms of racism are expressed even among blacks South Africans, that is the Indians, 'Coloureds' and the Africans. This is evident in a study carried out by Stevens in 1998, where he explored how 'coloured' participants spoke about Africans. He points out that the South African society has through the process of racialisation been categorised through racial labels. The usage of these labels '... reflect the implicit acceptance of the legitimacy of the labels, but also frequently, many of their associated connotations' (Stevens: 1998: 210).

In another study carried by Carrim in the same year, among Whites, Coloureds and Indians the findings indicate racialised attitudes towards Africans among the three racial groups. This study was carried out in Gauteng multiracial schools which had engaged in the so called multiculturalism, what Carrim (1998) calls bad multiculturalism. In the process of admitting African children in the multiracial schools, the African children were expected to adapt and adopt the new culture and ethos dominant in the schools which had previously catered for either White, Indian or Coloureds. A the school and/or the state had no obligation to provide any special programme or support to facilitate the adaptation of black students into schools. (Carrim 1998:307). Although there is such a programme now , it would seem schools which need it must inform the department of education according to the department's spokesperson recently (TV 1 news). Since education has gone multicultural in South Africa , it is important to look at the relationship between multiculturalism and racism. This will help in the analysis of my thesis which suggests that the Africanist perspective should be given special attention within the multicultural educational system in South Africa.

One academic complained that "We are talking a lot about cross- cultural nursing, we do not even clearly understand it. It is an American concept as we prescribe books by American authors. During planning as we carry out a community needs analysis we do not consider the health practices of the African people". This statement is in line with the definition of multiculturalism given by May (1994) in his review of Troyna's book on Racism and Education. Ironically this book is on the American system of education but the focus of discussion applies to the South African situation. May points out that multicultural education is the latest version of deracialised education, the predecessors being assimilation and integration. He goes on to lament the fact that multicultural education, like the earlier versions of deracialised education, does not address forms of societal inequalities especially race.

...While culture is the central concept around which the new multiculturalism is constructed, the concept is given only a taken-for- granted common sense meaning impoverished of both theoretically and in terms of concrete lived experiences ... It is a concept of culture innocent of class... ( It) ...does little to challenge or change the cultural transmission of the dominant group within schooling or the process of structural disadvantage, including racism, faced by minority students ...  (May 1994: 421).

Using the definition of the concept critical and comprehensive multiculturalism, the following characteristics were noted:

* a process of comprehensive school reform

*challenges and rejects racism and other forms of discrimination in schools and society

*accepts and affirms the pluralism that teachers, students and community represents

*a multicultural education permeates the curriculum and instructional strategies used in schools as well as interaction among teachers , students and parents

* it furthers the democratic principles of social justice by

* believes in representation of all cultures and groups as significant in the production of knowledge.

( May 1994 )

The effects of this assimilationist approach is taking its toll among the Africans across South Africa. One is confronted with this in course of work and in the communities generally. Conversations in the academic spheres are not free from this , as the attitude is that those children who attend multiracial schools must learn to speak in English. Unfortunately this sometime taken to extremes. A few years back a middle class relative took her child to a multiracial school. On his first visit home I greeted and spoke to the child in Zulu. The mother immediately objected saying that the child needed to learn to speak in English. Unfortunately due to modernisation among the Africans including Zulus, the extended family is almost extinct among the educated. The child who goes to a multiracial school is most of the time not likely to come to contact with their own culture in the village. Among those who hold on to their indigenous culture the children are encouraged to speak in their own language and will only be given assistance if they happen to speak in English. This manifests itself in the conversations in the university cafeteria as one colleague put it: "You need only to know the vocabulary that you will use" when asked to explain an indigenous expression. Another one pointed out his concern "You know, it is like this thing of a long list of relatives! What do you need them for?" These colleagues later refused to be interviewed for this project, saying they did not realise I was serious. This conversation like many other conversations show how the educated African is westernised and unconsciously perpetuates the notion that anything to do with African culture is 'backward'.

The Africanist discourse seem not to be taken seriously and any discussions on racism are taboo among academics. In 1991, I had the privilege of being in a group of white and African academics who spent two weeks touring some outreach projects of the University of Natal. In the evenings we had informal indabas sitting around the fire in the open space. It was amazing to learn how little our white colleagues new about Africans experiences. One was to hear this sentence many times during those two weeks and on returning to campus "You guys (Africans) are becoming racist yourselves" whenever anything to do with the rights of Africans came up. Recently while preparing for this project I put up a request that colleagues should share their experiences of racism during the apartheid era and another on the definition of Africanism explaining that I was looking for the definition within the context of the particular institution. I got a few responses on Africanism most of which were explaining to me what an operational definition means. There was no response on the experiences of racism. At least some colleagues would joke about Africanism, some referring me to others who are said to be into this Africanist thing. One professor asked me to write a letter to him and another referred me to his wife because she is in the same profession as me.

This was also evident in the conversations among research fellows of the Privileging Orality through Authorship fellowship,offered by the South African Association for Academic Development (SAAAD) in collaboration with the German Foundation for International Development in 1996-97. This research fellowship aimed at training academics from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, in qualitative research methods. The focus was the Africanist and gender perspectives. The Africanist perspective was new to all the participants and in fact was not of interest to most of them. In the end the research reports did not bring out the African voice. In research done by Khusi (1999) it is evident that the African voice is silenced or suppressed by both the White and African health professional researchers who published articles in two nursing journals. This affects the process of bringing in the Africanist perspective into education in South Africa.

There is a relationship between cultural hegemony or what some might call cultural violence as a discourse of racism in South Africa, and the stripping off of the African's cultural identity. With the antiracist multicultural education in South Africa, the African especially the African intelligentsia have to devise a strategy to integrate the African perspective at every level of learning. This brings my argument to the debate on Afrocentrism, Africanisation or Africanism debate .

THE DEBATE ON THE AFROCENTRISM AND RELATED CONCEPTS.

According to Cunningham 1991 Afrocentrism is a movement that is growing among African-Americans. 'Theoretically, the spirit of Afrocentrism encourages people of African descent to embrace the Afrocentric philosophies and perspectives, rather than European ideologies, and to give them a central place in their view of reality...' ( Cunningham, 1991: p. She goes on to explain that this is not exclude things European but the inclusion of things African -American.

A Norwegian feminist researcher who has lived in Africa for a long time defines Afrocentrism as 'being sympathetic to the social discourse of Africans'. (verbal communication with Birgit, 1998).

On the other hand, according to Asante (1987) Afrocentrism is concerned with establishing the world view about the writing and speaking of the African. He goes on to point out the need to properly understand the experiences of the African with special reference to capability to speak to the discourse in the language of the culture.

Afrocentric philosophy can be manifested in a number of ways for example, designing curricula based on African cultural value system, wearing Afrocentric regalia or reconstructing unacknowledged pieces of history of traditional civilisations (Adler, Manley, Smith, Chideya & Wilson 1991). Cunningham(1991) goes on to add that the African should not only understand her/his history and heritage, but must apply that knowledge to work and to their own lives. The same author notes that the socialisation process influences a person's self identity and therefore how one is educated for their profession affects their own identity and that of others. In this way influencing the service they give to others. It has been pointed out by Mbeki (1998) that self discovery and restoration of our own self-esteem is the basis for the African Renaissance, and it applies just as well to the task of transforming the tertiary educational programmes to embrace Afrocentrism.

Okolo(1985) argues that the value system and the African experience was deliberately distorted during colonisation. This is alluded to by Hallen (1995) and further points out that while the Traditional African thought is seen as non-knowledge by the West and some Africans trained in the West, this is challenged as an exclusively Western criteria of criticism and reasoning. Some authors like Rauche ( 1996 ) take the view that '... as a result of the African's specific or contextual life experience (reality ), African thought has assumed a specific structure, which when analysed shows a logical coherence and can be represented as a hierarchical system. As such, it shows a methodological structure'(Rauche, 1996: p ) In this article Rauche sees African philosophy as a dialogue between African and Western thought irrespective of the origin of the debater. It is therefore grounded in a specific way of thinking, rooted in a specific way of life. Okeke (1996) takes the argument further by quoting Maidume who suggests that the dominant Western approach should be replaced by the untapped indigenous expertise. She further points out that the western authors can never succeed in bringing out the subjective and culturally specific knowledge which is essential in writing about Africans.

Okolo (1985), Bradshaw, Kaiser & Ndengwa, (1995) suggest that the Africans themselves have to use qualitative research methods and case studies to explore their diverse life experiences. These studies they say should be done without trying to fit them into the western paradigm, in order to formulate conceptual frameworks and theories relevant for the continent of Africa.

This notion has been observed in research articles published in South Africa for example in the Curationis, an accredited nursing journal.The focus still is not on the inclusion of the African culture here but is on the African student adapting to the western academic world , what Goduka(1998) has called miseducating, silencing and negating/ignoring the lived experiences of the African learner. Goduka (1998) seems to have a remedy where she talks about power relations in the cultural invasion. She then calls for cultural democracy and

... validation and affirmation of African learners' cultural identity and cultural voice ( where) .. the lived experiences of African learners are critically integrated into the curriculum, instructional material and teaching strategies.( Goduka,1998: 49).

On the South African front the issue on Africanism is taken up by both Africans and Whites. Moulder (1995) points out that Africanising South African universities is about changing the curriculum and reorganising the whole way of teaching and learning. This however is hampered by the fact that our teaching and learning are dominated by what he calls geriatric northern hemisphere cultures.

Field (1998) a white South African uses the concept 'Euro- African'.He points out that it is not enough to claim to be African by virtue of having been born in or having ancestral presence in Africa. He calls out to all whites to form a new identity and undergo an experience of conversion to make sense of both its European and African components. This claim he says must be rooted in Africa in general and South Africa in particular.

On the other hand Pra, an African , sees Africanisation as '...the systematic and preponderant deployment of Africans , in African societies , into positions which enable Africans to gain control over running of society' (Pra 1995: 7). He goes on to define Africanism as placing the culture of the Africans as the majority in Africa, at the centre of social development in order fro Africanisation to be effective.

Interestingly, Fied (1998) a white South African contends that when rooted in the African context to be Euro-African entails the affirmation that European cultural heritage ought to be subjected to critique, correction and supplementation by cultural heritage of Africa.

He goes on to point out that whites

... need to go through a conversion process by which we commit ourselves to Africa and its future and reinterpret and re-integrate on past experiences into new personal identity as Euro-African Christians. It is through this process that we come home to Africa(Field 1998: ).

Although the process of introducing the Afrocentric approach to tertiary education requires involving the whites in South Africa, the whole process should be driven by the African intelligentsia as an agent of social change (Vilakazi, 2000).

What all this boils down to is that the western way is upon us and as Africans we have to protect what sets us out as Africans within the multicultural education in South Africa. To summarise the debate above the following notions come out:

* African perspectives have to be placed as central to our lives and reality, and the education system in South Africa.

* indigenous languages and culture should be used to speak to the process of Africanisation

*lived experiences of African should be integrated in the curriculum process

*the untapped indigenous expertise should be utilised in all areas of the curriculum

* curricula should be designed based on the African cultural system

*unacknowledged history of indigenous civilisation should be reconstructed

*Africans should be visible in academia

*there should be self discovery and restoration of the African's self esteem

* teaching and learning should be re-organised

Before discussion on the hidden curriculum, it would be proper to enumerate some sources of problems faced by the African students in a multicultural tertiary institution in the 1980's as discussed by Barnsley 1992. These were:

-previous training by rote learning

- problems with self teaching

-non-participation in group discussions

- poor academic performance

-excessive deference to staff

- feelings of disillusionment

-inadequate educational background

- ignorance of socio-linguistic conventions like asking questions in public

The same author notes that African students seem to experience cumulative stress of normal developmental issues more than their white peers.

Some if not most of the problems that the African student is said to have suffered may stem from the fact that the education system is based on using the white student as a yardstick.

THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM EXPERIENCED IN TERTIARY INSTITUTION

It became clear during the observation and conversations that academics and students are affected by negative hegemony into alienation towards their own culture. Some are more affected than others depending on where they got their education and where they grew up. A good example is nurse educators which may be due to the fact that they underwent training in nursing schools while the rest of the health professionals were educated in tertiary institutions. The former lends itself to brainwashing while the latter allows for a limited emancipatory curriculum.

The experiences of the participants both in the classroom and practical set up indicated some form of African cultural hegemony. It would seem the academics themselves are aware that nothing has changed in the construction of knowledge and realities in tertiary education. This respondent sums it up where s/he says: '...Like we were taught long ago. In fact we were taught that anything that is related to the African way of life or thinking was heathen... I would say we actually ignore or disregard anything and everything that is African as we think it is backward'. Another academic remarked that 'We were brainwashed into believing that the African way of life was bad, savage, backwards and heathen. But unfortunately my colleagues who went to secular nursing schools were just as affected. I think this has to do with the profession itself and not with where you trained'. A student of nursing remarked about the format followed by their lecturer when they visited a community based health service in a village: 'There was no discussion at all on anything local or African...The women from the village were not asked for input and we as a group of African students were not involved in discussing cancer of the cervix as we know it'. This was to be echoed time and again by nursing students who are a thousand kilometres apart. In other instances a debate would ensure where the lecture ignored the the socio-cultural perspective for example on something as sensitive as circumcision . In another instance another nursing student remarked: 'We as Africans are indoctrinated to forget our traditions' when an African lecturer insisted that circumcision is just a removal of the foreskin. The student was trying to describe circumcision as he knows it including the ceremony but the lecturer simply brushed him off saying 'You are now talking about the ceremony' .

Non-nursing students have also indicated that the African perspective becomes obscure even on campuses where there are compulsory courses on African civilization or activities on African cultural heritage. In one such instance I asked a group of honours students what role they usually played on the annual African cultural week on their campus. Some of them said they were not aware of the week I was talking about and others said although they were aware of the week they never took part. I also asked them about the special collections section of their campus and they were not aware of the local art collection, books on local history and videos available. These students had been on that particular campus for four years and yet they were not aware of these important issues. At no point did any academic refer these students to this wealth of information.

This brings to mind the fact that the indigenous languages are taught in English in the tertiary institutions in South Africa. I do not recall any English course that is taught in indigenous language. I have heard of an Engish course for second or third Engish speakers. Why then are indigenous languages taught in Engish? There are concepts that are impossible to translate into Engish and can only be explained losing the original meaning in the process. This lends to various interpretations of the original message, which mostly loose the cultural connotations. This is seen in what Mafeje 1995 calls colonial anthropology.During my study in this subject of this subject at the University of Zululand, an outdated book written by Krige was used. I have a vivid picture of the lectures on the social system of the Zulu's. Although this was in Zululand , at no point were we taken on an excursion to a Zulu kraal or special open occasion like a wedding or umemulo. Although there was a research documentation section on the Zulu's, there was no link between what Krige had written and the findings of the Zulu researcher at the documentation centre. In the same institution there was a research and documentation centre manned mostly by white researchers. At no point were we referred to this centre for an example to analyse or read a letter or message written in bead language. I am told this still exists to this day in some parts of Zululand for example in Mahlabathini (personal communication with a person I only know as Mkhize, a member of the South African parliament from that area, June 2000 Thohoyandou). It is heartening though that some members of the royal family are approaching that university to ask for assistance in documentation of Zulu ceremonial music. For example Mntwana Zeblon Zulu is said to have compiled such music and the history of the Zulu royal family and he is having conversations with the academia to have these published ( personal communication with Sazile Mtshali, June 2000).

The effects of cultural hegemony is felt when an African is confronted with a work situation where they fail to communicate with their own cultural group. This comes out in this statement by a Zulu health professional

.. Working with people and the village/community workers, I learned to teach in Zulu, which is quite difficult for many ...(health professionals)... who have been taught to write assignments and examinations in English. The difficulties of finding the correct Zulu word or not knowing how to put it eventually disappeared, and I found myself communicating better in Zulu than English.. (Mzimela, 1989: 33).

African academics in the health profession are aware of the shortcoming and are looking for ways to address it as indicated by this academic,

We in this school ( which comprises of an all African staff) should come together and write a book which compares the way this component was taught to us , how we are teaching it now and how it should have been taught all along within the South African context.

There is a message on the African way of life in the way our people celebrate success of their children during graduation day. One has observed how men sing praises and women ululate at these ceremonies: '... We Africans need to sing praises of a person who has succeeded in doing something. In fact we sing praises of the whole family as when an individual succeeds the whole family has succeeded. This is our way, our African way we do not apologise about it'. This remark by an academic who herself has ululated when her relatives graduate shows that African academics do behave like other Africans after all.

The problem lies in that in their capacity as academics, they do not seem to show the same Africanness. During the celebration of the African cultural week, I have not actually seen any academics really getting involved besides organising. Although there are indigenous dance groups at least in two African universities where I have worked, I have not seen any academics joining in. Normally during dancing anyone can join by ululating or just jumping in and dance, but when the dances are at the campus only the women who do cleaning are in the groups. In one instance it was very embarrassing to stand there with other academic colleagues mattering admiration like our white colleagues. The students also do not spontaneously join in, in fact why should they do it? They are part of the elite now! This message also says 'when you are in the village, do not join in since you are now educated and therefore different' . In other words as a result of this passiveness the us and them divide becomes very clear.

A SUGGESTED AFROCENTRIC APPROACH TO TERTIARY EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA.

There were suggestions made in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes experienced by the present generation of academics. These suggestions are written here in the words of one participant who seemed to feel very strongly about her experiences which she saw as negative. This probably made her to have a clear view of what should be done to address the issues in the dialogue between the racist multicultural approach and the African perspective in our education system.

'I want to suggest mentorship like in puberty rites or rite done when you lose your husband. You have a mentor who goes with you through your experience during this period. She takes you through by telling you how to respond, she briefs you on how to solve problems saying "just follow me and you will not make mistakes". The mentor takes the blame and not the initiate.

We as Africans if we have mentors for our students they will be positive. At present no reasons are given for doing things in a particular way, we just tell them this is (university).

To balance the situation we should first understand the local situation by learning from the community so as not to impose a foreign culture, western or otherwise ... It is important that we plan the programme in such a way that it tallies with the community's way of life.

We must learn the local languages/cultures. There is a tendency to speak of African cultures as if they all the same. Once you know one African culture you know them all !not understanding the different experiences.

Sociology describes a funny African as lecturers we have to understand the culture in its totality and individual programmes for individual students.'

9. CONCLUSION

The findings point to the fact that the African Traditional Thought and way of life are ignored to a good extent in tertiary education in spite of the multicultural non-racist education in South Africa.

The neutrality and subtle negative messages on the Africanist perspective in the educational programmes and teaching strategies, perpetuates the dominant Western norms. These programmes ignore to a very good extent, the African cultural context in which the African experiences are lived.

This chapter takes the view of postmordernism and recognises diversity among African nationals of South Africa. It however does not suggest that South African society revert to some form of apartheid. But it wants to emphasise the need to recognise the influence of Africanness on social services as manifest in diverse local cultural endeavours.

Such recognition gives space for the Africans in academia to come up with the deconstruction/ reconstruction thesis to make sure that the African voice is prominent in the education programmes. They however, should avoid a hegemonic education that is rooted in African dominated traditions, that is, the opposite of the an education dominated by Eurocentric traditions (Goduka, 1996: 73).

Since South African Africans use the concept Afrocentrism and Afrocentrism interchangeably, it is safe to end this chapter by what Nantambu 1998 points out:

AWhat is needed now is for African people to go through the process of Afrocentrification or Afrocentric global re-education using Africa-centered curriculum so that we can rid ourselves of the deadly disease of Afrosclerosis that miseducation, Eurocentric analysis, and the Yurugu virus have inflicted on us.

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