Serving The Common Good—A Postcolonial African Perspective On Higher Education

Julius Nyerere, former president of Tanzania, once compared his government's support for education to a starving village pooling its resources in order to equip some of its members so they can go seek food and supplies for the village. In his critical examination of higher education in Africa, Nkulu (Ph.D., educational policy studies, U. of Kentucky) argues that Nyerere's post-colonial vision of the purposes of higher education can still serve as a guide to educational reform in Africa. After a survey of the education models in colonial and post-colonial Africa, Nkulu explains Nyerere's beliefs that education could incorporate Western and African values and be used to inculcate a spirit of corporate solidarity, sharing, social responsibility, and solving problems together instead of attitudes of social and intellectual superiority for control that are the legacy of colonial models of education, offering Nyerere's positive impact on the U. of Dar es Salaam as an example of what could be achieved. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)