Education For Life Academy
Where Black History Lives!
Introductory Unit: The Politics of Education – Enlightenment or Propaganda?
The Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Curriculum
Unit Overview
“It is the lion hunter who writes the history of the lion"
- African proverb
The Politics of Education
The African proverb above prophetically captures the political nature of education, especially as it has played out for African people. The history of Africa – of the world, was rewritten by the Europeans who conquered the Western Hemisphere in the 15th-19th centuries during what scholars refer to as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It was rewritten to justify European enslavement of Africans and indigenous Native North, Central and South Americans, and to legitimize European domination of the Western Hemisphere and the subsequent colonization of the African continent.
To defend these actions, Europeans feigned ignorance of what they knew about Africa and declared that African people were innately inferior. Some went so far as to declare that Africans were sub-human. Leading European historians, scientists, philosophers, biologists, archaeologists, politicians, and even the Church, began to sing in unison that Africans were primitive, and that Africa had no record of achievement. Thus, they declared, it was the European’s duty to “bring the light” to the “backward” and “uncivilized” non-white world. This racist ideology also extended to all of the indigenous peoples and lands Europeans conquered in “the New World.” From this pivotal moment in history racism was born, and with it a relentless campaign to re-educate the world in this new philosophy of white supremacy. It was the lion hunters (re)writing the history of the lion.
During American slavery, white legislators banned enslaved Africans from learning to read. Slave traders sold members of the same tribes to different locations to prevent them from communicating and from retaining their religion and culture, which they believed fueled resistance and revolt. They were told that their religion was false and given a new one – Christianity – the religion of their conquerors. Yet, in most instances, enslaved Africans were not allowed to read the Bible, and were forbidden from congregating and worshiping on their own. Instead, they could only receive Bible instruction from white ministers, who exhorted passages that sanctioned slavery like Ephesians 6:5-8.
As for their culture, they were told that it was primitive and given a new one – European culture – the culture of their conquerors. The goal was to indoctrinate Africans in the belief of their own inferiority so that they would eventually accept their enslavement – or the rule of white people – as the natural order. Over the course of three centuries, Africans were re-educated from everything they knew into a hostile worldview, culture, and religion that placed them at the lowest level of humanity.
Class 2: The Miseducation of the "Negro"
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5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
