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Five pillars from African traditional

education offer hope for global cohesiveness

and the rapprochement of cultures

Professor F.X. Gichuru, Founder and Chair, African Cultural Regeneration Institute

he International Decade for the Rapprochement of

Cultures (2013-2022) was launched in Kazakhstan

by the Director General of the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Irina

Bokova, in August 2013. The decade is expected to

promote mutual understanding and respect for diver-

sity, rights and equal dignity between peoples. Indeed,

we need a renewed commitment by all to dialogue, toler-

ance, reconciliation and understanding. Irina Bokova

underlined that it is not enough to live together; rather,

societies must grow together, not only by exchanging but

more importantly by sharing.

The following discussion takes the theme of building a

framework for commonly shared values which fosters social

cohesion. It is based on five pillars that we consider the core

of African traditional education (ATE), in the sense that when

we look at the panorama of the African traditional mode of

education (the system of values that were inculcated from

childhood and reinforced during initiation rites to adult-

hood), the qualifications that sanctioned such education

included the adoption of five pillars: self-discipline, self-drive,

integrity, harmony and patriotism. In other words, the child

in Africa was expected to achieve those five qualities in life

so that he or she may live successfully in society and be able

to run a family unit with success. A child was brought up to

be able to take care of him or herself and others, starting with

his or her family and extending to the community at large.

Being careless about the larger community was anathema in

Africa, which meant that individualism, or selfishness, was

discouraged. For that reason, the individual was educated to

be able to make decisions for the benefit of his or her family

and the community, and to execute necessary actions, without

waiting for orders from above. The precondition for integrity

was respect for oneself and for others.

Africa can lend the five pillars to the world in order to

promote responsible behaviour and cohesiveness of peoples.

Of course, we note the pathetic state of Africa where the tradi-

tional responsible citizenship and leadership qualities have

been replaced by imported values. Indeed, before telling the rest

of the world, Africa needs to revisit and adopt the five pillars

that governed its traditional society. The original discourse of

this extraction from ATE was entitled: ‘Five pillars to create a

new society, new nation, and new leadership quality’,

a theme

that can be extrapolated today to cover the global society that

needs new leadership quality. Such leadership should be guided

by the five pillars in order to enhance mutual understanding,

respect, dignity of peoples and cohesiveness. The achievement

of these ideals requires that children be brought up according

to the pillars. The theory and practice of each of the five pillars

is elaborated below, so that different cultures can adopt them

in their education systems.

Self-discipline:

Global society today is not built on this

pillar. People are trained to do things because they fear some

authority, not because they follow any specific moral princi-

ples. A child is trained to do things because he or she fears

the parent, the teacher or the older sibling. An adult does

things because he or she fears someone – a policeman, a boss

or other authority – not because he or she follows specific

principles. The philosophy of self-discipline teaches everyone,

starting from the very youngest child, to do things guided

Keiyo community, Kenya: initiation candidates graduate into new roles and

responsibilities as adults

Image: ACRI (2012)

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