[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-602300-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-602300-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","transforming-african-higher-education-precolonial-foundations-colonial-legacies-and-postcolonial-innovations","Transforming African Higher Education - Precolonial Foundations, Colonial Legacies, and Postcolonial Innovations","","The article analyzes African higher education policies and systems through political, economic, and socio-cultural lenses before European colonialism, then assesses harms introduced through colonial rule. Using a historical-analytical, decolonial methodology, it traces shifts across precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods and interrogates colonial epistemologies while elevating indigenous knowledge systems. Relying entirely on purposively selected secondary sources, it triangulates archival records and scholarly interpretations to compare colonial education policies across British, French, and Portuguese contexts.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/transforming-african-higher-education-precolonial-foundations-colonial-legacies-and-postcolonial-innovations/602300/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/transforming-african-higher-education-precolonial-foundations-colonial-legacies-and-postcolonial-innovations/602300.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"dawugda","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",9,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What are the article’s main objectives?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It examines higher-education policies and systems in Africa before European colonialism, analyzes potential harms caused by colonialism, and shows how postcolonial systems can still reflect the priorities of former colonial powers.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What methodological approach does the article use?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It applies a historical-analytical decolonial approach grounded in critical historiography, foregrounding indigenous African knowledge as valid intellectual traditions.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the article select and verify sources?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It relies solely on secondary sources chosen through purposive and thematic sampling, then uses triangulation across historical texts, scholarly interpretations, and institutional records to reduce bias and maintain historical consistency.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},602300,1792190388,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":113,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},3985747870947,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Educational Considerations  \nVolume 50  \nNumber 3 Exploring African Education, Innovative Solutions, and Diverse Perspectives for a Global Competent Citizenry  \nArticle 7  \nJuly 2025  \nTransforming African Higher Education: Precolonial Foundations, Colonial Legacies, and Postcolonial Innovations  \nRansom Tanyu Ngenge  \nUniversity of the National Education Commission, Krakow, [ngengetanyu@africaopl.org](ngengetanyu@africaopl.org)  \nFollow this and additional works at: [https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations](https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations)  \n Part of the Africana Studies Commons, Education Policy Commons, Higher Education Commons, Indigenous Education Commons, and the Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons  \nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.  \nRecommended Citation  \nNgenge, Ransom Tanyu (2025) \"Transforming African Higher Education: Precolonial Foundations, Colonial Legacies, and Postcolonial Innovations,\" Educational Considerations: Vol. 50: No. 3.  \n[https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.2425](https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.2425)  \nThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational Considerations by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please [contact](contact cads@k-state.edu)[ cads@k-state.edu](contact cads@k-state.edu).  \nTransforming African Higher Education: Precolonial  \nFoundations, Colonial Legacies, and Postcolonial  \nInnovations  \nNgenge Ransom Tanyu  \nIntroduction  \nThis article has three main objectives. First, it examines the political, economic, and socio  \ncultural aspects of higher education policies and systems in Africa before European  \ncolonialism. Second, it looks at the possible harm that European colonialism did to African  \nhigher education policies and systems. Finally, the example of French Equatorial Africa  \nshows how postcolonial African higher education systems still have policies and systems that  \nwere made to serve the interests of former European colonial powers.  \nAnalytical Framework and Methodology  \nThe article adopts a historical-analytical and decolonial methodological approach to examine  \nthe evolution of African higher education across the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial  \nperiods. Anchored in critical historiography, the analytical framework interrogates colonial  \nepistemologies and foregrounds indigenous African knowledge systems as valid intellectual traditions (Lulat, 2005; Mawere, 2015). The research is structured thematically to explore key dimensions of higher education, including institutional development, language of instruction,  \npolicy orientation, curriculum design, and epistemic foundations (Ngange, 2020; Kallaway,  \n2020). The article relied entirely on secondary sources, selected through purposive and  \nthematic sampling. Primary source categories included historical legal instruments, colonial  \npolicy documents, constitutions, educational ordinances, missionary memos, and archival  \nrecords. Academic literature was gathered from databases such as JSTOR, Springer,  \nScienceDirect, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cambridge University Press, accessed through  \ninstitutional libraries at the University of the National Education Commission, Krakow, and  \nthe University of Pittsburgh. Search terms such as “indigenous African education,” “colonial  \nhigher education policy,” “decolonizing African curricula,” and “language in African  \neducation systems” guided the literature selection process.  \nTo enhance reliability and mitigate bias, a triangulation strategy was employed by drawing  \nfrom multiple categories of sources—historical texts, scholarly interpretations, and  \ninstitutional records—across different regions and periods. Scholarly writings (Lulat, 2005),  \nhistorical and archaeological records (Bryan, 1930; eL-Gammal, 1993), and modern  \ninstitution refere","cbCaitsz0POF7w3d","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitsz0POF7w3d","pdf",438723,"English","# Introduction\n# Analytical Framework and Methodology\n# Precolonial African Higher Education Systems","[{\"question\":\"What are the article’s main objectives?\",\"answer\":\"It examines higher-education policies and systems in Africa before European colonialism, analyzes potential harms caused by colonialism, and shows how postcolonial systems can still reflect the priorities of former colonial powers.\"},{\"question\":\"What methodological approach does the article use?\",\"answer\":\"It applies a historical-analytical decolonial approach grounded in critical historiography, foregrounding indigenous African knowledge as valid intellectual traditions.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article select and verify sources?\",\"answer\":\"It relies solely on secondary sources chosen through purposive and thematic sampling, then uses triangulation across historical texts, scholarly interpretations, and institutional records to reduce bias and maintain historical consistency.\"}]","Transforming African Higher Education - Precolonial Foundations, Colonial Legacies, and Postcolonial Innovations | PDF",1792094429,76]