By:Cde: Mohammed Yagoub (Zerick)
In article 01 we had some glimpses of how authoritarian and oppressive educational systems created to miseducate, control and mislead oppressed peoples. In this article we are going to delve into the part which education for liberation sees as a weapon (curriculum) being used in the battlefield (classroom) to control whose story to be told, what kind of knowledge is important, whose views are seen as valid and whose isn’t. Curriculum shapes peoples’ imaginations, for the oppressed peoples it disarms them of their own state of being.
After ceremonial independence the guardians of colonial projects in countries like Sudan, the elitist group which inherited the system as a reward from their colonial master for support to the colonial system never considered a decolonial process that could awaken the people to understand themselves. So as to head towards building inclusively progressive system for the peoples within it. Rather they became internal colonizers who helped people forget who they are. Islamo-Arabism as a weapon of destruction in Sudan produced generations of confused people who claim identities which cannot be justified.
The colonial and internal colonizer’s educational systems do not teach peoples to be who they are. People are taught to forget themselves, which makes them dependent on the mercy of who’s behind the system. This kind of education trains people to fall in love with cultures other than theirs and feel ashamed of their own roots. It makes them to follow worldviews of their oppressors that keeps them highly guarded within the system rather than empowering them fit to liberate themselves.
Liberatory education doesn’t teach people to fit into the system that created to control and miseducate them, it educates to change that very system by enabling people to discover new ways of thinking and living based on their very own power, identity and history. Simply liberatory education instead of saying get this type of training so that you can be given a job to survive within this shaky system, it says get this type of knowledge to question, understand and transform the system into better peoples’ service machine.
Epistemicidal education of the internal colonizers led by elitist groups has done more damage to African memory in countries like Sudan than any other country within the continent. Imagine someone flying from Khartoum in Sudan to Kampala-Uganda writing on their social media page I am heading to Africa! as if they are traveling to Africa from another planet. I can’t blame them for their ignorance because the elitist system has tried more than necessary using all state machinery to convince the universe that Sudan is an Arab Islamic republic not African or even simply a Sudanese state.
Great number of Sudanese specially those related to the system or its subjects had no interest, idea and links to their neighbouring African brothers and sisters simply because those who directed the system made everything possible to tell nothing good about the mother continent at whose heart they are seated. Only after 15th April 2023 war that broke out between the main militia groups protecting the elitist system in Khartoum fought each other because of inner power struggle, some Sudanese got to know that they are actually African! and even have African sisters and brothers who are ready to give them refuge after most of their assumed brothers in Arabism the Islamo-Arabist elites cherished, denied them access.
Social media is not short of Sudanese content creators residing in eastern part of Africa starting their videos with phrases like when I came to Africa! content creators found themselves in east African countries after the current war discovered what the system had been feeding them about their fellow Africans was wrong and actually these countries have more peaceful people and welcoming environments than the propaganda of Khartoum regime had been feeding them with.
Vloggers residing in the lush parts of tropical Africa have been greatly inspired by the natural and manmade beauty of the places in this part of the continent. They started creating videos to educate their followers, mostly Sudanese who have never had the opportunity to visit these parts of their mother continent. Educating their followers about the region’s greenery, cultures and major historical sites. This is a very commendable effort.
Despite good intentions of introducing their fellows to neighbouring countries like Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda it’s concerning to hear some of these Sudanese content creators begin their statements with, ‘’when I came to Africa’’ as if Sudan is not part of Africa. This kind of statements alone show the urgency of need for serious re-education and reawakening from identity slumber caused by the elitist epistemicide, a self-awareness erasure imposed on them systemically by colonial and postcolonial elites.
Oppressed peoples of the world have been trained not to be awakened but to erase their memories. Educational systems in this context produced confused peoples who start despising themselves, their origins and celebrate origins other than theirs. Because of their conditioning they strive for values which do not serve nor liberate them as deserving peoples.
The curriculum is supposed to produce progressive intellectual trajectories that can advance consciousness rather than producing submissive masses who conform to the system’s assimilations.
What if African child’s history lesson instead of starting with colonial conquest, start with the strength of their ancestors. What if the children’s history books teach them about multi-genius Africans like Imhotep the father of medicine, science and architecture existed around 2700 BCE, more than 2000 years long before Hippocrates the father of western medicine came to be known in history? Imagine a child having their first glance of history lesson about strategic brilliance of Kandakas and their political, military and cultural influence in Kush or, on Queen Ahhotep in frontline resisting Hyksos invasion of the mother continent around 1570 B.C.
Instead of internalizing colonization by teaching children about how John Hanning Speke discovered Lake Victoria in 1858 and named it after his Queen who never set foot there. Why not teach them the truth? African peoples in that part of the world existed long before the so-called explorer arrived. Natives had already discovered the lake and given it names like Nalubaale, Nyanza and Ukerewe. In fact, the claimed explorer Speke was guided to the lake by local people before he came to claim the discovery of the lake. Funny thing is that, the curriculum of the colonial history now teaches the grandchildren of those very guides to believe that someone came from Britain and discovered for them a lake!
Rather than using organized religion to teach children about people like Abu Lahab, Abu Jahl and others who rejected the message believed to be from God. People who never believed in the existence of God or teachings of such sort. why doesn’t the curriculum use the same space to teach children about their ancestral deities like Apedemak, Mon, Sebiumeker, Amun, Amesemi or Dedun? Elitists’ epistemicidal education would never make such a mistake. Doing so might breed historical consciousness and that makes the masses ungovernable for the state sponsored elitism.
A liberatory curriculum is more than representation it’s about doing away with epistimicide of the system. It means awakening people to understand that their oral traditions are not states of primitivity rather those are living archives of knowledge of self. Drumming is more than just musical it has historical rhythms, spiritual communion and mathematical precision. Villages are not signs of backwardness rather they represent mutual instruction and shared knowledge.
Language is not just a medium of communication, it’s the bases through which we view the world and understand. Decolonization of the language is crucial, continuously using oppressors’ language reinforces the very system liberatory education supposed to dismantle. Researches, including that of UNESCO shows that children can learn and grasp in their native languages far better than languages which are foreign to them. Liberating the curriculum to prioritize the teaching in indigenous languages is important, because liberation is not about merely comprehending lessons rather it’s about restoration of the sense of self and worldview of the oppressed. Leaning in one’s own language is about getting back the power over their thoughts, cultural imagination and historical memory.
Curriculum is not just matter of contents or subjects, it’s a shared worldview a way that shapes how one sees themself as an individual, the community and the world at large. It is the very vehicle that carries cultural memory, critical awareness and identity. Education should be more than just passing exams and memorizing of given data, it must raise the level of consciousness so as to foster the sense of justice, identity and purpose. It’s about empowering student to imagine paths of untraveled possibilities and infinite questioning, not just reproducing the existing structures and obedience.
Education for Liberation is more than mere curriculum reform it’s a complete reimagination of how we evaluate and teach the masses in relation to knowledge. It’s about making it possible for children to see themselves in their learning. When a child learns the wisdom of their ancestors at the starting point of their educational journey. It becomes a type of education which enables people to reclaim themselves. A liberated generation that learns not to conform to the norms of the system but to transform them into revolutionary ones.
25th August 2025
