In a powerful address at the University of Education, Winneba, celebrated Kenyan lawyer and Pan-African scholar Professor P. L. O. Lumumba called for a radical rethinking of education in Africa, arguing that the current system is still shackled by colonial legacies that no longer serve the continent’s aspirations.
Lumumba painted a vivid picture of an Africa whose education systems remain echoes of their colonial past, producing graduates ill-equipped to solve the continent’s real problems.
He criticized the structure of academic programs that, decades after independence, still prioritize Western paradigms and knowledge systems over African-centered approaches.
“Our institutions are repositories of foreign ideas,” he said. “We have professors who know everything about Shakespeare and nothing about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. We produce engineers who cannot build a proper road and economists who cannot improve a market.”
The professor challenged African universities to become breeding grounds for critical thought, innovation, and problem-solving tailored to local realities.
He emphasized that education must not be about the mere acquisition of degrees, but about nurturing minds capable of transforming the continent.
“Education must liberate,” he declared, “not enslave. We must train individuals to question, to analyze, and to dream beyond the confines of what colonialism left behind.”
Lumumba’s speech, though fiery, was filled with hope. He called on young people and educators alike to reclaim African education and redefine its goals.
Citing countries like Rwanda, which have made deliberate efforts to decolonize their curricula, he urged African leaders to take bold steps in aligning education with the continent’s developmental needs.
In closing, Lumumba left his audience with a challenge: “The future of Africa lies not in adopting foreign models wholesale, but in creating systems rooted in our own soil, shaped by our own dreams.”
