Colonialisation has transformed African societies in ways that continue to shape them today. Africans relied on their knowledge systems and traditions to maintain cultural and spiritual identities prior to colonial encroachment.
Because their rhythm of life was linked to land, kinship, and customs that fostered social cohesion, these systems provided both sustenance and balance.
Empires such as Mali and Songhai embodied political and intellectual vibrancy, as trade and learning flourished.
Sankoré University shaped the cultural identity of both empires by serving as a beacon of scholarship. It established Timbuktu as a centre of intellectual pursuit, which promoted literacy and education among its citizens.
The university is said to have had various manuscripts on law, astronomy, medicine, and philosophy. This means that Africa flourished long before encounters with the Europeans. More importantly, Africa was not waiting to be “civilised”.
However, the systems of trade, learning, and spirituality were shaken by colonial rule, introducing new voices that erased the narratives of our ancestors and undermined traditional beliefs. Today, these traditional beliefs are demonised, dismissed, and often overlooked.
Post-colonial societies like Namibia have been rallying for cultural preservation and heritage. While this effort is commendable, it is essential to confront the colonial logics that dictate values and systems today. We cannot preserve cultures and traditions without first decolonising our minds, languages, memories, and institutions. To preserve culture, practices must be nurtured as living, evolving realities.
The late legendary writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o cautions Africans in his book, Decolonising the Mind, that colonialism persists in our minds even with the illusion that we have gained independence from the colonial masters.
He enlightens us that the colonial conquest was not only political but a mental conquest: “The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation”.
While Wa Thiong’o centres his argument on language, he offers critical insight for cultural preservation: we cannot fully preserve culture if we do not reclaim our languages and indigenous knowledge systems.
Moreover, language is a powerful tool, as it serves as a repository of thought, memory, and identity.
As Wa Thiong’o states, “The biggest weapon wielded and daily unleashed by imperialism against that collective defiance is the cultural bomb.
The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves”.
Education system
Decolonialisation should be a deliberate effort that should be integrated into education. The curricula should prioritise African history and accurately tell the African story.
This should begin with telling the African story before colonialisation, spreading the narrative that African history did not start with colonialisation, but instead colonialisation interrupted African history.
There is a need to not only emphasize the political history and the over glorification of political heroes in history books. The African child should also be taught about Mansa Musa, whose transformed the Mali Empire with his wealth and scholarship; Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba as a woman who embodied courage and ingenuity, as well as Cheikh Anta Diop, who took pride in African knowledge systems by challenging Eurocentric narratives and affirming the origins of African origins of civilisation through his scholarship.
This paradigm shift will counter colonial narratives and instil a sense of identity, pride, and hope in the African child.
Health systems
There is a need to integrate indigenous health systems into modern practices. This begins with decolonising African traditional practices, which are not only overlooked but demonised despite their proven effectiveness. In fact, we could draw inspiration from the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a holistic system of healing developed over thousands of years that encompasses various therapies to promote well-being.Today, TCM is taught in universities and co-exists within modern health systems. One such example is the TCM in the Katutura hospital, which Namibians have embraced. This clinic is proof that African traditional medicine, too, can complement modern healthcare.We therefore need to beat the African drum harder to awaken ourselves to our most authentic identity, reclaim our languages and knowledge systems, and ensure that our culture is not just remembered but nurtured, embraced and passed on to future generations.
*Linea Awakeshe Shoopala is passionate about preserving indigenous knowledge.