Lafia Journal of Religion and Humanities

Education has occupied a central position in almost all known civilizations over different epochs. For instance, in ancient Greece, an educated man was seen to be the man who had mental and physical balance. The Romans equated the educated man with the art of oratory and military prowess. The English in the middle ages saw only the Lords and Priests as educated men. In traditional Africa, the noble person (of character), the warrior, the hunter, the farmer, a man with specific positive skills, was adjudged as educated. However, this notion of the educated man in Africa has drastically been distorted today owing to unhealthy alien cultural influences. Education tends to have been reduced to memorizing rhymes, writing, reading literary treatises, and the likes. Africa has rather imbibed the Western conception of education and erroneously used it as a paradigm for Africa, without minding the peculiar African situation. And it is structural dislocation that has made it impossible for education to positively impact on the development of Africa. This paper therefore calls for a reconstruction of African education in consideration of her value and needs. The study adopts the qualitative research design by gathering data from books, journals and the internet. The paper surmises that if education would become functional in Africa and foster development, then the traditional African understanding of education and description of the “educated man” must be reignited rather than the present Western conceptual scheme. Education must be made relevant to the developmental needs of the African society.

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