Colonialism and Education

Abstract

Colonialism and education has been identified as instruments used by European powers to dominate and subjugate
third world countries and Africa in particular. Colonialism is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over
another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. It was a response to the economic needs of industrial
capitalist Europe who desire colonies in order to have access to raw materials of the colonies, to have markets for sale of
manufactured goods of the home country and field for the investment of surplus capital. Colonialism ravaged Africa like wild fire
with disastrous consequences and the instrument used for that purpose is education. This same education was later used as a
weapon to fight colonialism. This paper is therefore to explore why and how colonialism was imposed on African nations and
how education was used as a two-edged sword for the propagation and abolition of colonialism. “To know the present we must
look into the past and to know the future, we must look into the past and present.”