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Education as a factor influencing cultural change
A number of writers have variably defined education. The whole idea is not to lay emphasis on the various definitions of education, but to view education from two perspectives, the African and Western. Arguably the idea is to show how the African concept of education existed even before the preliterate age. The purpose is to correct the misconception that Western education and culture represent civilization. It is also to show that the African system of education is not primitive and inferior but that it has been wrongly perceived by Westerners.
On the other hand, the impression is to show how this Western education has influenced change in the African culture. This Western education and or culture have negatively impacted on the African culture thereby exposing it to danger of vulnerability. The vulnerable African culture has succumbed to the Western culture. In the process, it has defied its identity. It is also this kind of culture which has influenced the spread of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe, Binga in particular though to a small degree. The array of definitions below explains what has been said above concerning African and the Western perceptions of education.
Definition of education
Nasimiyu-Wasike in his book titled, Mission in African Christianity, has given the definition of education as follows:
Education may be considered in two senses, one broad the other technical. In the broad sense, education refers to any act of experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. Education in this sense never ends; we truly “learn from experience” throughout our lives. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society through schools, colleges, universities and other institutions deliberately transmit its cultural heritage, its accumulated knowledge, values and skills from one generation to another (Nasimiyu-Wasike, 2000: 133).
Nasimiyu-Wasike has further viewed it in two perspectives, the African and the Western. He shows their divergence and convergence as well. The impression here is to show how the African culture has been influenced by the Western culture which claims superiority over the former. It is also to show how the latter has become a factor which has influenced the spread of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.
Going by this broad and technical definition, Nasimiyu-Wasike says that every traditional African society has its system of education. The only difference is that traditional African societies did not establish or construct schools and facilities strictly meant for the currying out of the formal education. African education did not also rely on elaborate written symbols as a means of communicating ideas but this did not mean that ideas were not in existence or not communicated at all (Nasimiyu-Wasike, 2000: 133). What Nasimiyu-Wasike is saying above, may not be argued against. An African who is born under strict African cultural condition would agree with this. Before the advent of the Western Colonial rule, Africa had a way of knowledge dissemination from generation to generation. This was known as Oral tradition, (Kunhiyop 2008). This format of information or knowledge dissemination was rich and effective although some would doubt it. Kunhiyop an African writer has expressed that oral tradition was a major source of African information .Many stories and legends were orally told. Africans told their stories in such a way that what they narrated would not be forgotten (Kunhiyop, 2008: 9).
In an abstract of a journal of Pan African Studies, Vol. 3. No. 9. Titled “Education and Emancipation” of June to July 2010, Sharon Adetutu, rather gives a background which has prompted the coining of the term education. Adetutu has viewed education from a holistic point. She says that African and Western perspectives should be mutually considered so as to bring about complete emancipation control to the contemporary despise and neglect of indigenous system with other plausible forms of education in the contemporary African quest for emancipation. She also agrees with other writers who say this preliterate form of communication was passed from generation to generation (The journal of Pan African Studies, vol.3. No. 9. June – July 2010).
Akinpelu (1969:184) describes education as an initiation into a worthwhile activity while William Frankena (1973: 21) states that education takes place when “X” is fostering or seeking to foster “D” by method “M”. By this Frankena posits that education involves two sets of people, the teacher and the learner. Education is formal when teachers instruct students in courses of study in an organized institution and informal when a learner is exposed to a general social process of obtaining the knowledge and skills needed to operate in a particular culture or society. However, Rodney (2000: 262) and Sophie Oluwole (2000: 98) have rebutted the school of thought which advances that the African system of education was once informal (Journal of Pan African Studies, Vol. 3. No. 9. June-July 2010). The aim here is to show how African culture was affected by the Western way of education. People, who accepted what the white man (sic) called change, had their culture change. It therefore becomes difficult to find a pure African culture in other ethnical groups. However, with the infiltration of the Westerners and with the introduction of their conventional education, the African way of education was slowly submerged by the new system of education. “Rhodes believed that the British people had a duty to spread that civilization partly for the benefit of the world and partly to enhance British prestige (Mukanya, ibid. 90). This Western concept of education was associated with development and civilization as expressed by Mukanya above. Anybody who received this kind of education was said to be civilized. Civilization was defined in terms of western culture, religion and language-English. In short, it was measured against the Western way of life. The Western way of denigrating the African way of life, and their way of promoting their culture which they call superior, has been expressed by Babs Fafunwa of Nigeria, as quoted by Cox (1993) as follows:
A good citizen in Nigeria and elsewhere between 1850 and 1960 meant one who was African by Blood, Christian by religion and British or French in culture and intellect. All others who were Muslims, Animistic and many more, were only tolerated or accommodated (Cox, 1993: 125). A close analysis of Fafunwa’s remarks shows nothing but exposes the colonial mentality in its true colours at work. The White man’s thinking that everything black or African was bad and that everything white or European was superior, is a clear demonstration that African way of education and civilization were demonized and viewed as primitive, hence received a second class recognition. This new civilization brought some packages for Africans such as white collar jobs, Western code of dressing and life and an urban kind of life style. It can be appreciated how the African life style was gradually side-lined. There was now a paradigm shift. There was now a wave of local migration into towns by Africans. Once they settled in towns, their life style began to change. They began to shun their way of life and gradually adopted Western way of life. The fate which befell Africans elsewhere did not spare Zimbabwe.
With the advent of the colonial era in Zimbabwe, the same situation experienced elsewhere was also experienced in Zimbabwe. The colonial rule was felt by most people who could not help but to succumb. Zimbabweans, who received Western education, went into towns to seek employment. A number of them later took their families with them and did not want to go back to their rural homes. Their life style changed as well. They adopted the western style of life. The two Zimbabwean lecturers, James Cox (1993) and M.F.C. Bourdillon (1997), share the same sentiments concerning the influence of the western civilization. Cox’s Changing beliefs and An Enduring Faith (1993) and Bourdillon’s changing culture in Zimbabwe (1997), are congruent in view. The synopsis of their view is as follows: Cox (1993) acknowledges the impact of Western culture on Zimbabwe when he says:
The impact of Western culture, however, is being felt in Zimbabwe through education, government, medical institutions, economic programmes, and religious organizations thus raising issues for Zimbabweans which are not altogether different from those faced by people in Europe or America (Cox, 1993; 1X).
The meaning of this paragraph is that the Western education or civilization has negatively impacted on African culture. This in turn has influenced the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Chapter 1 HIV /AIDS in rural Tonga culture
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background of the study
1.3 Problem Statement
1.4 Research gap
1.5 Aim
1.6 Objectives
1.7 Significance of study
1.8 Assumption of study
1.9 Limitation of study
1.10 Literature review
1.11 Methodology
1.12 Ontological Assumption
1.13 Epistemological assumption
1.14 Interviews and Questionnaires
1.15 Research boundary
1.16 Chapter outline
1.17 Conclusion
Chapter 2
Different methodologies examined in the study
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Qualitative
2.3 Positivism
2.4 Structuralism
2.5 Postmodern
2.6 Emancipatory
2.7 Hermeneutics approach
2.8 The importance of Triangulation as a method of study
2.9 Historical Approach
2.10 Oral traditional research method
2.11 Ethnographic research method
2.12 Phenomenological approach
2.13 Narrative
2.14 Interview
2.15 Geographical challenges of the study area
2.16 Other forms of interviews
2.17 Data analysis
2.18 Ethical consideration
2.19 Summary
Chapter 3
Tonga culture and HIV in the context of this study
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Theories used in the context of this study
3.3 Historical background of Tonga Culture
3.4 Factors influencing culture changes in Zimbabwe
3.5 Death vis-a-vis Tonga culture
3.6 The Tonga perception of ancestors in the context of HIV and AIDS
3.7 The positive element of Tonga culture
3.8 Domestic violence as it has influence the spread of HIV and AIDS in Pashu community
3.9 Acquaintance rape as viewed in the context of this study
3.10 Spousal rape and how it relates to HIV and AIDS among the Tonga people
3.11 Historically of marital rape as it relates to this study
3.12 Understanding of sexuality in the context of the African Marriage as seen in light of this study
3.13 Forms of marriage among the Tonga as they influence the spread of HIV and AIDS and how they bring suffering among Tonga women
3.14 The main themes derived from this chapter
3.15 Conclusion
Chapter 4
Interviews and data analysis
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Data collection methods as used in the study
4.3 Interviews carried in the Pashu rural area
4.4 Interviews and findings
4.5 First group interview- Manyano females speak out
4.6 The females speak out in this study
4.7 The concept of witchcraft in the context of HIV and AIDS as perceived by the Tonga women
4.8 Unfaithfulness in marriages as seen as the cause of the spread of HIV and AIDS among Tonga females
4.9 Moral conduct of young people in the context of HIV and AIDS as it relates to the study
4.10 Abuse in its diversity among Tonga females in the context of HIV and AIDS
4.11 Females say little about culture as an influence factor to the spread of HIV and AIDS in Binga
4.12 The necessity of advocating and education the community about HIV and AIDS
4.13 A testimony from HIV positive people
4.14 The purpose and importance of this interview in the study
4.15 Observations made
4.16 Administered questionnaires as a form of data gathering
4.17 Analysis and interpretation of data presentation by tables 1, 2 and 3
4.18 HIV and AIDS status and health issue of interviewees
4.19 Consequences of HIV and AIDS on Tonga social life
4.20 The Tonga views of the raised question about HIV and AIDS
4.21 The concept of culture in the context of this study from a Western perspective
4.22 HIV and AIDS as views from a Western perspective
4.23 Data analysis and interpretation
4.24 Common themes extracted from face-to face interviews group and focus groups as well as from questionnaires
4.25 Conclusion
Chapter 5
Pastoral perspective on culture and HIV/AIDS
5.1. Introduction
5.2 The first social order of Tonga culture
5.3 Tonga in the post-colonial era vis-a vis HIV and AIDS
5.4 The ideal Tonga society in the context of HIV and AIDS
5.5 Theological reflections on issues of HIV and AIDS among Tonga people
5.6 Conclusion
Chapter 6
Findings and recommendations
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Aims and findings of Chapter 1
6.3 Aims and findings of Chapter 2
6.4 The aim and findings of chapter 3 in the study
6.5 The aim and findings of Chapter 4 in the study
6.6 Cases of HIV and AIDS in Pashu community
6.7 The aim and findings of chapter 5 in the study
6.8 Recommendations
Bibliography
