Using this comparison, we argue that education plays a critical role in improving people’s social status. But we also go further to argue that those who live in urban areas are in a more advantaged position com- pared to those who reside in rural areas. To illustrate our discussion in this regard, we cite examples from the colonial and apartheid contexts.
We aver that this notion of upward social mobility or social stratification was first determined by race (Seekings 2003; Mngomezulu 2010), but when it came to the black population, both the educational level and geographical location (urban or rural) played a contributing role in locat- ing black people on the social hierarchy. In other African countries such as Rwanda, we argue that ethnicity compounded this problem as colonial administrators used ethnicity when providing educational facilities and thus predetermined who would move up the social ladder (Ndikumana 2006). After expounding these arguments, we proffer some ideas on the way forward in terms of dealing with some of the issues raised in the chapter.
them to think in a cognitive manner, training them to be future leaders, teaching them how to treat other people, instilling respect in them, edu- cating them about culture and custom, introducing them to the religious practices and inculcating pride. This was the utilitarian role of precolo- nial African education.
Besides teaching the youth as a group, there were also gender-specific education programmes. In this regard, boys spent time with their fathers around the fireplace next to the kraal. Here, boys were taught how to behave as boys and what they would have to do in order to become men.
Themes such as hunting and heroism in wars dominated the discussions.
In the same vein, elderly women spent time with girls teaching them how to behave as girls and what they would have to do in order to become respectable women later in life. Cooking was not the only subject, as some would like to believe. In addition to this, girls were taught about coming of age and what that entailed as well as what these young girls would have to do when that time came. Respect for husbands also formed part of this curriculum. Initiation schools were also used as education centres for both girls and boys in separate settings.
Therefore, we can confidently argue that education has always been part and parcel of African societies as has been the case in other societies across the globe. However, his kind of education was not meant to pro- mote social upward mobility, since Africans believed in communalism (Njoh 2006). On the contrary, its primary objective was to build African societies, both for the present and for the future. It was meant to instil or impart knowledge to the youth on an equal basis. As Turkkahraman (2012) reminds us, by its nature, education involves all experiences that an individual acquires inside or outside the school premises. The late Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere explicated the nature of African edu- cation and distinguished it from Western education (Nyerere 1967).
Other sources also contributed in this regard (Republic of Kenya 1965).
Some youths were able to grasp this knowledge more quickly than others, thereby earning recognition from the elders. In that sense we could argue that there was an element of social upward mobility but it was not mate- rially based as would be the case later when Western education was brought into the equation, first by missionaries and then by colonial administrators.
While formal education is mostly education which is associated with social upward mobility in communities, informal education also has the ability to improve the well-being of people. In a nutshell, informal educa- tion is that kind of education that you obtain through experience (Jeffs and Smith 2005). Since the introduction of Western education in Africa, there has been a direct correlation between people’s education level and their social upward mobility. For example, those Africans who attended mission schools gradually elevated their social status. They served as lay priests or assisted missionaries as their interpreters. They constituted an elite class in society. The late Nigerian author Chinua Achebe captured this theme eloquently in his various novels such as Things fall apart (1958); No longer at ease (1960); Arrow of God (1964); and A man of the people (1966). Using Nigeria as the setting, Achebe created imaginary characters to demonstrate the changes that took place among the African people as a result of the advent of Christianity and colonialism. He cap- tured resultant social reconfiguration which was occasioned by this new development. Through education, social inequalities not only increased but also changed form as the youth were wittingly or unwittingly elevated over their parents. Our view is that the centuries- old African social fabric was interrupted.
The colonial state also used education as a divisive tool. Those who had been exposed to Western education were accorded better and higher social status compared to those who did not have that opportunity. They were also drawn closer to the colonial state. Some of them went on to serve the colonial state as clerks and as interpreters. Conversely, those who remained uneducated did not have access to those jobs. In the pro- cess, their social status either remained the same or was actually lowered.
Unlike in the past when the elderly had higher social status by virtue of their age, the youth suddenly saw their social status elevated above that of their parents and grandparents. This dislocated the African social struc- ture and left families in disarray.
We could conclude that Western education as a determinant for social upward mobility had negative consequences on the African people. It interrupted the social fabric which had kept African nations intact from time immemorial. In that sense, Western education tampered with African social formation (Njoh 2006). This social reconfiguration put the
African continent on a new path which would dictate how Africans were to live their lives henceforth. Gradually, individualism (which was a Western phenomenon) replaced communalism in this social engineering process. Noticeably, social stratification was redefined using education as the determining factor. In the South African context, both education and race were at the centre of social classification and social stratification (Seekings 2003; Mngomezulu 2010).
We should hastily state that this social reorganisation was not always deliberate. In fact, evidence shows that some elderly people accorded their children higher social status just because they were educated. This happened even if those who were educated did not claim this new iden- tity. These youths could speak the language of the white people and write letters that could reach faraway places. That in itself presented the edu- cated youths as a special class in society. As these youths embraced Western culture, they assumed a different identity from that of their soci- eties. In the process, African societies were redefined.
But while it cannot be denied that some developments happened unconsciously, it is equally true that in other instances the colonial state took a conscious decision to use education as a divisive tool. In Rwanda, for example, the status of the Hutus and the Tutsis was partly determined by access to education, among other things. This was a deliberate deci- sion by the Belgian government which decided to use education as an instrument to sow divisions between the two ethnic groups. The juxtapo- sitioning of the educated Tutsis against the uneducated Hutus predeter- mined who would rank higher in the social stratification between the two groups and who would have access to better employment opportunities (Ndikumana 2006). While it is true that race (light-skinned versus dark- skinned Rwandees) was used as a divisive tool, the reality is that it was the 1959 Education Policy which stratified the people of Rwanda by invok- ing one group’s social upward mobility at the expense of another. These divisions were to later transform to cause the 1994 genocide which wiped out a large part of the Rwandan population (about 800,000).
The case of Rwanda is not the only one which explains the correlation between education and social upward mobility in Africa. The policy of assimilation used by France in West and North Africa was tied to educa- tion. Those Africans who were exposed to French education and French
culture were embraced by French authorities (Brooke 2012; Ladjal and Bensaid 2012). Their social status was elevated at the expense of those who were not exposed to such education and culture. In order to entice more Africans to relinquish their African identity, the French govern- ment took a conscious decision to allow educated Africans from Francophone Africa to relocate to France and to even participate in the country’s politics. Age in this regard was not the main factor. What mat- tered most was education and culture. Young and educated Africans saw their social status elevated.
In Anglophone Africa, as mentioned earlier, educated Africans were firstly attracted to the missionaries and later to the colonial state. Here, too, age was not the main determining factor. What was key was one’s level of education. Even though the type of education that Africans were exposed to was not exactly the same as that of the Europeans, it was still considered a valuable yardstick to determine if one could be ‘upgraded’ or not. In colonial South Africa, especially at the Cape Colony, educated non-whites with a specified amount of property were enfranchised. This was a way of saying that once one had obtained a certain level of educa- tion and amassed a certain amount of material wealth, such a person had his status elevated. Even though these non-whites could not be accorded the same status as whites, the mere fact that they were enfranchised ele- vated their social status. If time and space allowed, we could cite many examples from across the African continent to expound this point. Suffice to say that education boosted one’s social upward mobility. In that sense, there is clear correlation between education and social upward mobility.
Interestingly, while it is true that Western education reconfigured the social landscape of the African people and actually changed the entire social makeup which had kept Africans united, Africans too soon realised that higher education was their ticket to social upward mobility. Gradually, they took a vanguard position in championing the course for access to higher education facilities. The development of higher education in Africa happened within this broader political context (King 1977;
Mngomezulu 2004; Lulat 2005; Woldegiorgis and Doevenspeck 2013).
On the one hand, the colonial state, especially the British Colonial State, resolved to provide higher education facilities for Africans in order to protect them from potential radicalisation when they travelled abroad for
such levels of education. Institutions such as the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in the United States of America were frowned upon. Even some European academic institutions could not be trusted by the British gov- ernment on suspicion that they might contribute to the radicalisation of African students. Therefore, when offering bursaries, the British govern- ment instructed those individuals and institutions involved in the selec- tion and placement processes to channel African students to specific institutions which were perceived to be ‘safe’ for Africans. Meanwhile, the process of establishing higher education institutions within Africa began in earnest as a preventative measure.
On their part, Africans, especially the youth, demanded that higher education facilities should be established in Africa. They argued that it was only through higher education that they would be able to truly liber- ate themselves from colonial oppression. East Africans belonging to organisations such as the Young Baganda Association (YBA) were more vocal in this regard (King 1977; Mngomezulu 2004, 2012). Moreover, some African kings were prepared to sell their cattle so that they could send their children to higher education institutions abroad to pursue higher education. This was a tacit admission that higher education was seen as a tool towards social upward mobility. This is the broader political context within which the link between education and social upward mobility should be appreciated, as we argue in this chapter.
The rural/urban dichotomy should be understood within the broader context outlined above. As urban dwellers had more opportunities to access higher education, their rural counterparts were left behind. Even the higher education institutions demanded by the African youths and supported by the colonial government were located in urban areas. Those who resided in urban areas had easy access to these higher education facilities once they were completed. Rural inhabitants had to find accom- modation in the urban centres in order to benefit from these education facilities. Consequently, in the main, rural communities remained at the bottom of the social hierarchy while their urban counterparts climbed up the social ladder. Only a few rural dwellers who managed to find space in the urban areas also benefitted from the newly-established higher educa- tion facilities in the form of University Colleges. These University Colleges were linked to European universities such as the University of London.
The context provided thus far provides a clear picture of how the cor- relation between education and social upward mobility played itself out.
But before delving more into the notion of the rural/urban divide alluded to above, it would be useful to explain what we mean by the key concepts used in this chapter. In the section below we shall define four concepts which form the subject of the rural/urban divide. These concepts are:
urban, rural, rurality and employability. Implicit in the last concept is the assumption that one’s employability depends in part on one’s geographi- cal location, hence the need to define and explain the other three concepts.