The development of the education system and africanization of the civil service apparatus in colonial west Africa.

About the author:

Zinaida N. Sokova, Dr. Sci. (Hist.), Professor, Department of New History and Global Politics, University of Tyumen; z.n.sokova@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0003-4366-3771

Abstract:

The article shows that the development of the system of education in colonial West Africa was associated with attempts of European powers to effectively use the resources of the region in the interests of metropolises. During the XIX and early XX centuries the main sources of the literate of Africa were graduates of Christian missionary schools, usually engaged in the lower posts in the colonial civil service. Before and especially after the Second World War, when the continent’s anti-colonial sentiment was intensifying, there is a growing tendency for increasing of participation of Africans in the management of the territory, by replacing the higher civil service positions. It is also found that the colonial regime tried to use these sentiments to form the social class of managers who are loyal to metropolis and implemented a set of measures for their preparation, the most important of which were the expanding of the network of secondary and higher education and sending African young people to study in Western universities. It is proved that education gave a chance for the local community to borrow the moral norms of Western culture and to move up the career ladder, improving their social status. Therefore it formed the background for accelerating of africanization in the state apparatus.

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