Indigenous African Values, Ambivalence and Postcolonial Education: the Case of Zimbabwe

Debate over the revitalization of indigenous African values in order to address the social and moral problems in contemporary society has elicited varied responses. This work contributes to this debate and explores the ambivalence that characterizes education theorizing in postcolonial states in Africa that are caught between the desire to embrace modernity but at the same time looking back to the past for authentic traditional African values. This work warns against taking the contemporary moral crisis as simply a problem of moral backsliding that can be solved by a reinforcement of traditional African values. It argues instead that the problem is largely a manifestation of the effects of the ideological weight of modernity on the African communalistic value system. The work explores the philosophy of ubuntu and examines the effects of modernity and globalization on the revitalization of indigenous values through education. The work should be of interest to scholars in African postcolonial thought, philosophy of education and those interested in indigenous values, African morality and the politics of postcolonial education in Africa.