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‘It Brought Some Kind of Neatness to Mankind’: Mass Literacy, Community Development and Democracy in 1950s Asante

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Kate Skinner
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Abstract

This article is concerned with mass education in late colonial Ghana. The first part examines how people in the Ashanti Region interpreted and responded to a policy that was conceived in the period of power sharing between an African nationalist legislative assembly and a civil service that was still dominated by British expatriates. Literacy campaigns and related community development activities were shaped by the expectations and ideals of the Asantes who participated as learners, tutors, volunteer leaders and salaried employees. Mass education was popular partly because new skills, techniques and materials could be used to pursue older ideals about enlightenment, progress, cleanliness and good character. Government policy indicated that literacy campaigns and community development activities would help to build democracy from the grassroots, yet, in spite of its popularity, mass education remained beyond the control of elected local government. The later part of this article focuses on the small town of Kwaso in order to establish why this was so and what one local resident was able to do about it.

Cet article traite de l'enseignement de masse au Ghana à la fin de la période coloniale. Dans une première partie, il examine l'interprétation et la réponse des populations de la région Ashanti à une politique conçue au cours de la période de partage du pouvoir entre une assemblée législative nationaliste africaine et une fonction publique toujours dominée par des expatriés britanniques. Les campagnes d'alphabétisation et activités communautaires connexes étaient déterminées par les attentes et les idéaux des Ashanti qui participaient en tant qu'enseignants, tuteurs, animateurs bénévoles et salariés. L'enseignement de masse recueillait une large adhésion populaire, en partie parce qu'il permettait d'utiliser des aptitudes, des techniques et des matériels nouveaux pour servir des anciens idéaux en matière d'instruction, de progrès, de propreté et d'intégrité personnelle. La politique gouvernementale précisait que les campagnes d'alphabétisation et les activités de développement communautaire contribueraient à bâtir une démocratie de la base; pourtant, malgré sa popularité, l'enseignement de masse a toujours échappé au contrôle du gouvernement élu local. Dans sa dernière partie, l'article se concentre sur la petite ville de Kwaso pour établir les raisons à cela et s'intéresser à l'action d'un résident local en réaction.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 79 , Issue 4 , November 2009 , pp. 479 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2009

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