The assertion that Africa did not have formal education before the coming of colonisers deserves great attention because, as Africans, we have been lied to, miseducated and misguided about our history and our ways of knowledge creation and sharing. This misinformation has shaped how generations of Africans understand themselves and their contributions to civilisation.
What is worse is that some supporters of the colonial project go further by arguing that Africans did not have any history and any form of education of their own until the coming of the white saviour. Such claims not only distort the history of education in Africa but also erase the sophistication of African indigenous knowledge that sustained societies for centuries.
From this point, let us step back from the emotions and look carefully at the historical evidence. When we do so, the claim that Africa had “no formal education” collapses very quickly.
Understanding “formal” education in the African context
A major problem arises from how “formal education” is defined. Many colonial writers assumed that formal education must look like nineteenth-century European schooling: stone buildings, timetables, blackboards, textbooks, written examinations and age-graded classrooms. Anything that did not resemble this model was dismissed as “informal” or “primitive socialisation”.
Yet education scholars such as Adeyemi and Adeyinka remind us that formal education should be defined much more broadly as an organised, systematic and purposeful process of teaching and learning that includes:
- Clearly recognised teachers or instructors
- A structured body of knowledge and skills (a curriculum)
- Shared norms regarding achievement and discipline
- Continuity of practice across generations
Using this more precise definition, it becomes obvious that precolonial education in Africa did indeed include structured and intentional systems. These systems may not have resembled European schooling, but they were sophisticated, regulated and rooted within indigenous African knowledge systems.
As educational thinker A. Babs Fafunwa emphasised, no study of African education is complete without acknowledging the depth and breadth of African traditional education that existed long before Islam and Christianity reached the continent.
The purpose and structure of African traditional education
Across the continent, what scholars now identify as African traditional education was far from random child-rearing. It was a deliberate, lifelong process designed to equip young people intellectually, morally, spiritually and practically for life within their community. This system formed the backbone of African indigenous education and ensured social continuity.
Key principles appear consistently across the literature:
1. Preparationism
Education was designed to prepare young people for real responsibilities within their families, clans and communities. Lessons included African indigenous knowledge concerning history, language, customs, agriculture, governance, hunting, fishing and trade.
2. Functionalism
Learning was directly linked to daily life. Children and youth were taught through structured work, apprenticeship, songs, storytelling, games and rituals. Among groups such as the Acholi, Luo and Baluuli-Banyala, tasks were carefully assigned by age and ability, creating a structured progression much like a modern curriculum.
3. Holism and communalism
Traditional African learning systems emphasised character, morality, spirituality and social responsibility. Knowledge and values were inseparable, and education aimed to mould a well-rounded individual who could serve the community.
4. Continuity and regulation
Although these societies did not have ministries of education, they had clear expectations and regulatory mechanisms. Elders, lineage heads, initiation specialists and religious leaders held recognised authority as educators. Failure to teach properly attracted communal criticism, functioning as a quality-control system.
When viewed through modern educational theory, it is evident that African communities possessed curriculum (what to teach), pedagogy (how to teach) and assessment (how to judge learning). This aligns strongly with global definitions of formal education.
Initiation schools and age-grade systems: Highly structured learning institutions
One of the most compelling examples of formal precolonial education in Africa is found in initiation schools and age-grade systems.
In many societies in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, boys and girls underwent intensive educational programmes during initiation. These “bush schools” or seclusion periods included structured timetables covering:
- Histories and origin narratives
- Moral codes and customary laws
- Warfare, self-defence and hunting (for boys in certain societies)
- Domestic management, agriculture and reproductive health (for girls, and sometimes for both genders)
- Ritual knowledge and religious practice
These initiation schools were supervised by instructors who had undergone specialist training. Learners were assessed through tests of knowledge, endurance, performance and understanding of proverbs, songs and rituals. Graduation was a public affair marking their transition into new social roles, further reinforcing the formal nature of these institutions.
Researchers like Ocitti, who studied the Acholi, have documented the depth of curriculum planning, instructional methods and institutional roles found in these initiation systems. It is therefore inaccurate, even misleading, to label such systems as “informal”.
Professional schooling: Guilds, courts and specialist institutions
Beyond initiation education, precolonial Africa had many forms of advanced, skill-based learning comparable to modern vocational and tertiary training.
- Craft and trade guilds: Blacksmiths, potters, diviners, herbalists and weavers trained apprentices through structured processes involving entry requirements, codes of conduct, secrecy and mastery standards.
- Military and administrative instruction: Kingdoms such as Buganda and Asante trained pages, warriors and palace officials in diplomacy, oral record-keeping, taxation, and military leadership.
- Legal and religious scholarship: Priests, rainmakers, diviners and judges underwent years of learning guided by elders who curated highly encoded bodies of knowledge.
These systems demonstrate the complexity of African indigenous knowledge and show that education in Africa existed on multiple levels, from general community education to elite specialist training.
Written scholarship: Qur’anic schools and the intellectual legacy of Timbuktu
Another myth that undermines African traditional education is the idea that Africa lacked literacy before colonisation. In fact, large regions of West, North and East Africa had centuries-old traditions of Arabic and Ajami scripts.
From the eleventh century onwards, Qur’anic schools flourished across the Sahel and the Swahili coast. They taught reading, writing, arithmetic, law, poetry and religious studies. These were institutionalised forms of formal schooling with standardised curricula.
By the fifteenth century, Timbuktu had become a global centre of scholarship. Universities such as Sankoré attracted thousands of students from across the Islamic world. Scholars wrote texts on astronomy, philosophy, jurisprudence, mathematics and history. The libraries of Timbuktu, some still preserved today, contain tens of thousands of manuscripts documenting centuries of African scholarship.
This rich heritage directly contradicts claims that Africa lacked literacy or formal academic training.
Gender, inclusivity and community-wide education
Another colonial myth suggests that African education systems before colonialism excluded girls and marginalised ordinary people. In reality, many societies ensured that both girls and boys received foundational education.
Studies of precolonial Ugandan village schools show that both genders participated in structured educational activities. Girls received training in agriculture, trade, child-rearing, medicine and ritual leadership. These roles were central to economic and social stability.
Education in most societies was not limited to elites. The village, clan and extended family served as a living school where all children were expected to learn the competencies required for communal survival.
Why the myth of “no formal education” still persists
If evidence clearly demonstrates the strength of African traditional education, why do misconceptions continue?
The answer lies in the colonial project’s broader denial of African history. Scholars such as Walter Rodney have explained how colonial narratives claimed Africa had no past worth recording. European education systems were then portrayed as gifts to a supposedly “empty” society, obscuring the indigenous African knowledge systems already in place.
Modern decolonial scholars argue that these myths persist because Eurocentric frameworks refuse to recognise African forms of institution-building, pedagogy and scholarship.
Reclaiming Africa’s educational heritage
Recognising the sophistication of precolonial education in Africa is not about romanticising the past but about restoring historical truth. When we acknowledge that Africa had:
- Structured curricula grounded in local realities
- Well-organised initiation schools
- Formal apprenticeships and professional guilds
- Royal training colleges and religious academies
- Written scholarly traditions such as Timbuktu
Then the claim that “formal education arrived with the colonisers” becomes untenable.
Colonial schooling was merely one model of education introduced into a continent that already had its own robust, effective and deeply rooted systems. Decolonising educational thought begins with this truth: Africans were teachers, scholars and knowledge creators long before Europe ever imagined itself as an educator of the continent.
