Page 189 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

166 N. Thomson

complex than you people seem to think.” Unfortunately, after 20 years I found
myself reduced to anecdotes and that may be the best I can do in this essay.
In Malawi, Dr. Glasson has found through his work with his Malawian col-
leagues that when a westerner initially begins working in an African country, we
usually enter with some confidence and spirit of giving that we might be able to be
of assistance in problem solving. But, in reality it is really our personal experiences
that become the journey of learning “humility and gaining respect for the indige-
nous cultures.” It is the in-country efforts of our hosts working at the grassroots
levels where change can be realized. And, we realize that we are but a part of the
whole village that is necessary to raise the “child” whether nurturing ideas, children,
or our own growth as a person.
It has been my experience that there is no such thing as development, but rather
it is change that occurs, and it usually has different positive and negative outcomes.
Thus, when nations make transitions toward “development,” something else is
given up or lost. Everything that has been proposed or implemented as a solution
to a problem comes with caveats, limitations, and, in some instances, creates or
results in even worse unanticipated problems. (I dislike using a reference to “costs”
as that places a connotation that something has an intrinsic monetary value.)
Early in colonialism, in order to create a working labor force for exporting
resources to the new “homeland,” a currency economy was established and was
required for paying various taxes. Paper and metal currencies, with inscribed figures
of a distant ruler, reminded people to whom homage and thanks should be given
during each transaction. The only way to obtain the currency was to work for the
colonial rulers in some capacity of servitude. Social and agricultural dependence
was introduced using the “fence.” Land ownership and exclusionary boundaries
restricted the traditional free movement of peoples as colonists partitioned the land.
And, signed paper contracts demonstrating ownership were evidence that the
Europeans had given up trusting one another’s word. Africans soon learned that
even their written word could not be trusted either.
A three-tiered educational system prepared Europeans/Whites for government
positions and large-scale farming (requiring African office cleaners, laborers, and
house servants), Asians for business ownership (requiring African shop cleaners,
laborers, and house servants), and the African peasants were to continue producing
subsistence quantities of food crops. Africans were prohibited from growing crops
and cattle that would compete against the Whites (e.g., coffee, tea, wheat, and
hybrid cattle) but were introduced and became dependent upon food crops the
Europeans had found in other explorations, such as maize, potatoes, and tomatoes
from the Americas, displacing many of their traditional and indigenous nutritional
food resources. In business, Asians controlled the cost and access to hoes and sickles
required for farming.
Following the African wars for establishing independence (lessons learned from
serving the “motherlands” in World War II), indigenous people were able to move
on from postcolonial rule – but a new African elite began to fill and maintain roles
of established domination. All too often, military coups have masqueraded as ref-
ormations for the disposed and frustrated urban and rural “peasant” populations
who have never seen benefits of independence. There is a history of African writers’