UNESCO has committed to the development and the dissemination of an updated and expanded set of tools to support education policy makers, curriculum developers and specialists, pedagogical advisers and teacher trainers with the view to strengthening the teaching and learning of the General History of Africa (GHA), aligning with the aspirations of African Union (AU) Member States.
The renewed and updated tools aim to support education policy makers, curriculum developers and specialists, pedagogical advisers and teacher trainers to effectively mainstream the GHA into their respective national curricula and education systems, focusing on decolonial approaches to education. A piloting workshop took place in Accra, with ministry of education representatives from the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, where support was provided to country specialists on how to contextualize the education materials to specific regional and national needs and priorities.
Country-specific roadmaps the GHA
The participating countries have agreed on a common roadmap for the mainstreaming of the GHA into basic, secondary and tertiary education curricula and broader education systems, including regional synergies, common objectives and strategies. A collaborative network of stakeholders to share best practices for mainstreaming the GHA into education systems has also been established.
Ghana, as a leader in Pan-Africanism and in the fight against colonialism, recognizes the need for quality education that incorporates the richness of Africa’s history.
The importance of GHA for African youth and the diaspora
The GHA has been one of the most transformative UNESCO initiatives, marking a profound shift in the understanding of Africa’s past. In 1964, UNESCO launched the elaboration of the General History of Africa. The challenge consisted of reconstructing Africa’s history, freeing it from racial prejudices ensuing from slave trade and colonization, and promoting an African perspective, and addressing the pervasive Eurocentric and colonial biases in historical narratives. The complete collection is published in eight volumes.
This GHA flagship initiative aims to restore African knowledge in education and promote pride among African youth and the African diaspora by providing an undiluted account of the continent’s past, correcting images of Africa as a “hopeless continent”. It focuses on equipping African youth with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to engage with the world from a more positive perspective.
Workshop in Ghana
Organized by UNESCO and UNESCO’s International Bureau for Education (IBE), a first workshop on ‘Piloting UNESCO’s resource pack for mainstreaming the GHA into education systems’ took place in Accra, Ghana, from 17 to 18 September 2024, in the context of the GHA flagship programme of UNESCO’s Operational Strategy for Priority Africa (2022-2029). Participants included representatives from ministries of education from the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
Source: UNESCO
