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On Objects and Voices: Material Culture and Oral History in the Case of Shule Ya Kujitambua

Going to School: The African-American Experience

Lomotey, Kofi. Going to School: The African-American Experience. Albany, N.Y: State Univ. of New York Press, 1990

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African Centered Education in Oberlin

The Oberlin Colony
The town of Oberlin was resettled by Euro-American settlers in 1830 and expanded rapidly in 1833 originally as an "intentional community dedicated to the glorification of God and the Christian conversion of mankind." The founders wanted their intentional community to be focused on educating all peoples. In 1835 the town of Oberlin dedicated themselves to the eradication of racial prejudice. Students and colonists came to Oberlin to dedicate themselves to these evangelical ideals of education and solidarity from across the United States. In 1834 students at the Lane institute in Cincicatti voted for the abolishment of slavery and were told to leave Lane. 'The Rebels', as they are called, were invited to the town of Oberlin in 1835. The Rebels demanded that the school in Oberlin be open to all people, regardless of color. Students and colonists had many terse conversations and votes as to whether they would allow African Americans into Oberlin. On February 10th, 1835 the board met and voted to admit African Americans into Oberlin as students and community members. This prompted the formation of the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society, a group dedicated to abolishing slavery and color prejudice. Oberlin remained entirely white until about 1860, when 20% of the population in Oberlin was African American.

Unfortunately, this idealized version of a town free of racial prejudice was far from reality. Race remained a hotly debated talk in Oberlin throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. From temperance, to segregated public education, and lack of access for African American students - especially women remained ever present. In fact, the college's Black Studies department was not created until the 1970s - over 100 years after the founding of the town and College. Racial equality in the public schools of Oberlin remained at the forefront of conversations about race in Oberlin. This history is incredibly dynamic and unfortunately cannot be exhausted here.
Public Schools in Oberlin
Public schools are an inherently political space. Booker Peek explained in an interview with Kofi Lomotey, "there can't be any separation between the importance of education and oxygen." Peek explains that education breeds success through society, economic prosperity, and will ultimately be the champion of total liberation. By examining the need for African centered institutions in a town historically deemed a racial utopia, this project encourages a reconsideration of the predominant color-blind educational models in Oberlin, Ohio.

Booker Peek wrote a letter to the editor emphasizing the importance of quality education for all students, regardless of race.
College Students and Shule Ya Kujitambua

The creation and longevity of the Shule was dependent upon college students. The 1970s were a time of immense reform in Oberlin as a result of the Black Power movement. For example, the Afrikan Heritage House was built, the Black studies department was created, and the African American Community Student Development Program began. This was a time when Oberlin college students were focused on the importance of education of all. Booker Peek said “there is no excuse for Black professors - Black intellectuals - not to see the connection between Black freedom and liberation and skills education.” Peek elegantly draws upon the interconnections between education for all, freedom, and Black rights.
African Centered Education: Necessity and Results The aim of African centered education is to best meet the needs of African American students. Pauline Lipman explains how eurocentric educational models do not serve African American students :
“The overwhelming failure of schools to develop the talents and potential of students of color is a national crisis.”

Part of the failure of eurocentric education is that white teachers look at African American students through an incongruent lens. The students have life experiences that differ too greatly from what the eurocentric model teaches and thus are not included within the educational framework. These “cultural mismatches” mean that African American students are perceived to not meet eurocentric expectations.

This is called deculturalization, “a process by which the individual is deprived of his or her culture and then conditioned to other cultural values.”

Kofi Lomotey, a key player in the debate for African Centered education, explains that Black students generally have lower levels of self esteem in non-African centered education models. This is because the curriculum is not made to support them, they do not have Black role models, and they are not respected by their teachers or peers. By centering African minds, “educators encourage African American children to look at the world through an African-centered set of lenses that provide them with vision that is more focused, has a wider periphery, and more depth.” When students learn in a model that mirrors their cultural context they see themselves in the curriculum and become more attached and excited about their education. This is important especially for young children “because they are still forming their habits, personalities, self-concepts, and understandings of the world.”

From this theory came Independent Black Institutions (IBI) and the official Council of Independent Black Institutions (CIBI). The model of Independent Black Institutions was built around the concept that "a cultural frame of reference...has particular relevance to the students in the schools." When the educational needs of marginalized students are centered, there tends to be higher levels of achievement, engagement, identity building, and consolidation of material than marginalized students who are educated in eurocentric models.

CIBI helps students reach higher levels of self esteem, represented even in standardized tests. Lomotey suggests that while curriculum is not the only way to combat self esteem or the achievement gap, it does provide a substantial benefit for students to have supportive learning styles.
Afrocentricity and Nationalism
“African Americans become Afrocentric through engagement in social interaction and individual reflection”.

The goal of Afrocentricity and pan-Afrikanism is to unite the African people by forming a unified African state. Models like IBI and African Centered Education utilize the power of education to attain this goal. The destruction of hegemonically white public schools and the rebirth of systems that do work, like IBIs, are only one of the many revolutionary aspects of pan-African nationalism. This concept, combined with the idea that all African people are part of a familial group with a special bond ignited the Shule.

Author Felix Boateng emphasizes that African American students are expected “to feel that they must reject the culture of their homes in order to succeed in school” due to the cultural mismatches the child experiences in the two discrete places. He offers that the only way to combat deculturalization is by creating “an approach that would address the inequalities in the public school curriculum and remove the barriers to academic achievement for the masses of African-American children.” He suggests that one of the best ways to do that is via multicultural education, as the goal of this form of education is to help students use their cultural experiences in: learning, accepting and appreciating cultural diversity, and develop their understanding of humanity via these. cultural lenses, similar to the Shule system.
Family African centered schools rely on a family model to drive education. They focus on this model because in public schools “the black nuclear and extended family as well as the Black community, are no longer galvanized around a common set of values, goals, and guiding principles as they once were.” By re-centering the family, African centered schools are able to draw the family and the community back in. referencing traditional forms of education. Teachers treat their students as their children, and encourage their students to treat their teachers as parents. By navigating the institution as a family, students and teachers are deeply embedded within the Shule. Pauline Lipman explains that “smaller, family like groupings” benefit students of color because they decrease anonymity and increase aims for shared goals as well as increase teacher-student empathy.”