adlt 101 introduction to adult education · •the festival’s celebration marks a time for peace,...

College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017

ADLT 101

Introduction to Adult

Education

Session 8 – Festivals in Ghana & Philosophies of Adult Education in Africa

Lecturer: Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney Contact Information: [email protected]/[email protected]

Session Overview

Goals and Objectives

At the end of the session, the student will

• Learn to appreciate and understand major festivals

celebrated in Ghana

• Discuss African Philosophies of Adult Education

• Explore more about Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and African Philosophy

• Discuss Julius Nyerere & African Philosophy

• Understand Nationalistic-Ideological Philosophy

• Explain Professional Philosophy

• Discuss Philosophic Sagacity

Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney, SCDE Slide 2

Session Outline

• Introduction

• Festivals in Ghana and Indigenous Adult Education

• African Philosophies of Adult Education

• Dr. Kwame Nkrumah & African Philosophy

• Julius Nyerere & African Philosophy

• Nationalistic-Ideological Philosophy

• Professional Philosophy

• Philosophic Sagacity

• Conclusion

• References


Reading List

• This week, complete the following tasks:

• Log onto the UG Sakai LMS course site: http://sakai.ug.edu.gh/XXXXXXXXX

• Watch the Videos for Session 9 – Evolution of Adult Education Worldwide

• Review Lecture Slides: Session 9 – Evolution of Adult Education Worldwide

• Read Chapter 3 of Recommended Text – Nafukho, F., Amutabi, M. & Otunga, R. (2005). African Perspective of Adult Learning - Foundations of Adult Education in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education. Pages 42 – 56. Kwapong, O. A. T. F. & Aggor, R. A. (2012).Introduction to Adult Education. Accra: University of Ghana. Pages 110 - 118

• Visit the Chat Room and discuss the Forum question for Session 8

• Complete the Individual Assignment for Session 8


Introduction

• Festivals in Africa play an integral role in the life of the people.

• Some examples include harvest festivals on a particular crop, religious and cultural festivals.

• They are celebrated among groups of people to remember and honour ancestral spirits to guide, protect and purify the people and their traditional area.

• In Ghana, these celebrations are essential for the provision of education, for the adult population.

• It offers a platform for people to display and share the rich culture, their history and origin which in turn provide moral education inspiration for community development.


Major Festivals in Ghana

The Aboakyir Festivals

• One of Ghana’s major events is the Aboakyir festival

which attracts lots of visitors and tourists from all

over the world.

• It is celebrated among the people of Winneba in the

Central Region of Ghana during the month of May.

• Its celebration marks the migration of the people from

Western Sudan Empire to their present location.

• They were led by two brothers and their god “Otu”.


Aboakyir Festival (Contd.)

• Through the traditional priest, they are to sacrifice a

young member of the royal family every year to

“Otu”.

• Appeal to the god led to the use of the head of an

animal from the wild cat family caught alive.

• “Otu” was settled at Penkye and became known as

“Penkye Otu”.

• Subsequent appeal to the god to the use of a deer.


Aboakyir Festival (Contd.)

• Today, the festival begins with a hunt for a live deer

between two groups to test the bravery, power and

strength of the groups.

• Once the animal has been caught, jubilation follows,

and it is sacrificed to the gods.

• There is a procession of chiefs and sub-chiefs in the

traditional area.

• There is also singing, dancing and storytelling that go

with the event.


Hogbetsotso Festival

• Hogbetsotso Festival means Festival of Exodus

• Hogbetsosto festival is celebrated among the Anlos in

the Volta region of Ghana to mark their journey from

Togo to their present settlement in Ghana.

• Before coming to Ghana, they lived under a wicked

King Agorkoli, in Notsie.

• A brave warrior known as the Red Hunter helped

them to escape from the King.


Hogbetsotso Festival (Contd.)

• The festival’s celebration marks a time for peace, unity, settlement of disputes for the people to live in harmony with each other.

• There is cleaning exercise that involves all for a clean community.

• The belief is that these activities will insulate them from evil attacks.

• It is climaxed by a grand durbar of chiefs and elders.

• Dignitaries all of status dance to Agbadza dance which is full of merrymaking and fun.


Homowo Festival

• Homowo is a harvest festival celebrated by the Ga

people of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

• It is celebrated at different times by different quarters

of the Ga tribe.

• Ga Mashie tribe celebrates their Homowo a little

earlier than the La tribe.

• It begins with the sowing of millet by the Ga

traditional priests in May before the rains start.

• A thirty day ban on noise making is imposed.


Homowo Festival (Contd.)

• Homowo means hoot at hunger and this is celebrated in remembrance of the famine that faced the Ga people on their migration to Ghana.

• The harsh situation they faced inspired them to embark on a massive food production exercise that ended in a bumper harvest, hence, hooting at hunger.

• Activities include the procession- singing and drumming, sprinkling of kpokpoi on the principal streets of Accra, where kpanlogo dance is performed.

• During the celebration, there is a great display of Ga heritage and culture.

• This serves as an attraction to people from all walks of life to join in the celebrations.


Celebration of Homowo Festival


African Philosophies of Adult

Education • Philosophy simply means love of wisdom.

• African philosophies are from two main sources- written or unwritten.

• The unwritten philosophy resides in the memory of older generations that pass it on to the younger generation as they interact with them.

• There is a great loss and cost if an elder does not get the chance to transmit the worldview before he/she dies with it.

• Two great late African nationalist-ideological philosophers – Prez. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana & Prez. ‘Mwalimu’ Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania will be considered.

• The purpose, content, and methodology of adult education is similar to nationalist-ideological and ethnophilosophers views.


Dr. Kwame Nkrumah & African

Philosophy

• Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a political visionary together with other African leaders, affirmed communalism as the key ethical principle in African culture.

• Dr. Nkrumah stirred the consciousness of the common people to liberate them from political discontent.


Julius Nyerere & African Philosophy

• To Nafukho et al. (2005) the recorded form of African philosophies can be traced in the works of African philosophers such as Kwasi Wiredu, Paulin Hountondji, Odera Oruka and Julius Nyerere and Peter Bodounrin.

• The late President Nyerere of Tanzania was not only a philosopher, but a renowned adult educator as well.

• He adopted ‘ujamma’, socialism and self-reliance strategies, to promote education and overall development of Tanzania.

• To Nyerere, adult education should be directed to helping people help themselves.


African Philosophies

• The African philosophers were endowed with philosophical material which is embedded in:

proverbs,

myths and folktales,

folksongs, rituals, paintings

symbols such as Adinkra, and

beliefs systems, customs, and traditions of the people.

• Four trends in contemporary African philosophy based on communal harmony exist (Oruka cited in Nafukho, et al., 2005).

• These are ethno-philosophy, nationalistic-ideological philosophy, professional philosophy and Philosophic sagacity.

• Ethno-philosophy is about the basic principles of African behaviour, beliefs and customs that focus on the views expressed in written texts and oral literature.


Nationalist-Ideological Philosophy

• Nationalist-ideological philosophy emerged as socio-political force that reflected the vital norms in the culture of traditional Africans.

• It was used as ideologies for political independence from colonial regimes.

• Some of the African leaders who adopted this philosophy in their leadership drive include Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, William Abraham, Kenneth Kaunda, and Leopold Senghor.

• Oginga Odinga, Abdel Nasser & Amilcar Cabral were other African leaders that adopted the nationalist-ideological philosophy in their leadership drive.


Professional Philosophy

• It refers to the works of African professionals trained

in Western philosophy. They argue that:

The philosophy of Africa should be acknowledged

from an academic standpoint.

Philosophy should be perceived from the Western

perspective, however, allowance should be made for

minor differentiations.


Philosophic Sagacity

• It is a reflection on the philosophical thoughts of

Africans.

• The adherents of this philosophy perceive that

African philosophies are the ideas and views of

individual African philosophic sages.

• They refuted the professional philosophy view, and

cited lack of acknowledgement of the sources and

recordings as a major setback, but not any western

philosophy influence.


Conclusion

• Based on developments in African festivals and philosophy, adult learning should be perceived in Africa not only from classroom setting, but also, from community and workplace settings.

• Group and team learning should be seriously and vigorously encouraged among adult learners.

• The reason being that no one head is a repository of all knowledge, but every individual possesses ideas, views and diverse potentials to learn to add values to him/herself.


References

Biney, I. K. (2003). Problems facing leadership in community

development in the Wassa West District of the Western

Region. (Unpublished MPhil. Thesis). Accra: University of

Ghana, Legon.

Kwapong, O.A.T.F. & Aggor, R.A. (2012). Introduction to adult

education. Accra: ICDE.

Nafukho, F., Amutabi, M. & Otunga, R. (2005). Foundation of

adult education in Africa. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute of

Education.


adlt 101 introduction to adult education · •the festival’s celebration marks a time for peace,...

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