Education in Africa 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | School Wars: Church, State, and the Death of the Congo |
| Author: | Boyle, Patrick M. |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Modern African Studies |
| Volume: | 33 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Period: | September |
| Pages: | 451-468 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Congo (Democratic Republic of) Belgium |
| Subjects: | Church and State decolonization colonialism educational policy History and Exploration Education and Oral Traditions |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/161485 |
| Abstract: | Two conventions tend to shape appraisals of the Belgian Congo (Zaire) and the manner of its decolonization. The first describes the colonial power structure as an alliance of State, Church, and large corporations. The second portrays decolonization as tumultuous, chaotic, or simply 'gone awry'. This article argues that the link between late colonial Church-State relations and the relatively smooth decolonization of the education sector suggests a different political analysis of the period. Two interrelated claims comprise the argument. First, struggles between Church and State for control over the direction of education demonstrate that this wing of the triple alliance was much weaker than has been presumed. The so-called 'school wars' in the 1950s actually threatened to destroy the colonial web. Second, these same conflicts generated changes in colonial policy such that the 1960 move to 'independence education', unlike transitions in other administrative and political sectors, occurred with relative ease. The article examines the development of collaborative relations between Church and State in education before 1939, the differences that surfaced after World War II over which schools to promote in the colony, the conflicts of the 1950s, and the implications of this 'lutte scolaire'. Notes, ref. |
