On the relevance of a theory of democratic citizenship education for Africa

Yusef Waghid

pp. 1-12

in: Yusef Waghid, Nuraan Davids (eds), African democratic citizenship education revisited, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Africans have made considerable strides in ridding their communities from unjust domination and exploitation by especially past colonial and imperialist powers. Through persistently cultivating theories of democratic citizenship education in their communities, Africans could sustain and extend their active citizenry and democratic ethos as equally speaking beings. Put in another way, democratic citizenship education is not meant to cultivate uniformity, dominance and the eradication of dissent as these actions would be either impossible to achieve or counterproductive to Africa's societal future. Rather, it is a process of cultivating recognition and equality whereby people can progressively build their communities commensurate with enacting their rights, responsibilities and sense of co-belonging.