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12 How to Research Intercultural Hybridity of the Congolese Elite Through Education During the Postcolonial Era (1960-1997)?* M. Depaepe Recently, we have made at our university an application for a new research project. Although it is at the moment still uncertain whether we will have the money to carry out this research or not, we nevertheless do think that it can be helpful to share the content of our project with others, in view of fostering further research in this area.1 As is explained in the following sections, postcolonial educational history in Congo is not well developed at all, let alone a specific topic like the intercultural hybridity in the formation of an elite by means of (secondary) education. ❙ ❙ Abstract of the Planned Research One of the often heard criticisms of Belgian colonisation expressed by Congolese rulers related to the lack of executive- and management-level personnel. It was claimed that the colonial system of education had produced an elite that was small in number and moreover alienated from its own roots. The authenticity campaign set in motion by Mobutu in 1971 was intended to change things in this respect. From this point onwards, the training of society’s upper crust was to be carried out along African lines rather than according to the European model. There were many paradoxical aspects inherent to this undertaking, not in the least because there was little if any tradition of an authentic African education system in Congo at secondary education level. What is more, the educational aspirations of the indigenous popula­ tion were, partly on account of colonisation, generally of a markedly “Western” bias. The “elite” not only aimed at landing a good job in society * Originally as paper at the 13th biennial conference of International Network of Philosophers of Education (INPE), August 15-18, 2012, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 73-84. 1 This conference devoted a section to postcolonial contexts of education. Part III: The Colonial Context – From Educationalization to Appropriation? 266 by means, inter alia, of the general studies with which secondary education provided them, but ultimately also wanted to be seen and accepted as “emancipated” partners of equal value in intercultural relations with the whites. Although this objective may have turned out to be a far-off utopia in the everyday reality, it subscribed in large measure to the modernistic dream of government policies enabling social change to be effected, at both individual and societal level, through education and training, which had spread across the Western world with the Enlightenment. At the same time, it exposed the paradox on the pedagogical and didactic front with which the Congolese were faced after Independence. How could greater integration with the cultural roots of their own traditions be brought about through a school culture and structure that were perceived, at least ideologically, as intrinsically alienating? By means of the research project presented here we want to conduct an in-depth study of this paradox of “intercultural hybridity”,2 since the post-colonial confrontation with a “Western”-oriented (and therefore possibly in part also “Westernising”) education system will of course have been much more complex than what the above-mentioned stereotyping, in all its simplicity and naïveté, would lead one to suppose. Rather than an “alienation” or “uprooting”, in everyday educational practice reference should probably be made more to an “appropriation”, which in any case leaves scope for adjustments and fleshing out at local level. As we pointed out in one of our general works on educational historiography,3 “civilisation” never appears from a single centre, but is a phenomenon constituting the resultofmultipleinfluencesandpractices,whichinspiteofthegeneraltrends they harbour, time and again give rise to differentiated results in the short and long term. So there is no internationalisation without “indigenisation”, to quote Jürgen Schriewer,4 and in Congo this naturally does not exclude a certain form of cultural “hybridisation” – quite the reverse, in fact. In order to be able to chart such phenomena, however, an historical analysis of the education policy and legislation is not sufficient. This level, which has invariably been focused on as the “macro field” in traditional 2 On the basis of a concept of P. Burke (2009). Cultural Hybridity. Cambridge/Malden: Polity Press. 3 M. Depaepe (2005). Geen ambacht zonder werktuigen. Reflecties over de conceptuele omgang met het pedagogische verleden. In: M. Depaepe, F. Simon & A. Van Gorp (eds.), Paradoxen van pedagogisering. Handboek pedagogische historiografie (23-71). Leuven /Voorburg: Acco. 4 J. Schriewer (2004). Multiple Internationalities: the Emergence of a...

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