SPECIAL COLLECTION

 

The dynamics of decoloniality in theological education: A critique of the history of the United Theological College (UTC) for indigenous clergy in Zimbabwe

 

 

Peter Masvotore

United Theological College, Zimbabawe. masvotorep@gmail.com

 

 

---

ABSTRACT

The consequences of colonialism and coloniality on indigenous social, political, and economic establishment are at present a grave concern. The call to decolonise theological education curricular, intellectual setting, and infrastructures has become the norm. This article posits a framework to evaluate nuances of missionary education at the United Theological College using Grosfoguel's conceptual lens of coloniality of knowledge. The article introduces the theoretical lens that undergirds this study and describes the aforesaid scope. The essay further presents an analysis of the endeavours of the United Theological College as an example of an ecumenical college in Zimbabwe. The aim of this article is to show how the United Theological College used education to racialize and how the indigenous people are put in hierarchies and how, in this process, of coloniality of knowledge, indigenous clergy were undermined. The argument for this article is that the economic, political, or social control of indigenous clergy could not have been complete or effective without mental control. In conclusion, the essay proposes how power structures and colonised knowledge systems could be decolonised.

Keywords: decoloniality; theological education; United Theological College; indigenous; clergy; Zimbabwe.

---

 

 

Introduction

The desire and aspiration to decolonise theological education curricular, intellectual setting, and infrastructures has become the model. Schools of thought are forwarded from different scholars such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1986:16) who strongly suggests that the domination of the mind and imagination was the weapon commonly used by the colonisers. In most schools, colleges, universities and even churches there are sites for reproducing all types of coloniality as observed by Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013:177,195) and Seroto (2018:1). The evidence of mental control is attested by Seroto (2018:2) (see also Oelofsen 2015:130) when he said:

To claim that the colonial project stops having an impact on the newly decolonised country and its citizens, is to misunderstand how deeply the colonial project affected these countries and their citizens. In order to overcome the legacy of colonialism, it is necessary to also decolonise the intellectual landscape of the country in question, and ultimately, decolonise the mind of the formerly colonised.

This article posits a theoretical framework championed by Grosfoguel (2007:203, 246) to evaluate the nuances of missionary education at United Theological College (UTC). This framework articulates the methodological lens of coloniality of knowledge. The article further presents an analysis of the endeavours of the UTC as an example of an ecumenical college in Zimbabwe to show how the college used education to racialize and hierarchies the indigenous people and how, in this process, coloniality of knowledge undermined African indigenous clergy. Mosweunyane (2013:51) argues that

The infiltration of Western forces during colonialism facilitated the obtrusion of western knowledge systems into African societies, which undermined the essentiality of African indigenous knowledge systems and destroyed the zeal in Africans to modernize and ameliorate their systems. The infiltration of Western knowledge systems served to re-direct development of the African continent by emphasizing its making in the image of Europe and North America.

This article therefore argues that colonised knowledge or mental control played a major role in the economic, political, or social control of indigenous clergy through missionary education. Thus, the essay aims to show that one task of education in both enslavement and colonization of Africa was to dehumanise the enslaved and the colonised by denying their history and denigrating their achievements and capacities (Mkandawire 2005). This is also supported by Adedeji (1990) who points out that,

The education introduced in Zimbabwe today was modelled on the British system, but with even heavier emphasis on subservient attitudes and on white collar skill. It emphasised and encouraged the individualistic instincts of mankind. It led to the possession of individual material wealth being the major criterion of social merit and worth. This meant that colonial education induced attitudes of human inequality, and in practice underpinned the domination of the weak by the strong.

The article raises questions regarding the relevance of theological training to the Church in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, whether the trained clergy are truly indigenous and relevant African Christian theologians or just western Christian theologians in a black skin? To what extent is the trained clergy able to respond to challenges and opportunities of Decoloniality in Zimbabwe? As Africans in general and Zimbabweans in particular, are they claiming their rightful African identity? What role are the theological institutions playing in colonising the mind of indigenous people? These and other questions are to be answered within the context of a serious shift, decline, and de-Christianisation of the Western World on the one hand, and the ever-growing Christian Churches in the Third World, especially in Africa and Zimbabwe specifically.

In conclusion, the article proposes decolonisation of power structures and colonised knowledge systems through reclaiming indigenous identity and the use of testimonies as oral evidence and a way forward for the emancipation of the Indigenous people and clergy in particular.

 

Defining coloniality

The word coloniality in this paper is used to refer to how the colonisers failed to appreciate and underrate the thoughts and the mind of indigenous people. According to Seroto (2018:3) the idea of coloniality was developed around 2000 (see also Mignolo 2000). Coloniality is always looked at from the darker side of modernity as such it has to be evaluated in terms of its existence within frameworks of academia. Maldonado-Torres discovered that:

coloniality is maintained in books, in the criteria for academic performance, in cultural patterns, in common sense, in the self-image of peoples, in aspirations of self, and so many other aspects of our modern experiences. In a way as modern subjects we breathe coloniality all the time and every day (2007:243).

The colonisation of the mind is targeted at destroying and undermining indigenous people's social customs that relate to literature, religion, education, and history as espoused by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1986:16). Seroto (2018:3) agrees with Ngugi wa Thiong'o who adds that, colonisation of the mind was more dangerous and destructive than colonisation of material resources that took place through the indoctrination of Western epistemologies. Conversely, one has to go further than colonialism to comprehend what effects of colonisation of the mind were there during various historical aeons as alluded by Maldonado-Torres (2007:243). Furthermore, colonialism also concentrated on the economic and political power that a particular independent nation exercised over another nation.

 

Theoretical framework

As mentioned earlier, this article uses Grosfoguel's analysis of coloniality particularly coloniality of knowledge as a theoretical framework to unpack coloniality of the mind of indigenous people during the period of missionary activities at the UTC. The coloniality of knowledge has something to do with the impact of colonisation on the different areas of knowledge production. Mbembe (2015) cautions that institutions of learning cannot continue providing a "Westernised" kind of knowledge that continue without the African story. Africans remain in the periphery even of their own history. The purpose of promoting Western and Eurocentric thought, imagination, and knowledge in Africa was to erase the colonised from mainstream existence and place them as things in the realm of otherness. Coloniality of knowledge compels colonial scholars to understand how and why other knowledge systems, such as indigenous knowledge, have been pushed to the territorial side of society (Grosfoguel 2013).

Biko (2004), the founder of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa, contends that colonialism left indigenous people with an inferiority complex, which in some ways crippled them psychologically. Furthermore, the coloniality of knowledge poses epistemological questions that are linked to: 1) the politics of knowledge generation; 2) questions of who generates which knowledge and for what purpose; 3) the question of relevance and irrelevance of knowledge; and 4) how some knowledge disempowered/ empowered communities and peoples (Ake 1979; Ndlovu Gatsheni 2013). Coloniality of knowledge contributes to an understanding and exposure of epistemic silences, conspiracies, and epistemic violence that are hidden within Eurocentric epistemologies.

 

Methodological considerations

The article has used a qualitative research methodology of reviewing existing data through a desk research analysis method. Creswell (2009) avers that a desk study is collecting information without fieldwork (see also Hakim1982:1 & Masvotore 2021). Contextually, this essay has used the term desk research in a broader spectrum to embrace all information collected without the involvement of a field survey.

The desk research methodology has been selected in this article because of lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, the researcher accessed sources from the internet, newspaper articles, handbooks, and quarterly journals from archives. In a bid to fill in these gaps, the study made use of information from published sources for a cautious in-depth thought assessment and decisive appraisal of the data as a mitigating measure to avoid most limitations of desk research methodology (Boslaugh 2007; Dale et al, 1988; Kiecolt & Nathan 1985).

 

Missionary education at the UTC¹ and the coloniality of knowledge

The institutionalisation of missionary education took various forms: from infant care and day schools to secondary schools and colleges to universities and seminars (Jensz 2012:295). When European settlers arrived in Zimbabwe in 1890, it was not easier for missionaries to spread the gospel to the indigenous people. On one hand, through Mission schools Africans were able to access formal education; on the other hand, white children got their education through government schools. Madhiba argues that when Africans insist for more education, a controlled system on education was introduced by the colonial government to limit missionaries from overeducating Africans (2000:21). The colonial government administrators became suspicious of missionaries in terms of the kind of education they gave to indigenous children. In their thinking, whites wanted Africans to get basic education that was practical to enable them to work in agriculture and industry as labourers and not to compete with colonialists.

When missionaries came to Africa, they consciously or unconsciously levelled damning accusations at indigenous people who were perceived as inadequate beings who deserved to be developed and civilised by inculcating Western knowledge in them. Different institutions of learning including the UTC were used to promote Eurocentric knowledge. Foucault (2013) distinguishes between two kinds of knowledge which dominated these institutions: knowledge as organised in disciplines, scientific fields or areas and general knowledge, which creates conditions for an object of knowledge to be taken up by a discipline. In his book, Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon (2008:14) explains that it is imperative "to liberate the black man from the arsenal of complexes that germinated in the colonial situation. " In other words, Fanon believes that it is necessary for indigenous people to overcome inferiority and superiority complexes that are hidden in Western knowledge systems.

==1 Historical background of the UTC. In 1954 the Wesleyan Methodist Church, now the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, decided to move their theological training school from Waddilove near Marondera to Epworth Mission where it became known as Epworth Theological College. The reason for this move was that theological students would have access to the then University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1959 the Methodist (Episcopal), formally American Methodist Church, who had their own theological, training school at Old Mutare, decided to work together with the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. The United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe joined the Theological College two years later in 1961. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe became a participating member of the fast-growing ecumenical institution in 1965. The United Congregational Church of Southern Africa became a member in 1969, followed by the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa, bringing the number of participating churches to six and making the United Theological College the largest ecumenical college in the country. In 1976, the name was changed from Epworth Theological College to United Theological College as a way of affirming the ecumenical nature of the training institution. The United Theological College is situated 11 km East of Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. Be that as it may most of the reference to this paper shall be MCZ because coloniality of knowledge was prevalent during this time when MCZ was in charge of the institution.

According to Zvobgo (1991), the missionaries used education as a strategy to convert young Africans. White (1920) confirms that when one wins children to Jesus, one would have conquered the whole world for Christ. This idea of targeting young people was based on the reason that young children were not yet contaminated by African epistemologies that may prevent them to adapt to Western culture easily. Thus, the Church made a declaration in 1930 that, although mission schools were difficult to establish, they gave an opportunity for the presentation of Christian message that seems impossible to raw Africans (Zvobgo1991:86,87). The above statement by Zvobgo proves that for missionaries, establishment of schools gave them an opportunity for the impartation of the religious instruction that was spread to the old as well as young. The presence of schools in each kraal meant a greatest opportunity and a grip as well as a reputation of greater value for evangelism. In this case, the school becomes the forerunner of the church as can always be witnessed that when there is no school in a village the church ultimately dies out (DeWolf 1963:239).

Statements of missionary leaders reveal to what extent they soon came to rely on their educational work as a means of reaching the people and indoctrinate them with Western epistemologies. Reflecting on the educational work of the UTC and other institutions Daneel (1971:210) indicate that missionaries found their way to the people and the people found the way to the church through the schools. However, one can denote that from the start the educational system contained the seed of colonisation of the mind as indicated by separatism. In the first place, the far-reaching powers of missions permitted in the system placed the missionary in the position of being regarded, and in some cases regarding him, as the final authority in school matters. To the Africans, the European missionary, for all practical purposes, was the decision-making power. The missionary introduced a foreign system and therefore it was expected of him for some time to at least maintain the initiative to advise, guide, and control. It is believed that the missionary knew what was right for the black African people. The missionary was both the judge and the jury at the same time. According to the report of the Southern Rhodesia Education Commission (1962:141), independent church movement to some extent developed as a reaction and as a direct challenge to this paternal control of missionaries in the educational field. Africans had no room to decide what they were to learn instead they were on the receiving end.

The education of indigenous people was introduced to enhance the security and social progress of the colonialists. To accelerate the call made by John White when he established the Nenguwo/Waddilove training institution (now the UTC) in 1900 for its first intake to train evangelists cum teachers, it introduced practical subjects in the curriculum such as singing, needlework, woodwork, and cookery (Gondongwe 2011:92). John White's intentions were removed from what education actually aims at. In their response to the call made by the British colonial government, under various superintendents general, White reiterated:

... we want to see natives become workers and we believe that Christianity will be a chief cause of their becoming a working class. ... a leading principle of our society is to do as much as possible of the teaching and the preaching by means of native evangelists, leaving the European ministers free to supervise and direct, hence the Waddilove Institution. There are some 80 students receiving industrial, literary, and religious instruction to fit them to lift up their own people. From the most reliable of these men some have been selected as native ministers (1920:4).

In 1953, the Principal of Epworth theological College later to become the UTC, Rev Robert Forshaw advocated:

Our mission is in sympathy with the efforts made by the government to impress upon the native mind the importance and the moral value of manual labour, and to offer to pupils in training institutions an opportunity to be developed in some form of industrial knowledge (Gondongwe 2011).

An analysis of the above statement shows that the college also adopted the call by the government to train the indigenous clergy in some controlled skills that were suitable to aspects of manual labour hence they made sure that for some time the missionaries dominated in leading the educational institutions. Gondongwe (2011:100) (see also UTC archives minutes and reports) proves the above by asserting that from 1954-1955, Robert Forshaw was the Principal of Epworth Theological College. In 1956 Dr Fredrick B. Rea took over as Principal of the institution until 1964. The two were from the MCZ. Rev. K. E. Erickson from the UMC took over when Rea's term of office ended in 1966. In 1967, Rev Thomas Baird, another MCZ minister, was appointed Principal. A year later, Rev. K. E Erickson bounced back for the year 1968. In 1969, Rev. Dennis Salmon acted as Principal until 1970. It was in 1971 when Rev. Michael Appleyard, also an MCZ clergy, was appointed Principal of the UTC and he led the institution until 1976. In the same year, Peter Russell from the MCZ acted as Principal until the arrival of Dr C. C. Mazobere who took over as Principal, and he became the first African Principal of the institution.

The curriculum offered by the UTC for example was crafted in such a way that indigenous learners would be obliged to meet the economic, political, and cultural demands of their mission societies as well as the government of the day (Mosley, 1958:186. see also Rea, 1957:81). Rea, a Methodist minister, outlined why it was regarded as important to allow mission schools to operate in Southern Rhodesia, stating:

If we leave the natives beyond our border ignorant barbarians, they will remain a race of troublesome marauders. We should try to make them a part of ourselves, with a common faith and common interests, useful servants, consumers of our goods, contributors to our revenue (1960:197,198).

It is clear from Rea's statement above those missionary conquests wanted to exercise their control without compromising. In Africa, Africans were forced to change their ways of life by being converted so that they can adopt the Western culture. Mosweunyane (2013) avers those missionaries condemned the traditional title systems, marriage, rituals, songs, arts, and labelled them "things of Satan". The African dancing and music never featured in the curricula. Indigenous literatures in Africa's countless languages that had lived from time immemorial on the African soil were not considered as a mode of communique in institutions, except English. It was a punishable offence to speak African dialects while at some institutions. It is critical to mention that when colonialism was rooted in Africa, the use of indigenous literatures, especially in formal schools, was pushed to the periphery or completely eliminated.

What should be noted is that some missionaries were autocrats; they made everything possible to destroy African traditions and institutions, wanting in their place the image of their own institutions (Osa 1998; Kunene 1992 & UNESCO, 1987). This can be attested by the naming of buildings, sporting houses, and even statues being raised in memory of missionaries who have never stepped in an African soil. According to Adedeji (1990), Europeans wanted dominance in scientific, technical, managerial, and educational fields, and opposed every effort by Africans to develop in those fields. This shows that learning that was transported into the African societies was tailor-made to create folks who did not subscribe to their identity and promote their African values. According to Koma (1976)

The characteristics of colonial education are that it promoted and encouraged individualism, it regarded accumulation of wealth as a measure of success in life, and it conditioned those who received it to despise those who did not receive it, made its recipients despise manual work and made its victims accept anything European as the paragon of excellence.

Boateng (1985:109) also states that, the traditional role of education bridging the gap between the adult generation and youth is gradually giving way to the development of the so-called creative individual who is completely removed from his/her tradition.

In other words, this demonstrates the hidden aim of education for native people hidden within Eurocentric epistemologies and curriculum of education. The education of indigenous people was introduced to enhance the security and social progress of the colonialists (Hallencreutz & Moyo 1998). The Africans were first accepted for training as evangelists, who after training did everything the clergy did except administering the sacraments, which was only done after given dispensation by Conference. Mazobere (1991:156) comments that some senior missionaries went out of their way to make sure that no academically qualified Africans went abroad or even to colleges in South Africa, even when the church in that country offered full scholarships. The reason given by the missionaries was that Africans would be overqualified for their African congregations.

Additionally, the training was characterised by not only racial discrimination but also gender disparities. Whites and Africans received their training separately as alluded above. African women were further discriminated from receiving training with fellow African male students. The training of clergy remained a preserve of the males only, until 1978 when Sheila Nyajeka Mutasa of the United Methodist Church (UMC) became the first woman to train at the UTC (United Theological College Records 1978). Of interest to note is that in 1977 Margaret James, a white lady, joined the ministry in the MCZ, but she did not go to train at Epworth (UTC) where indigenous clergy trained; rather she enrolled with University of South Africa (hereinafter called UNISA). Gondongwe (2011) relates that, in 1977 two candidates for the ministry were accepted namely, Levee Kadenge and Margaret James who became the first woman in the MCZ to be accepted for ministerial formation. Of interest is that Kadenge was sent to the UTC, but James was allowed to do her theological studies through the UNISA. Being the first female clergy and being white, the church paid for her learning expenses in full at UNISA which was non-residential. James was allowed to work as a clergy whilst studying and when she completed, she graduated with a Bachelor of Theology, a qualification which many indigenous clergy took long to obtain.

Both the missionaries and the then British government converged on the point of dictating what was relevant and suitable for indigenous people. This convergence disadvantaged indigenous people in many ways. White missionaries under the British government enjoyed epistemic privileges while indigenous people were subjected to knowledge which was inferior. The question of relevance and irrelevance of the knowledge system as contained in the curriculum and the question of who decided on which knowledge to be consumed, was problematic. Manual labour, for example, was thought to be relevant for indigenous people whereas mental activities were thought to be relevant for white people. This is evident in the declaration made by Rev Rea, during his term as Principal at the UTC, when he outrageously stated:

... the head of the native is not able to sustain the strain of mental study, so well as the heads of the whites. He has not been accustomed for generations to school attendance and to mental work, and would apt very quickly to get headaches, nervous exhaustion arising from Over study if he has not as a diversion the bodily exercise of outdoor works (Rea, 1963:34).

United Theological College was trapped in what Carl Vogt (a German/Swiss scientist and politician) referred to as a belief that indigenous people were intellectually inferior because they were physically primitive and that their brains were undeveloped (Baker 1974:129,132). The objective of training students in manual and handicraft work was to supply cheap labour to the colonialists.

The re-ordering of the indigenous people's way of life through mission education also extended to the notion of gender. Training in manual labour had a gender differentiation motive. The missionaries stressed the "gospel of work" as a means of remedying a so-called wayward kind of existence and transforming it into a more organised way of life (Harries, 2007:82). Boys and girls received different training: boys did carpentry; girls did needlework (Chinyeze & Gordon 1959). This gender role differentiation had a more deep-seated origin. Through the establishment of domesticated training (such as sewing and needlework), the missionaries wanted to extend their belief that women do not belong in the public sphere but in the home. Dressmaking and domestic arts enabled women to provide clothing for mission residents and earn extra income through selling their products (Comaroff & Comaroff 1997). Although the gender role differentiation was in keeping with the spirit of the times, the rationale behind the differentiation was to subjugate indigenous people to menial tasks; to keep them from aspiring to more affluent careers; and at the same time, make them useful to the colonists and not only to the missionaries. Missionaries also believed that appropriate gender-specific clothing was a sign of Christian respectability and consequently converts were required to adopt Western dress and customs, thereby further alienating them from their traditional roots and conventions.

The other challenge that faced mission institutions was the notion of what Harries (1997) refer to as "spiritualicide" and "epistemicide" which is the destruction of spirituality and knowledge. Additionally, it is the "slaughter" of indigenous people's knowledge systems, thereby destroying their self-confidence. Furthermore, Harries (1997:171) demonstrated this when he described the noise made in the village adjoining the mission station as follows:

These are outbursts of strident, savage, breath-taking laughter, sometimes dominated by a strange cry, like the wailing of a child. Then the whooping, howling, all the most hideous noises of which the human throat is capable. When the shouting calms a little, the voices of young boys or women in tone a sort of song without melody in which violent inhalations and guttural sounds abound. What a concert! I think of the descriptions of Goethe and others of witches of Sabbaths.

The statement above promotes hierarchisation of knowledge and epistemological practice such as spirituality. The notion that the "spiritual activities" of the indigenous people were backward, uncivilised, and stupid is questionable. The context of such a statement insinuates that Eurocentric knowledge was superior to indigenous knowledge.

Be that as it may, in the education work that missionaries started with the likes of John White, Bernard Mzeki and others, even though tinted with Eurocentric knowledge systems, there is an acknowledgement that, consciously or unconsciously, they made efforts to improve the academic formation of Africans. Zvobgo (1991) confirmed that references were constantly made to the work which was being done in the communities by students trained at the UTC.

 

Summary and conclusion

A historical perspective of how the UTC as a mission institution used knowledge of being to colonise the consciousness of indigenous people has been discussed in this article. It further addresses how Eurocentric knowledge was used as superior to indigenous knowledge, how it was infused to students at the UTC and how ministerial students are to perceive themselves. A dimension of decoloniality of knowledge is crucial in this analysis of the provision of education by the missionaries during the colonial period. Firstly, race was a defining factor when leadership of the UTC were appointed from its inception, as in Nenguwo training institution changing names to Waddilove, Epworth, and now the UTC. The portrayal and emphasis of racial discrimination at the UTC dictated relations of superiority and inferiority that are the product of domination and power and turned them into a natural and acceptable phenomenon. Furthermore, knowledge production at the UTC was Euro-centrically imbued and hegemonically installed within the structure and consciousness of the curriculum offered by the UTC to the indigenous people. Missionaries used race attributes to codify intellectual differences between white people and indigenous people. The fact that students at the UTC were encouraged to focus on manual work illustrated the clear and exclusive claim that they were not "wired" to do subjects that were associated with rational thinking. Additionally, the separation of training where white candidates is to train abroad and indigenous were the only one to train at local institutions show that the missionaries were sceptical about the type of knowledge they were imparting on indigenous clergy.

Finally, how the humanity - their being - of indigenous people was portrayed in the historicity of Christianity in Africa offered at the UTC, is problematic in the sense that Africans are only seen as passive recipients of the gospel, side lined at the periphery of Christian history. The history of Christian thought excluded indigenous people, attributed achievements during this period to Europeans and presented them at the centre of history. The glorification of the European history alienated indigenous people and made them feel irrational and primitive. Kedebe (2004:99) argues that if indigenous people "have a low opinion about themselves, they will be less ambitious and less inclined to think that they have the calibre to achieve great goals."

Mpofu further stressed that:

The coloniser does not only distort the history of the colonised, slaughter their knowledge systems and empty their heads of self-confidence and their hearts of the emotional stamina to live without colonial domination. But he goes ahead to manufacture accusations and labels against the colonised, among many of the accusations are laziness, drunkenness, backwardness, propensity to violence, dirtiness, stupidity, ignorance, bad luck, and spiritual damnation -all of which require the coloniser to intervene and save the colonised from the abyss of many "lacks" and "deficits that bedevil him and his lot (2013:109, 110).

In light of the above discovery, it is true that institutions such as the UTC and churches are continuing to reproduce coloniality hence the need to decolonise the minds and the curriculums inclusive of all sites of knowledge production. Reversing colonialism is essential to decolonisation process therefore it is necessary to revisit, reimagine, and redefine spaces where native and white people experienced colonialism, neo-colonialism, and underdevelopment as alluded by Ndhlovu Gathseni (2013). The reason to visit these spaces is that the domains of culture (the intellect, language, aesthetics, religion of indigenous people) still remain colonised.

Be that as it may, Rockeffer (1995) acknowledged those modern missionary efforts that are not imperialistic are extremely helpful and are having great impact in Africa and around the world. Some have increased literacy and brought medical improvements as well as improve agriculture.

In conclusion, missionaries were unique in the role they played in influencing and shaping the minds of the indigenous people. Missionary education operated within the colonial discourse, which substantiated the notion that indigenous people were undeveloped and of low intellectual status. The education provided by the Missionaries at the UTC provides a premise and a means to evaluate intellectual paradigms that also existed elsewhere during the missionary period. Scholars of anti-colonialism and decolonisation are not only faced with confronting racialism, sexism, and related hierarchies, but are also faced with the challenge of confronting coloniality of knowledge that needs to be decolonised for a true and better reflection of an inclusive bigger picture of indigenous people.

The writer is of the view that decolonising the curriculum at the UTC is about being more accurate, more inclusive, and more interculturally responsive. It is not about forcing one ideological perspective on students. It is about telling both sides of the story. As such the model of reclaiming indigenous identity through extensive research and writing of indigenous histories is proposed for inclusivity. Secondly, the writer also proposes the use of memory as source of information that is useful through testimonies to inform the change of curriculum. Testimonies are formal means of presenting oral evidence - as often the case of indigenous communities -about painful events and experiences. It can be concluded that it is necessary for more research to be done to unearth important knowledge systems that belong to Africa which can be utilised in the economic, political, and social advancement of the continent through a reclaiming model. It has to be acknowledged that the African continent is part of the "global village", and as such in its current economic, social, and political circumstances it cannot manage to function in seclusion. Additionally, the technological development that is so far apprehended will remain eye-catching to Africans and that will further compound the problem of decoloniality for indigenization.

 

Bibliography

Adedeji, A. 1990. Introduction, in ACARTSOD (ed. ). The African social situation: Crucial factors and development and transformation. London: African Centre for Applied Research and Training in Social Development (ACARTSOD).

Ake, C. 1979. Social Science as Imperialism: The Theory of Political Development. Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press.         [ Links ]

Andrews, L., Higgins, A., Andrews, M. W., Lalor J. G. 2012. Classic grounded theory to analyse secondary data: Reality and reflections. The Grounded Theory Review 11(1):12-26.         [ Links ]

A. V. Judges & Commission, 1962. Report of the Southern Rhodesia Education Commission. Salisbury: Government Printers.         [ Links ]

Baker, J. R. 1974. Race. Georgia: Oxford Press.         [ Links ]

Biko, S. 2004. I Write What I Like: Selected Writings. Johannesburg: Picador Africa.         [ Links ]

Boateng, F. 1985. African traditional education: A tool for intergenerational communication. In M. K. Asante, & K. W. Asante (eds. ). African Culture. London: Greenwood Press.         [ Links ]

Boslaugh, S. 2007. Secondary analysis for public health: A practical guide. New York, NY: Cambridge, doi:10. 1017/CBO9780511618802.         [ Links ]

Chinyeze, M., Gordon, P. 1959. Waddilove's History. Waddilove Magazine. Marandellas: Collmel Press (PVT) Limited        [ Links ]

Comaroff, J., Comaroff, J. 1997. Postcolonial Politics and Discourses of Democracy in Southern Africa: An Anthropological Reflection on African Political Modernities. Journal of Anthropological Research 53(2):123-146, doi:10. 1086/jar. 53. 2. 3631274        [ Links ]

Creswell, J. W. 2009. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods Approaches. 3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.         [ Links ]

Dale, A., Arbor, S., Procter, M. 1988. Doing secondary analysis. London, UK: Unwin Hyman.         [ Links ]

Daneel, M. L. 1971. Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches Volume 1: Background and rise of the major movements. Paris: Mount & Co. NV        [ Links ]

DeWolf, L. H. 1963. The Theological task of Methodism. The Rhodesian Methodist Quarterly Review of the Methodist Church 39(1):238-244.         [ Links ]

Doolan, D. M. and Froelicher E. S. 2009. Using an existing data set to answer new research questions: A methodological review. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice: An International Journal. 23(3):203-215, doi:10. 1891/1541-6577. 23. 3. 203        [ Links ]

Fanon, F. 2008 [1952]. Black Skin, White Masks. Translated by R. Philcox.

Foucault, M. 2013. The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Taylor and Francis.         [ Links ]

Gondongwe, K. 2011. African Ministers and the Emergence of Resistance to Colonial Domination: The Development of Indigenous Clergy in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Pietermaritzburg: University of Kwazulu Natal.         [ Links ]

Grosfoguel, R. 2007. The Epistemic Decolonial Turn: Beyond Political-economy paradigms. Cultural Studies 21(2/3), doi:10.1080/09502380601162514        [ Links ]

Hakim, C. 1982. Secondary analysis in social research: A guide to data sources and method examples. London, UK: George Allen &Unwin.         [ Links ]

Harries, P. 1997. Under Alpine Eyes: Constructing Landscape and Society in late pre-colonial South-East Africa. Paideuma: MitteilungenzurKulturkundeno. 43:171-191.         [ Links ]

Harries, P. 2007. Butterflies and Barbarians: Swiss Missionaries and Systems of Knowledge in South East Africa. Oxford: James Curry.         [ Links ]

Jensz, F. 2012. Missionaries and Indigenous Education in the 19th-century British Empire. Part I: Church-State Relations and Indigenous Actions and Reactions. History Compass 10(4):294-305. doi:10. 1478-0542. 2012. 00839        [ Links ]

Kebede, M. 2004. African Development and the Primacy of Mental Decolonization. African Development 19(1):107-129. doi:10. 4314/ad. v29i1. 22188        [ Links ]

Kiecolt, K. J., Nathan, L. E. 1985. Secondary analysis of survey data. University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences 53. doi:10. 4135/9781412985796        [ Links ]

Koma, K. 1976. Education in black Africa. Mahalapye: Botswana National Front Secretariat.         [ Links ]

Kunene, D. P. 1992. African, language literature: Tragedy and hope. Research in African Literature (23):7-15.         [ Links ]

Madhiba, S. 2000. Struggles and Strides: A History of the Localisation Process of Methodism in Zimbabwe 1891-1996. Harare: Methodist Literature Department.         [ Links ]

Maldonado-Torres, N. 2007. On Coloniality of Being: Contributions to the Development of a Concept. Cultural Studies 240-270, doi:10.1080/09502380601162548        [ Links ]

Masvotore, P. 2021. The healing Practitioner has retreated back to the trenches: Healing and Spirituality during COVID-19. In R. Makamani, A. Nhemachena, Mtapuri, O (eds.). Global capital's 21st century repositioning between COVID-19 and the fourth industrial revolution on Africa. Cameroon: Langaa RPCTG.

Mazobere, C. C. G. 1991. Christian Theology of Mission. In A Century of Methodism in Zimbabwe 1891-1991. C. S. Banana (ed.). Gweru: Mambo Press. 149-174.

Mbembe, A. 2015. On the Post colony. California: University of California Press.         [ Links ]

Mignolo, W. D. 2000. Local Histories/Global Designs: Essays on the Coloniality of Power, Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking. Princeton: Princeton University Press.         [ Links ]

Mkandawire, T. 2005. African intellectuals and nationalism. In African intellectuals. T. Makandawira (ed.). New York: Zed Books. 10-55.

Mpofu, W. 2013. Coloniality in the Scramble for African Knowledge: A Decolonial Political Perspective. Africanus 43(2):105-117. doi:10.25159/0304-615X/2305        [ Links ]

Mosley, A. W. 1958. News of the Circuits: Epworth Theological College. The Rhodesian Methodist Quarterly Review of the Methodist Church. 33(4):186.         [ Links ]

Mosweunyane, D. 2013. The African Educational Evolution: from Traditional Training to Formal Education. Higher Education Studies Volume 3(4):50-59.         [ Links ]

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. 2013. Empire, Global Coloniality and African Subjectivity. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.         [ Links ]

Ngugi waThiong'o. 1986. Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Nairobi: Heinemann.         [ Links ]

Oelofsen, R. 2015. Decolonisation of the African Mind and Intellectual Landscape. Phronimon16 (2):130-146.         [ Links ]

Osa, O. 1998. Using indigenous literatures in Sub-Saharan African schools. In Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa: Contemporary issues and future concerns. L. Susal (ed.). New York: Garland Publishing, INC.

Rea, F. B. 1960. The future of Mission education in Southern Rhodesia. UTC Archives.

Rea, F. B. 1963. Five years in retrospect at the Epworth Theological College. The Rhodesian Methodist Quarterly Review of the Methodist Church. 39(4):370. UTC Archives.         [ Links ]

Rea, F. B. 1957. News of the Circuits: Epworth Theological College. The Rhodesian Methodist Quarterly Review of the Methodist Church 33(2):9-81. UTC Archives.         [ Links ]

Rockefeller, K. 1995. Pastoral ministry and mission work. Michigan: Cornerstone University.         [ Links ]

Seroto, J. 2018. Dynamics of Decoloniality in South Africa: A Critique of the History of Swiss Mission Education for Indigenous people. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 44(3). doi:10. 25159/2412-4265/3268        [ Links ]

Smith, A. K., Ayanian, J. Z., Covinsky, K. E., Landon, B. E., McCarthy, E. P., Wee, C. C., Steinman, M. A. 2011. Conducting high-value secondary data set analysis: An introductory guide and resources. Journal of General Internal Medicine 28 (8):920-929. doi:10. 1007/s11606-010-1621-5        [ Links ]

UNESCO. 1987. Priority needs and regional cooperation concerning youth in English-speaking Africa. United Theological Records.

White, J. 1920. Report about mission work in Rhodesia to British Conference 1920. Harare: Bookshop Archives.         [ Links ]

Zvobgo, C. J. M. 1999. The Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Zimbabwe 1891-1945. Harare: UZ Publications.         [ Links ]