Cultural Heritage Education as a Pedagogical Tool in Revolutionising the Consciousness of Africans: A Radical Anthropo-archaeological Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64321/jcr.v2i6.04Keywords:
Afrocentric consciousness, Anthropo-archaeology, cultural heritage, cultural illiteracy, pedagogyAbstract
The study makes a critical examination of cultural heritage education in Africa and advocates for its relevance as a revolutionary tool for Afrocentric consciousness. The study notes that the problems of cultural illiteracy and the absence of proper pedagogy pose a challenge to cultural heritage education in Africa. The problem of the study is that the lack of appropriate pedagogical groundwork has left undone the delicate tasks of uncovering, distilling, documenting, and studying the cultural heritage of the peoples of Africa. Available data point to the fact that Africa’s cultural heritage education has almost become sterile, irrelevant, and superficial to the masses. Methodologically, the study uses radical Anthropo-archaeological perspectives as critical pedagogical tools. This allows the study to rigorously examine all structures and patterns embedded in artefacts, ecofacts, and cultural features as agents of the conscientisation of Africans. The study is justified in asserting the usefulness of cultural heritage education and by contending that we need to develop appropriate cultural pedagogy for Africans. The study concludes that it is in the context of critical questionings that cultural resource education can be relevant in the service of revolutionising the consciousness of Africans and that it holds the key to a proper understanding of the cultural data of Africa.
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