The Heartbeat of Indigenous Africa: A Study of the Chagga Educational System

by R. Sambul Mosha

Empowered by findings and insights from the wit and wisdom of the indigenous Chaga educational system, Dr. Mosha contends that an authentic educational program in Tanzania and elsewhere should be holistic in its unrelenting quest to educate the entire body, mind, and spirit. He provides a comprehensive description of the indigenous schooling process and its underlying fundamental virtues and then proposes that modern education should give equal emphasis to both the spiritual development of students as well as to their intellectual growth in knowledge, science, and technology. Dr. Mosha argues that for its own advantage and survival, education has to prioritize moral consciousness and responsibility in its students in order to attain academic excellence. Without a consistent moral living and moral action by all who teach and learn, education eventually plunges into hopeless mediocrity, It becomes the proverbial salt which loses its saltiness. This book provides several unique contributions to the academy. First, it illustrates how the Chaga people of N. Tanzania cherish everyday experience and every here-and-now situation as teachable moments, teaching moments, and learning moments. It is also uniquely rich in its description of stories, riddles, proverbs, and rituals as powerful tools of holistic education. Thirdly, the book breaks ground by comprehensively articulating specific indigenous virtues such as reverence, self-control, silence and thoughtfulness, courage, diligence in work, and communality. This book therefor makes a unique contribution in the areas of Indigenous Knowledge, Spirituality, Education, African American Studies, African Studies, Religious Studies, Anthropology, et cetera. The author's stories, personal experiences, and thick descriptions are so fundamental that every reader will rediscover, in this book, similar experiences in his/her own life.

280 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999