Why depicting history as the villain is wrong

Among the wonders of Kenya is the presence of education policymakers who thrive on disparaging and making thinking disciplines like history villains. The villainisation of history was an undertaking that the colonial establishment did quite well in order to destroy African identities and past. It is an instrument for mental enslavement and organised loss of identity. Thus, policymakers repeat colonial dicta on Africans, advise the young not to learn history, and still believe they make sense.

The penetration of this myopic attitude into Kenyan education officialdom is not accidental. It trapped top education officials, ministers included, to advise children not to learn history. In national celebration days, leaders and the media remember the heroics of Me Ketalili wa Menza, the betrayal of Koitalel arap Samoei, the inspiration of Dedan Kimathi, and Tom Mboya’s exploits. They become shujaa (hero)this or that and are then relegated to forgotten-land.

Villainisation of history has value in keeping people ignorant to facilitate control, governance, and the looting of public intellectual and material resources. When curriculum developers come up with an education document for implementation at all levels whose distinguishing feature is the absence of “history”, they willingly fall into the trap of long term national enslavement.

At every level of the supposedly new education curriculum framework, for instance, no child is expected to learn the history of Kenya. The implication is that it is proper and right for people living in Kenya not to have a sense of identity as Kenyans.

Large extent

Could it be that the curriculum makers are averse to history because they are opposed to the achievements of people they disliked? A study of the making of the 2010 constitution, for instance, might reveal some of these negative proclivities.

It was, to a large extent, the product of partisan interests out to fix each other and based on faulty assumption that institutions were the obstacles to the happiness of particular politicians.

It passed, despite its narrowness, because two influential political forces converged. There currently are organized clamours for constitutional changes to accommodate new individual wishes; not so much in the interest of the country. Yet as the clamour increases, students, from baby school to the university, are not expected to know the sequence of events that landed the country where it is. In turn, they would eventually become policy makers of a country they have no  idea of what it is and what its national interests are.

This confusion probably drove Daudi Tonje to establish the National Defence College to expose potential policy makers to aspects of national interests and national security. Thorough knowledge of forces, and how they came to be, operating in countries and regions, is major. Still, Kenya National examination Council Chairman George Magoha can downplay history, and then lament that President Uhuru has good strategies but no competent workers.

Kenyan universities

Villainisation of history allows propagation of a deceptive belief that the reason there is rising unemployment is because the youth studied history. It is an old belief that runs through various education commissions in colonial and post-colonial times. Although the current 8.4.4 curriculum was designed to disregard history, the myths continue into the new curriculum. Kenyan universities, many that Magoha thinks should be closed for lack of physical and intellectual facilities, are therefore innocent of producing graduates in history or related disciplines.

In 2017, for instance, the University of Nairobi produced about 8,000 graduates and hardly any in history.

The other universities and colleges of technology do not even think about it. Could it be that one of the reasons the country keeps blundering is because many policy makers are ignorant about Kenyan history and that they are at best “technicians”, not thinkers and philosophers?

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed’s postponement makes sense, if it is to rethink Kenya’s education philosophy and to avoid the robotic national identity self-destruction implied in the neglect of history.

If her call for wide consultation, taking into account previous commissions, examines the best ways of inculcating national interests in the minds of the young, it would define her legacy as minister. She should thus move away from the villainasation of history for after all, all other disciplines are ironically anchored on the “villain” of history.

Prof Munene teaches History and International Relations at [email protected]