UNKNOWN AFRICA. MYTH 6: There Is No Education or Innovation in Africa

Writer, journalist, Ph.D., professor at the University of Cambridge, author of the bestselling book How Asia works

UNKNOWN AFRICA. MYTH 6: There Is No Education or Innovation in Africa

Art design: huxley.media via Photoshop

The concept of a «stereotype» was introduced back in 1922 by American sociologist Walter Lippmann. Since then, humanity has repeatedly realized how difficult it is to step beyond the «picture in one’s head». Joe Studwell is one of the few who has managed to overcome the inertia of thought and build a bridge of understanding between cultures.

For more than 20 years, he served as the editor of China Economic Quarterly. His years of research resulted in the bestselling book The Asian Management Model (How Asia Works). Today, Studwell takes on an equally ambitious challenge: helping us understand how Africa works.

In an exclusive interview for Huxley, he debunks nine myths about Africa that persist in Western cultural consciousness. Let’s embark on an engaging and stereotype-free journey across the African continent with him.

hen the era of independence began in the 1950s–1960s, the level of formal education in Africa was the lowest in the world. Most colonial administrations had only established school systems about a decade before independence. Prior to that, formal education was limited to a small number of schools run by charitable organizations, and in many areas, it was entirely absent.

Colonial Africa indeed stood out for its lack of education. The most widely cited dataset includes time series for 21 sub-Saharan African countries. These show that in 1930, during the colonial period, only South Africa, Lesotho, and Mauritius had lower illiteracy rates or higher average years of schooling compared to other countries in the region. However, even these indicators were lower than those in South Asia — India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka — a region with the second-highest illiteracy rates in the world. In 1930, the average years of schooling for those attending school in 11 African countries was less than half the figure in South Asia.

By 1960, the adult literacy rate in sub-Saharan Africa was only 16%. Secondary school graduates numbered no more than 8,000 per year for a population of 200 million. Most colonial governments had finally begun opening schools, but only a third of school-age children attended them. Under such conditions, three-quarters of key positions in Africa’s public administration were held by foreigners. The rushed expansion of training and education programs for Africans in the final years of colonial rule led to absurd outcomes. For example, the first African district officer in modern-day Tanzania was appointed only in 1957, and the first African lawyer in Kenya qualified in 1956.

In 1960, there were very few girls in schools across most African countries. Only one in twenty women on the continent was literate — a figure significantly lower than in Asia or Latin America. On average, there were only about 500 girls receiving basic education per African country, while in South Korea, for instance, the number exceeded 80,000. African women were deprived of the fundamental educational tools necessary to participate in the modern economy.

It was only by 1990 that, in 14 out of 21 African countries for which data is available, the average level of schooling exceeded two years per person. The level of education reached by South Korea and Taiwan in 1960 was not achieved in sub-Saharan Africa until the beginning of the 21st century.

However, despite the catastrophic situation immediately after independence, African countries have made impressive progress in education. In fact, Africa — often labeled a development outsider — has demonstrated the fastest growth in educational systems ever recorded in the world. This effect was particularly evident in women’s education. By 1995, female literacy in sub-Saharan Africa reached 48%, surpassing South Asia (36%). The share of girls enrolled in secondary schools grew significantly: in Ghana — up to 29%, in Kenya — 25%, in Nigeria — 17%. In 1995, the percentage of girls in secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa stood at 44%, higher than South Asia’s 37%.

One of the most remarkable examples was Tanzania. Under Julius Nyerere’s government, the literacy rate rose from 10% in the early 1960s to 75% by the mid-1980s. Primary school enrollment increased from 25% to nearly 80%. After stepping down as president in 1985, Nyerere reflected on his achievements: «The British Empire left us a country with 85% illiteracy, two engineers, and twelve doctors. When I left office, illiteracy had dropped to 9%».

According to the African Development Bank, by 2050, when three-quarters of Africans will be of working age, 96% of them will be educated. Already today, the literacy rate reaches 70%. Over the past 20 years, higher education enrollment in Africa has tripled, reaching nearly 20% of the relevant age group. This marks a radical change compared to the early years of independence when Africa had the lowest level of human capital in the world.