By Tamunokuro Iyo Obietonbora
The slavery in modern education: the end of history is a book written by John Kamurinde and Agutuhe Zymus Mukombe talking about the role of Ubuntu in the cutting-edge and/or next generation education.
They trace the conduct of the student and the educator in theory and practice and conclude that Ubuntu is indispensable in the education process because it gives the same authenticity.
Henceforth an education devoid of the same is a pseudo-reality and amounts to slavery. It cannot withstand the tension that often arises in practice in the face of modern vices such as corruption and ill governance.
Kamurinde observes that education without Ubuntu does not create a universal society or student and subsequently has no universal appeal.
He goes on to state that the development of such a student is unconscious and this explains why he/she is easily fatigued, crippled and quickly resigns in the battle for democracy and anti-corruption. That education and democracy populated with a student unconscious of residential philosophy is overrated and for all intents and purposes is not sustainable in so far as its status in history is provisional.
Thus Ubuntu is the beginning and end of history in as far as no ideology is sustainable without Ubuntu as its residence.
The authors opine that markets and/or material myth authors modern education hence the residential philosophy [Ubuntu] has little space which explains the current crisis [the cross-purpose relationship between education and humanity].
To them, skill though important is not primary in the educational process; what is primary is the basic structure of man [Ubuntu] which constitutes love, justice, joy, happiness, knowledge, truth and freedom.
There must be cultural unity between education and Ubuntu [residential philosophy] because it is what introduces the student to the totality of the self in the face of the man-made and/or artificial civilization. They emphasize that without the foregoing, what emerges is a weak briefcase student without stamina to sustain the passion for resistance in the face of modern hostile realities of corruption and bad governance which emerge from inherent instability created by goody ideologies.
It is Ubuntu that begins the dialogue with reality hence it is the end of history. They disagree with Francis Fukuyamas assertion in his book entitled END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN that liberal democracy is the end of history and/or last form of government.
To begin with, what is the residence of liberal democracy? They ask! Without a residential philosophy, liberal democracy remains unconscious and remains fragile in the face of contradictory interests.
Ubuntu dialogue is the linchpin of innovation, democracy, its sustainability and time relevancy.
Education must be able to scan Ubuntu, appropriate its elements to strengthen the crippling student in practice in as far as it is the only way the fatigued artificial education can regain its fading relevancy because of its inherent disconnection with the cosmic self. Education must help the student live the duality of Ubuntu and tech-civilization.
In the premises, Ubuntu is the inevitable peace machinery in this ongoing conflict between artificial intelligence and humanity; it is the protagonist in any form of government now and the future. It is the end of history and custodian of all civilizations.
All ideologies have their origin from Ubuntu and their eventual mortality and consequential emergency of historical instability begins with their attempt to gain independence from the same.
From the above, I am inclined to state that this book is a must read and acquires the status of one of the best reads in our generation.
Tamunokuro Iyo Obietonbora is an educator, Pan-African and author of Rebirthing The African Consciousness.
He is based in Abuja, Nigeria.
