How colonial education practices helped shape the pattern of decolonization in West Africa

This paper argues that the pattern of decolonization was a logical consequence of the nature of human capital transfers from the colonizers’ to the elites of the former colonies, and this shaped the strategic interaction between these two groups. Where the educational ideology emphasized assimilation, the system tended to produce elites that depended highly on the colonizer for their livelihood, hence necessitating a continuation of the imperial relationship even after independence. On the contrary, where the ideology emphasized the strengthening of the ‘solid elements’ of the countryside, the system tended to produce elites that were quite independent of the colonizer and consequently had little to loose from a disruption of the imperial relationship at independence. The results of the model shed light into why the French decolonization process in West Africa was generally smooth and transited from colonialism to neo-colonialism whereasBritish decolonizations in West Africa were generally antagonistic, culminating in complete independence from England. The unique contribution of the paper is in providing an alternative explanation of 20th century decolonization, anchored on human capital transfers, an approach that unifies both the Eurocentric and Afrocentric perspectives.