Education for Democratic Citizenship in Africa

Abstract

This chapter makes a case for Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC) grounded in African social contexts and thought. It critiques the dominant citizenship model that shapes Malawian EDC and calls for the consideration of an ubuntu ethics–inspired EDC. It argues that the prevailing EDC in Malawian schools, which is inspired by a strand of liberal democracy anchored in a conceptualisation of personhood as a detached self, fails to align with African ontologies of the self as relational. It is contended that while democratic ideals are universal, different societies necessarily have varying models of democracy owing to their different ontological outlooks and lived experiences. As such, theorisations of EDC in Africa should consider adopting human nature orientations of ubuntu ethics. The chapter advances an alternative EDC grounded in a relational conception of personhood that simultaneously values self-regarding and other-regarding virtues. Such an ubuntu-inspired EDC would, among other things, emphasise the virtues of care, empathy, interconnectedness, and interdependence. EDC would pursue these under a characteristic ubuntu deliberation that recognises and centres differences, other than commonality only, so that people can understand and recognise each other meaningfully. Such a conception of EDC is necessary for the citizen to know how to concretely act in a manner that enhances the humanness in another citizen.