Umunthu, decolonisation of Malawian education

This is the last installment of Professor Augustine Chingwala Musopole’s seminal article on decolonising education in Malawi using the principles of umunthu

“It is important to state the shape a philosophy of education might take by highlighting some critical principles. The following are some of the fundamental principles upon which the uMunthu philosophy of education is based.

luMunthu philosophy of education has to affirm the God of life and the inviolability of life-based on the principle of love for God which constitutes both its ontological and epistemological foundation. To be is to love and to love is to know and to know is to do. Love is also an epistemological principle of life that drives humanity to discover truth and wisdom.

lIt aims at the preservation and promotion of abundant life for all people within communal relationships of love informed by this dictum formulated by John Mbiti: “I am because we are, and since, we are, therefore, I am.” This is what is termed ontological relationality and recognition underlying being a community-in-communion and the knowledge emanating there from. 

luMunthu philosophy of education would acknowledge that love as both agape and eros is the power that humanises, and that humanness the quality of our being human beyond our physical appearance as seen in the face of Jesus, the Christ, whose humanity was full of grace and truth and which also  was exuding the glory of God and our creation. It is love that distinguishes us from the animal world. Without love, we are but beasts with a human face.

lSince love is the fundamental epistemological principle, our minds do not aim at being only rational, but rather should aim primarily at wisdom which has its source in the fear of God and acknowledges a rationality that trusts and faith that is reasonable, and all serving life that is made in God’s image. This gives us a way of knowing that we call ontological (or Life) cognition, that is, all life as a way of knowing. Reason and experience become instrumental to actualising wisdom.

lThe UMunthu philosophy of education aims at retrieving our traditions of wisdom and also accepting all human wisdom from other cultures and civilisation to make it foundational to all knowledge. The Chewa say, “Nzeru za yekha anaviika nsima m’madzi” meaning that, “know-it all soaked his/her food ration in the water”. Therefore, uMunthu philosophy focuses on a thorough knowledge of our shared worldview to which all other knowledge needs to be related.

lAccording to uMunthu philosophy of education, love is also the source of freedom and freedom is the source of service or sense of responsibility; and responsibility can only take place in a community-in-communion. Love can never be separated from freedom and the need for a disciplined life.

luMunthu philosophy of education acknowledges love as the cosmic energy that also leads to cosmic relationality with humanity occupying the centre of the cosmos and becoming the crossroads of all cosmic forces and having the priestly responsibilities on behalf of all creation and Christ being the chief priest since he manifested the authentic humanness. This is an awesome responsibility to be taken seriously by everyone especially our universities. Therefore, uMunthu philosophy of education takes seriously all traditional worldviews as critical sources for its development.

lAccording to uMunthu philosophy of education, to be human is to be religious since we are made in God’s image and, therefore, humanness is the practice of good religion as life affirming while all that dehumanises is the practice of bad religion, and hence life-denying. Life is the touchstone of all that is religion. This religious foundation has been realised and fulfilled in Jesus as the new humanity. All religious traditions are secondary to this foundational meaning of religion. There are such intimations in the names of Makewana, Mbona as in the seer or visionary, and Chala or Kyala as the ubiquitous one.

lFor uMunthu philosophy of education, those who are committed to the realisation of the authentic human integrity or genuine humanness are the ones who truly humanise the cultures, the social structures and institutions, and the world. These are the ones who truly inherit the earth and realise the reign of God. Therefore, character formation in terms of deepening the understanding of integrity, which means being a unified human being, become critical to the curricular content.

This is the philosophical, uMunthu-Christological-hermeneutic, and educational outlook that could inform any educational institution with an Afro-centric mode of education into which other disciplines are to be integrated in order to serve human existence adequately and thus contribute to the overcoming of human corruption, lead to meaningful human existence and development. n

The full article is available at https://doi.org/10.4314/jdcs.v5i2.