KENYA: Need for “Good Education” for African Child Emphasized at Scholar’s Conference
Writers Annual International Conference at Gaba, Eldoret, 2021 with Bishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba of Nakuru Diocese
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
At a recent annual international writers’ conference that brought together African scholars at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa’s (CUEA) Gaba Campus located in Kenya’s Eldoret Diocese, good education for the well-being of an African children has been a key highlight.
“Education is an irreplaceable component in the development of a society and to a large extent should define the Church’s mission in the formation of a person for the realization of the well-being of an individual and the society at large,” the keynote speaker Bishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba underscored while addressing scholars at the Conference.
Emphasizing on the cultural aspect needed for any good education of an African child, Bishop Muhatia the Council Chairman of CUEA said, “Good education must be inspired by a culture and unless this culture is solely grounded in the heart of any given people, the quest for a responsible education system is just but a dream.”
Speaking to the theme for the 2021 writers’ conference Christianity and the well-being of the African child, the Local Ordinary of Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Nakuru shared that there is need for a dynamic cultural retrieval to inspire the foundation and education of children in Africa.
“We need seasoned African values to form part of the education of children today. These values are normally expressed in people’s beliefs and thinking about the community the world and God,’ the keynote speaker said adding, “Africa should not accept systems of education that have cost irreparable harm to other societies.”
Bishop Muhatia, who is the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (KCCB) Vice Chairman acknowledged that cultures affect each other for the better or for the worse hence the “need to promote the integration of traditional African values in education system.”
“We cannot freely talk about the well-being of children unless we are concerned about the best culture that is influencing education in the society,” the Prelate said and noted that the community played a role in the growth children, in their discipline and in their protection.
“The encounter between African culture and other cultures has left behind a trail of pseudo-cultures that make it difficult to know what is truly African in the African culture,” the Bishop express referencing loss of cultural languages in various African culture saying, “it is not uncommon today to meet a person in urban places who cannot speak mother-tongue yet language is one of the critical vehicles for transformation of culture.”
Speaking at the same event Wednesday, September 22, the conference convener Fr. Dr. Jordan Nyenyembe narrated that the theme of the conference was inspired by the fact that “all the series of AFER (African Ecclesial Review) journals since first publication in 1958 has none reflecting on the African child.”
“The choice of this year’s theme is to promote the pastoral and evangelization mission of the Church through promoting the well-being of African child,” Fr Nyenyembe who is in charge of AMECEA Gaba Publications’ AFER journal shared with participants and disclosed that the theme was for 2020 conference but was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic measures.
On his part, the director of CUEA’s Gaba Campus Fr. Nicholas Segeja a diocesan priest of Mwanza Archdiocese, Tanzania echoed the relevance of the theme saying “it is timely especially from Covid-19 experience where many people faced family life crisis which made many children to suffer abuse and negligence.”
“The walking together in the way of truth which is Jesus himself leads to interpersonal relationship therefore the well- being of an African child that is life in Jesus Christ,” Fr. Segeja narrated.
