Representations of colonial ideologies in textbooks for history: A case of Northern Rhodesia from 1925-1963

Abstract

T he continent of Africa began to experience colonialism by European countries such as Britain, France, Portugal and Germany after the ‘Scramble for Africa’ that took place in Europe in 1885. Notably, these colonial governments had different administrative policies in their colonies. For instance, the policies of the British were different from those of the French, Portuguese and German. This study explored the representations of colonialism in textbooks for history that were used in Northern Rhodesia (modern day Zambia) at primary and secondary school level from 1940-1963. Postcolonial theory was used as a lens to understand the representations of colonial ideologies in textbooks that were used in the colonial period. The study used a qualitative approach and textbooks were used for document analysis. Eight history textbooks were conveniently selected and analysed using content analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the content taught in the colonial period was Eurocentric and mainly focused on the British Empire, European history, and the achievements of the Empire. This paper could contribute to debates on the decolonisation of education in Zambia.