Countering Colonial Narratives Through The Secondary School History Curriculum: A Case of the Zimbabwean Post-colonial School History Education From 1980 to 2022

Resumo

curriculum in Zimbabwe plays a role in countering colonial narratives about African history which were full of exclusion as well as biased interpretations of African experiences. The emergence of a reconstructionist wave culminated in the re-visiting of historiography of African affairs, the past of Africa and the experiences of its people and thus catechized the authenticity of colonial historiography. Reconstructionist accounts which were informed by an Afrocentric approach challenged the prejudiced portrayal of Africans in colonial historiography and became the cornerstone for the revision of the historical content and information to be studied in the post-colonial Zimbabwean secondary school history curriculum. This qualitative study is informed by the post-colonial theoretical framework which interrogates the impact of colonialism on the colonised as well as the responses and efforts by the colonised to achieve decolonisation. Document analysis of the syllabuses and textbooks used to implement the post-independence history curriculum in Zimbabwe were examined to gather data. The study observed that the post-independence secondary school history curriculum in Zimbabwe is instrumental in countering colonial narratives as evidenced by syllabus topics/ content and historical information in textbooks which explores African civilisation, ethnic relations and cultural practices from an impartial point of view.