The effects of colonialism on the development of indigenous ideologies and intellectualism Collins English Dictionary defines colonialism as the

policy and practice of a power in extending control over weaker people or areas. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers four definitions, including something characteristic of a colony" and "control by one power over a dependent area or people. The 2006 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy uses the term 'colonialism' to describe the process of European settlement and political control over the rest of the world, including Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia. Mawere, (2012) defines indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) as a phenomenon pervasive in any human society the world over. He further proceeds to define them as local knowledge that is unique to a given culture or society. Indigenous knowledge was concerned in instilling the accepted standards and beliefs governing behavior of persons and also enhancing unity and consensus. The main aspect of indigenous knowledge was social life where it embraced morality of members of the society. Africa has always had its intellectuals, who have been marginalized by the modern elite and educated. The traditional intellectuals include priest, kings, chiefs, and merchants who generated knowledge which they exercised with certain power and authority. The knowledge of the traditional elite was usually oral and constituted the foundations of politics and as well involved specialist who handed education systems, informal and varied to produce traditional intellectuals (Falola 2001). Diviners, griots, and priest contributed to the development of society by using specialized knowledge to interpret reality, produce relevant histories for leaders, mediate in conflicts and predict the future (Falola 2001).

The educators of indigenous education were parents and elders. Education was offered in a gender basis where boys and girls were educated separately towards attaining different roles in
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through plays, riddles, proverbs, folk songs and legends and myths.

society. The modes of passing indigenous knowledge from one generation to another were

The reduction of world border has resulted to the so called world village. The aspect of globalization gives some countries advantage over the others where some end up been exploited. This have seen some countries in Africa refuse to embrace globalization due to the dire effects of colonization and globalization systems which demonizes the African indigenous knowledge and terming them as unscientific as per the western standards. African indigenous knowledge has not been given any consideration in the western knowledge system and by despising them and undermining them they are prone to die. The westerners misinterpreted the African Indigenous Knowledge systems as bounded, savage and primitive and hence unfit for global consumption. This led to the decline in the use of African indigenous knowledge even by Africans which had been the main source of lively hood for centuries before the arrival of colonialism. In essence of the above Mawere, (2012) asks the following questions: Who has the mandate to construct and classify knowledge as formal or indigenous? Who give those classifying knowledge as formal or indigenous the mandate to do so?

The poor and the powerless are always made to accept the knowledge of the rich and powerful as the more important piece of knowledge and considering the western form of education as superior than others and thus colonialism and globalization has impoverished the African traditional cultures. In the post colonial Africa the political elite have not tried to develop the indigenous knowledge system but rather have neglected them even further due to their colonization of the mindset. They implement development in isolating the participation of the local people and their indigenous knowledge where they attempt to be westernized. Since the colonizers were few in number in Africa they had to find mechanism of taking control over the Africans where the best method was to colonize their minds by imposing their own form of educations to them and disregarding their indigenous forms of education and as well imposed racial superiority on their ways of life where they show cased African culture as inferior

close links with social life, both in material and spiritual sense, its collective nature, its many-

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Walter (1972) identified the following features of indigenous African education which are: its

sidedness; and progressive development of the child. He maintained that there was no separation of education and productive activity or any division between manual and intellectual education. Altogether through mainly informal means, pre-colonial African education matched the realities of pre-colonial African society and produced well rounded personalities to fit into that society. The western form of education has made Africans view the indigenous education as useless where Africans are struggling to leave the useless past towards the useful westernized education. Ngugi wa Thiongo in his book decolonizing the mind indicates his experience in school during colonial times where English was used in formal education and gives the humiliating moments where Africans were given corporal punishment on their bare backs and made to carry a metal plate on their necks with inscriptions such as I AM STUPID or I AM A DONKEY. He also noted the fact that Africans were abandoning their names and taking up the western names. This form of colonization saw the suppressing of African indigenous knowledge at very large extent. The Africans have resulted to aping of the western ways of life which has no moral upholding. Conclusion The African traditional intellectualism was a very crucial form of informal education which equipped the learners a holistically and thus able to socially and economically deal with life. Meanwhile the coming of the Europeans and imposition of colonialism had dire consequences on the African traditional knowledge. The colonizers highly used information from their anthropologist who had a cultural understanding of the continent. To colonize Africans they had first to alienate them from their culture for as the Swahili saying goes that mwacha mila ni mtumwa (he who leaves his culture is a slave). They introduced their own form of education and demonized the African form of education, and beliefs systems. This saw many Africans abandon their forms of knowledge and adopt the new superior forms of knowledge. They did not only go to the extent of adopting their knowledge but also their forms of livelihood undertook their names, their beliefs, norms and values (cultures). This has seen the deterioration of the African indigenous education and to a large extent
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abandonment.

Meanwhile of late the importance of African indigenous education have started to receive recognition especially in the medical field and nutritional wise whereby most Africans are now preferring the traditional indigenous forms of medicine over the western medicine and as well the traditional foods. More emphasis should be put to revive the African form of intellectualism from the government level to the community level and reduce the act of aping the western cultures.

Reference Falola T. (2001) Nationalism and African Intellectuals USA. The University of Rochester Press Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples UK ZED BOOK LTD Munyaradzi Mawere(2012)The Struggle of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems in an Age of globalization. A case for childrens traditional games in south-eastern Zimbabwe. Cameroon. Langaa Research & publishing company Ngugi Wa Thiongo (1981) Decolonizing the mind: The politics of language in African literature. Nairobi. East African educational publishers Nwanosike, Oba .F and Onyije, Liverpool Eboh (2011) Colonialism and Education Registry Department, Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Rivers State, Nigeria (Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Teaching, Learning and Change)

Tirfe Mammo. (1999) The Paradox of Africa's Poverty: The Role of Indigenous Knowledge, traditional practices and local institutions the case of Ethiopia. Eritrea the red sea press, inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriam-Webster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Encyclopedia_of_Philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collins_English_Dictionary

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