The Journal of Modern African

Studies
http://journals.cambridge.org/MOA
Additional services for The

Journal of Modern

African Studies:
Email alerts: Click here
Subscriptions: Click here
Commercial reprints: Click here
Terms of use : Click here

Conference on the Use of Mass Media in the

Education of Adults
Peter Temu
The Journal of Modern African Studies / Volume 3 / Issue 02 / August 1965, pp 288 - 290
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X00023703, Published online: 11 November 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022278X00023703

How to cite this article:
Peter Temu (1965). Conference on the Use of Mass Media in the Education of
Adults. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 3, pp 288-290 doi:10.1017/
S0022278X00023703
Request Permissions : Click here

Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/MOA, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 24 Apr 2015

288

AFRICANA

play by Arthur Maimane called The Dung-heap Flower, organised by the

Centre's 'Theatre Workshop' in January 1965 in collaboration with the
I.C.A.
A series of discussions called 'Africa Abroad' was held at the I.C.A.
during January and February 1963, with an exhibition of two African
artists' paintings; in June 1964 three of the films in the ' African Writers of
Today' series were shown there to the public. The Centre has lent paintings
and acquired carvings and batiks for African art exhibitions in London,
Edinburgh, and Dublin, and is preparing an exhibition for the African
section of the Cardiff division of the Commonwealth Festival of the Arts in
August 1965.
The Transcription Centre is associated with the work of two cultural
centres, Chemchemi in Nairobi and Mbari in Ibadan, and the journal
Transition at Kampala. In collaboration with them it now produces a
monthly information bulletin, 'Cultural Events in Africa'first issued in
December 1964which carries news of new books about Africa, and notes
of exhibitions, drama, and other cultural activities.
DIANA SPEED

The Transcription Centre, London

Conference on the Use of Mass Media in the Education of Adults

Lusaka, Zambia, 3-9 January 1965
The educational problems in developing countries are immense. Not least
is the shortage of teachers. This shortage is feltin Africa certainlynot only
in the schools but also in the adult education field. Can the developing
countries afford to wait wishfully, in the belief that out of the womb of time a
natural solution will one day emerge in the shape of enough teachers to satisfy
the enormous demand ?
From the very outset, the Lusaka conference on mass media was convinced
that the answer to this question is an emphatic no; that the problem of adult
education must be solved, not shelvedand that a serious beginning must be
made now. The task of the conference was to see how the resources of the mass
media could be harnessed in an all-out effort to wipe out ignorance and
illiteracy. The conference was short and fruitful, its recommendations
practical and to the point.
Participants were a representative cross-section of experienced adult
educationists in the various fieldsliteracy; correspondence courses; radio,
film, and television; residential adult studies; university extra-mural studies;
and government community development departmentsand they were
drawn from various countries. Speakers included such distinguished personalities as Mrs Helen Coppen from the Institute of Education, London
University, who brought with her several excellent films to illustrate her talk
on the use of the film medium for teaching purposes; Dr Homer Kempfer,
Chief of the A.I.D. Education Division in Washington, who gave a brilliant,
even stirring, exposition on the use of the printed word in the education of
adults; and Harold Wiltshire, Professor of Adult Education, Nottingham
University, who brought home to the participants the significant contribution

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 24 Apr 2015

IP address: 138.251.14.35

AFRICANA

289

which a TV teaching programme, supplemented by correspondence study

material and occasional face-to-face contacts with students, could make in the
educational effort. Professor Wiltshire said that an experiment along these
lines had produced excellent results in England. Other distinguished
participants included a U.N.E.S.CO. visual-aids and mass-communications
expert, principals of correspondence and residential colleges, and directors of
radio broadcasting.
One thing which emerged clearly from the deliberations of the conference
was the way in which all the various forms of mediafilm, radio, television,
and the printed wordcould be combined to build up instructional systems
each designed for a specific educational purpose. For example, it was thought
that correspondence courses could usefully be supplemented by radio and
television, by readings on tape, and by films. In this way, they could be used
to teach academic subjects as well as actual skills, besides providing a substitute for the missing teacher in understaffed schools. It was stressed that
some system of evaluation should always be built into any experiments which
may be devised, so as to test their efficacy.
It is interesting to note that the Director of Extra-Mural Studies at the
University College, Nairobi, and the Director-General of the 'Voice of
Kenya'both of whom attended the Lusaka conferencehave now launched
an experimental TV programme called 'ABC of Economies', supplemented
by printed materials, for the teaching of adults in Kenya. It is still too early to
say what effect this programme will have, but it has received enthusiastic
support from several quarters, and good results are anticipated. Specific
recommendations included one urging each country to establish a national
film council to collect and disseminate information about films; the setting
up of a single correspondence school in each country to serve all adult education agencies; and the encouragement of group listening (under a leader) of
selected radio and television broadcasts.
There was some heated discussion on the costs of mounting various proposed programmes. Some participants, while accepting that the use of TV
combined with other mass media was educationally commendable, nevertheless thought that such programmes would be prohibitively expensive
in poor countries, which could ill afford the very costly radio, TV, and film
equipment, nor provide the experts to operate them.
These problems were appreciated, but it was pointed out that one way to
reduce costs was for several countries to pool their resources together; to be
successful and economical, mass media must aim truly at ' the masses', and
the larger the number of participants, the better. For instance, why couldn't
there be a single correspondence college for the whole of East Africa ? or an
educational TV programme (supplemented by printed study materials) for
100,000 enrolled students? If that were done, it was believed that costs per
head could be reduced to very economical levels. And herein lies the answer
to the question that is so often posed, namely, that very few Africans can afford
a TV set, and those few are not the ones at whom the teaching programmes
would be aimed. Provided large numbers can be induced to participate, it
should not be too difficult to provide TV sets and radio sets for group use in
key places. The problem is not one of finance but of organisation.

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 24 Apr 2015

IP address: 138.251.14.35

20,0

AFRICANA

Is not this, perhaps, yet another potential area of pan-African co-operation,

which the Educational and Cultural Commission of the Organisation of
African Unity might with advantage consider ?
PETER TEMU

College of Social Studies, Kikuyu, Kenya

Colloque sur la psychologie des elites de l'Afrique noire

Paris, France, 2 March 1965
Robert Delavignette was the chairman for this one-day colloquium organised
by t h e Centre de hautes etudes administratives sur l'Afrique et I'Asie modernes

(C.H.E.A.M.), on 'The Psychology of the Elites of Black Africa'. There were

some 60 participants, including many French specialists on Africa, and
African teachers, journalists, and intellectuals. Four papers were discussed,
each of which had been distributed to the audience in advance, only a brief
synopsis being given at the colloquium to introduce the discussion. Between
them they touched on a wide variety of problems connected with the
psychology of the elite.
The first paper, by Jean Devisse, a Professor of the Faculte des lettres et
sciences humaines at Lille University, analysed the alienation of Africans from
the modern world, stating that 'the most inventive societies are almost
always those which have undergone considerable historical pressure. Demographic pressure, great migrations, and wars have played a dominant role in
Eurasia, while in Africa there is no evidence of any pressure of comparable
intensity'. Slavery, which bled the continent from thefifteenthto the middle
of the nineteenth century, did not constitute a ' challenge' to which African
peoples could respond effectively. 'This lack of pressure', Professor Devisse
went on, ' seems to me the reason for the static balance of traditional African
societies.' Coming to modern times, he concluded that, 'for the African, the
most pernicious form of alienation is the temptation tofindrefuge in a mythical
African past from the modern changes which he both fears and desires.' The
synopsis of the paper was presented by J.-C. Froehlich, Director of Studies of
C.H.E.A.M., who developed this point with reference to Cheikh Anta Diop's
historical works, which he considered lacking in scientific rigour.
In the subsequent discussion, Robert Cornevin pointed out that Devisse's
observations were based on his knowledge of the university milieu in Dakar,
where he taught for a time, but that the torments and fears of intellectuals in
Senegal were not found for instance among teachers or bush priests. The
Senegalese elite, trained at French universities, might feel uneasy owing to
their dual culture, but this phenomenon was far less obvious in other African
countries. Professor H. de la Bastide made the point that the English and
French administrators had respected African civilisation and culture, considering them to be well suited to local conditions, and that it was precisely
for this that they were reproached by today's students, who maintained that
colonial administrators had not tried hard enough to modernise Africa.
Professor N'Sougan Agblemagnon from Togo thought the application of
Toynbee's theory of'challenge' too summary in this context. He personally
did not feel 'tormented', nor foreign to traditional Africa. Few Togolese
intellectuals were taking refuge in the pastAime Cesaire, the poet of

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 24 Apr 2015

IP address: 138.251.14.35