Njila ku kibuku: afrocentric education and the construction of new ways of educating in public schools

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on teaching and Afrocentric experiences in basic education, particularly in public schools. Our objective is to discuss the potential of the Afrocentric paradigm and the principles of Afrocentric education for the production of new knowledge policies, new curricula, and new ways of educating regarding ethnic-racial issues in public schools. The work focuses on a qualitative methodology, drawing on bibliographical movements on the field of Afrocentricity studies and on Afrocentric pedagogical memories about practices experienced in the municipal network of Salvador as a research device and a space for sense-making production. The findings suggest that the knowledge policies produced through Afrocentric education contribute to experiences of educating that break with Eurocentric centrality and with the centrality of racism in the curriculum. They promote learning processes centered on one's own culture, history, intellectual production, and agency, fostering student and teacher protagonism, and stimulating educational, communal, spiritual aspirations, and cognitive engagement, which assist learners and educators in finding the best within themselves.