Burkina Faso’s Government is revising history, geography and civic education curricula for the new school year to promote African values and change how colonial history is taught.
Higher Education Minister Moumouni Zoungrana said the reforms would remove derogatory language and introduce chapters highlighting African achievements and resistance.
“When you open our textbooks, we are portrayed as mere objects. Our victories were never highlighted; on the contrary, the focus was on our defeats and our negative traits,” he said.
Burkina Faso was a French colony until 1960. A history and geography teacher in Ouagadougou said textbooks had yet to be revised, but the ministry had distributed a booklet outlining expressions to avoid and chapters to remove or add.
“We will no longer speak of explorers…but of invaders. We will rehabilitate the African resistance fighters who were portrayed as tyrants or barbarians in old textbooks,” the teacher said.