Colonial Social Services

Table of Contents

1. Colonial Education
   • The Objectives of Colonial Education
     • Analyse the objectives of colonial education.
   • The Features of Colonial Education
     • Analyse the features of colonial education.
   • Role of Colonial Education
     • Discuss the role of colonial education.
   • The Impact of Colonial Education on African Societies
     • Assess the impact of colonial education on African societies.
2. Colonial Health Services
   • The Objectives of Colonial Health Services
     • Analyse the objectives of colonial health services.
   • Provision of Water and Housing Services during the Colonial Era
     • The Motive for the Provision of Colonial Water and Housing Services
       • Explain the motive for the provision of colonial water and housing services.
     • The Distribution Pattern of Water and Housing Services
       • Analyse the distribution pattern of water and housing services.
   • The Impact of the Provision of Colonial Water and Housing Services on African Societies
     • Assess the impact of the provision of colonial water and housing services on African societies.

Colonial Education

The Objectives of Colonial Education

The aim of establishing these social services was to consolidate and facilitate colonization of Africa. That means they were built to favor the colonial government in power. Starting from the 20th century, colonial governments established a number of social services in Africa. Examples of these colonial social services were:

• Colonial education
• Transport and communication
• Recreational services
• Water and electricity
• Health services

The Features of Colonial Education

This was a type of formal education that was introduced by Europeans in Africa. This education was introduced to benefit the colonial government and not Africans. It went together with the establishment of schools in high economic gain areas such as crop production areas.

Features of colonial education:

• Colonial education had a pyramid-shaped quality. The number of students who started at lower levels reduced as they went to higher levels.
• Schools were built in areas with economic importance, such as the Kenyan highlands, which were prime areas for coffee production.
• Colonial education was discriminative in nature, e.g., there were Asian schools, European schools, and others for Africans.
• Colonial education was provided to the sons of African chiefs, e.g., sons of Jumbes, and few daughters obtained this type of education.
• Schools were built in urban areas and not rural ones because that is where most settlers were.
• Education was basically about European culture, e.g., training involved the use of foreign languages such as English and French.

Role of Colonial Education

The role of colonial education is as follows:

• To train Africans so they may be used as administrators for the lowest posts, e.g., messengers and clerks.
• Colonial education was introduced to train the sons and daughters of European colonial masters together with Asians.
• To produce African puppets who were brainwashed to favor the colonial government.

The Impact of Colonial Education on African Societies

Effects of colonial education:

• It produced educated elites who organized their fellow Africans to fight for independence, e.g., J.K Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah.
• Colonial education killed Africans’ skills at large; these skills remained in theory.
• It produced classes between the educated and those who were not educated.
• Colonial education led to the destruction of African culture, e.g., on dressing and eating.
• Africans began to desire ‘White’ jobs; education was aimed to make one employable.

Colonial Health Services

The Objectives of Colonial Health Services

Analyse the objectives of colonial health services.

Provision of Water and Housing Services during the Colonial Era

The Motive for the Provision of Colonial Water and Housing Services

Explain the motive for the provision of colonial water and housing services.

The Distribution Pattern of Water and Housing Services

Analyse the distribution pattern of water and housing services.

Characteristics of water and housing services:

• Offered on the basis of race,
• Unevenly distributed (depended on the economic value of an area),
• Areas for laborers had no housing or water services established by colonialists,
• Based on religious grounds (missionary areas had better water).

The Impact of the Provision of Colonial Water and Housing Services on African Societies

Assess the impact of the provision of colonial water and housing services on African societies.

Impact of water and housing services included:

• Reinforced racial classes in colonies,
• Areas without raw materials or colonialists were marginalized and denied services,
• Created regional imbalances.