Charity Begins At Home - Time To Shake Up Our Curriculum...

I don't know how many of you who studied Geography in school, I did and I learned about:

Arete

Crevasses

Moraine

Pyramidal peak

Hanging valleys

Glaciated lowlands

Roche Moutonnee

Crag and Tail

Boulder Clay

Eskers

Erratics

Drumlins

Funny I still remember these terms from Goh Cheng Leong and Adeleke Geography textbook but believe me, I haven't used these terms in any professional or casual conversation in 33 years since I left secondary school!

Anytime you hear an African using these terms, the person is probably trying to show off or pull a fast one on you.

I studied these terms under “Landforms of Glaciation” and I have been carrying these useless information in my head for over thirty years! Of what use are these topics to an average Nigerian who will probably never see snow not to talk of glacier in his or her entire life?

Apart from glaciologists, skiers and mountain climbers, most Europeans and Americans don’t even know the meaning of these terms without consulting their dictionaries!

During my secondary school days, we spent less time on African fauna and flora in Geography class but spent years studying European climate and topography!

With the exception of the Niger and Benue rivers, other rivers did not feature in our geography books! Mountains, creeks, tributaries were often glossed over in passing! Sadly, nothing has changed even as we speak!

Never heard of Chappal Waddi, Mount Dimlang, Shere Hills, Shebshi Mountains, Ouémé River, Okpara River, Erinle River, Menchum River, Otamiri River etc until recently when I read about them! These mountains and rivers are all in Nigeria!

The bird below - Ibadan Malimbe (Malimbus ibadanensis) is only found in Ibadan, not anywhere else in world! I only found out about this about two years ago! Our own indigenous bird now on the verge of extinction is not in our biology textbooks! Most of our wildlife are not in our textbooks!

African/Yorùbá history, Odù Ifá, bronze casting, Aṣọ òkè weaving, dye making, adirẹ making, African blacksmithing, Bàtá drumming/dancing etc would have made better sense than the useless crap teachers stuffed our heads with. We would probably have modernised some of these crafts by now if most of us knew about their mechanics at an early age.

Luckily for me though my father was a voracious reader. My home was full of books and I read some of these stuff at home. I have since continued this tradition. My house is full of books. I spend a lot of money on books. I may not have the latest gadgets or clothes or shoes, I have books - plenty of them. 

Fill your house with books. Teach your children at home and don't rely on the broken and good for nothing curriculum. Encourage your children to read.

Do you remember: Ox-bow lake, stalactites and stalagmites, inselberg, barchan, seif, loess, mesa, cliff bench, rock pedestal etc? When was the last time you used these terms?

It is time to shake up our curricula. Charity must begin at home. Let us all do our bits to help the coming generations.

Please don't get me wrong, Geography is a great field of study. This post is about misplaced priorities. Our knowledge acquisition should start with our immediate environment.

The Geography being taught in Africa should study our continent first before venturing out to Europe or North America. I only used Geography as an example. The same sins affect other fields of study.

Studying European history without first studying African history is ridiculous. Studying Greek philosophy without the knowledge of African philosophy is lunacy.

By- Ọlọbẹ Yoyọn