Umunthu as an Undergirding Philosophy of Education for Malawi: Lessons from Confucianism

Abstract

This paper is a comparative analysis of an African indigenous philosophy of Umunthu and China’s Confucianism to propagate for the setting of  Umunthu as an undergirding philosophy of Education in Malawi. The study is placed within the Reconstructionist Theory. This theory propagates for  integrating traditional culture with demands of modernisation, thereby demonstrating the relevance of indigenous knowledge in the modern  Malawian society. The study employs a historical narrative approach to capture the context of colonial education and its influence on the philosophy  of education in post-independence Africa. The study also utilises a comparative and evaluative design of the philosophy of education in  contemporary Malawi and relates it to the existence of Confucianism in Chinese and other East Asian education systems for millennia. This  demonstrates the potential of a South-South engagement in indigenous knowledge production between China and Malawi.