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The paper is located within the context of decolonization efforts of Africa post-independence. As already noted elsewhere in the literature, to decolonize is to “dismantle” (Dodoo, 2012, p.77) colonially imposed socio-cultural and structural systems across faculties of life by the once colonized. Although the word ‘dismantle’ implies some form of violence, total action and emotional, it does not mean that the said decolonization has to take this form of attribute in the way it should be carried out. In our view, it has to be a planned change or metamorphosis a former colony undergoes in re-rooting its being in own contextual underpinnings including pedagogical and epistemological discourses. In this regard, it should be understood that decolonization does not mean hatred or outright disregard of other cultures and systems. It simply means that any development has to be premised on the cultural resources and moral dignity of the people in a given geo-social location. The world over, decolonization started towards the end of World War II and in Africa, it intensified in the 1960s after having been pioneered by the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah (Dodoo, 2012).
There is no doubt that the decolonization trajectory of the education system in Africa is conceptually and practically noble and generally accepted by the continental leadership (Adebisi, 2016). Given the limited progress made in relation to the time it gathered momentum in the 1960s, it is clear that its implementation has been unfortunately slow-paced. The partial traction in the curriculum decolonization could be attributed to six legacy mistakes made by most African governments in their processes of reforming the education system. Firstly, an illusion they suffered that independence was just a matter of political freedom, forgetting that the economic and cultural power of the former colonizers did not die with the political death at independence (Oelofsen, 2015). Secondly, decolonization of curriculum is interpreted as having Africans in academic institutions as leaders and teaching staff but still in an enduring colonial education system. Thirdly, the thinking is that the introduction of African studies in colleges and universities within the continent would suffice as having achieved a decolonized curriculum. Fourthly, post-independence Africa has done little to change policies and develop education curriculum rooted in its socio-cultural pedagogies and epistemologies. Fifthly, not much has been researched and documented with regard to how African indigenous knowledge systems can be framed and mainstreamed in the education system to achieve curriculum decolonization. This legacy mistake resonates with the growing recognition on democracy of knowledge production and application across all human faculties. In this paper it is argued that democracy of knowledge promotes transformative sustainable development as extensively discussed in Hammersmith (2007), Mapara (2009), Chiwanza et al (2013), Kaya & Seleti (2013), and Muyambo & Maposa (2014). Lastly, decolonization of the education curriculum has been largely focused on tertiary education and not at primary and high school education levels (Council for Higher Education in South Africa, 2017; Mbembe, 2016; Dei, 2010 and Dodoo, 2012).