Book contents
- An Anticolonial Development
- An Anticolonial Development
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Reviews
- Contents
- Figures
- Table
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1Improvement of the Highest Order
- 2The Duty of Colonized People
- 3Africa’s Most Urgent and Vital Need
- 4The Most Important Limiting Factor
- 5Let Me Receive All That I Ask
- 6The African Record Is Unique
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
3 - Africa’s Most Urgent and Vital Need
Human Capital Theory, UNESCO, and the Ascendance of Anticolonial Development (1958–1961)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 May 2026
Book contents
- An Anticolonial Development
- An Anticolonial Development
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Reviews
- Contents
- Figures
- Table
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1Improvement of the Highest Order
- 2The Duty of Colonized People
- 3Africa’s Most Urgent and Vital Need
- 4The Most Important Limiting Factor
- 5Let Me Receive All That I Ask
- 6The African Record Is Unique
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
Focusing on the 1961 UNESCO Conference of African States on the Development of Education, this chapter shows how and why public schooling became the defining development project of West African independence. At the highpoint of African decolonization, two radically new propositions intersected, each shaping the other: the rise of new economic tools, including human capital theory and manpower planning, and the triumph of anticolonial and antiracist demands that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights indeed be universally applicable.
Keywords
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- An Anticolonial DevelopmentRace, Schooling, and Emancipation in Twentieth-Century West Africa, pp. 104 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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