In social work and development, decolonisation has become a key word in learning, teaching, practice and research but it has for long been topical in politics, economics and in homes. A new trend is technological decolonisation. But, at what age does decolonisation start? Where does it happen? In relation to technology, what are some popular digital applications (apps), digital games and digital storytellers that are there for African kids?
Decolonisation happens at all ages, just as colonisation happened at all levels, and colonisers are of all age groups. Decolonisation happens at all levels of society – at the individual, family, village, community, kingdom, national and global. This means that children are capable of being colonised, of colonising and of being decolonised. There are several ways to decolonise children – introducing them to decolonised lifestyles and media. As for media, there are many ways, ranging from decolonised books, decolonised TV content and even decolonised schools and teachers. In this blog, I am most interested on digital decolonisation because digital media has become an important part of our children’s communication, socialisation and learning. At the end, I will talk about some of the gaps that exist with these technologies.
The digital items that I will share with readers are:
Bino and Fino
This amazing African video production inspires children to be curious designers, dancers and researchers. It is more than an educational tool, it is a genuine decolonising tool. There is nothing as amazing as seeing adventurous Black kids on screens. They also have songs and printable worksheets. Different languages are used including English, French, Yoruba, Portuguese, Hausa and Swahili. Kids learn about African food, animals, countries, music, instruments, geography or folktale. You can even get Black dolls and appropriate doll clothing and make your home a perfect home for Black dolls. More often, Black dolls are overtaken in Black homes by mu zungu dolls, simply referring to dolls with White skin and shape (Caucasian [European and American] or Asian). But why are Black dolls crucial for Black kids?
A doll shapes a child’s thinking about themselves, those around them and their future. It is not just plastic and fibre! A doll has skin color, and if Black children grow up playing with zungu dolls, this starts their questioning of their skin colour and could inform decisions to bleach skin. If the doll has long straight hair like zungu dolls, this makes them wonder why they have short black hair, and could result in self-shaming. The thinking that long hair and light skin equals beauty is strengthened. Further, zungu dolls are usually slim, and this begins the shaming of heavily built body shape. A doll could represent the type of child a child wished to have in future. It can inform the decision to want to have a zungu child. Here is a chance to decolonise your home and your child and their future.
For more information, toys, DVDs, clothing, puzzles, visit the bino and fino shop.
Shakara
This is an amazing dress up game for children featuring African outfits. Choose from different attires like skirts and blouses, lovely dresses, jumpsuits, shorts and tops. Tie gele (headtie) for Kiki and deck her out in an array of beads and other accessories! The developed describes as “Shakara is an African dress up game for the girl who wants to dress up an African model in traditional ethnic styles. All girls want to be able to dress up a model in the latest fashion trends. With the Shakara dress up app, you have your own fashion studio and you can dress up your model from a vast wardrobe all for absolutely FREE!”
While kids design in this app, they are learning to appreciate their African dressing, colours, patterns and more importantly, playing with images that look like them.
Mzito
The Mzito Universe centres around cultural and semi-fictional characters that are chosen by Ancient African spiritual beings. These beings symbolize the pillars of African culture and guide these characters through their journeys. These characters are called the Mzito. The universe takes inspiration from African culture, traditions, art, beliefs, history and mythology and depicts normal human societal challenges through an epic adventure to save and unite Africa.
Africa Map Puzzles
This is really good. It only does one thing – asks kids to pick, drag and drop African countries to assemble the whole African continent together. It helps kids to more understand their continent. If you get involved as a parent, this game gives you an opportunity to teach kids that Africa used to be one big country until the colonists shared it among themselves and established borders.
Shaka Rise Again
You will be an African sculptor head who jumps and collects and collects diamonds. How easy! If you jumb qucikly and high enough, you could be declared as the ultimate Zulu Warrior. Of course, do not forget to tell the kids an important piece if history, that Shaka, the Zulu, was a great African warrior king. You can download the game from Google Play, Google store for applications y searching Zulu Warrior Jump or Shaka Rise Again.
African Kids Hairstyle
The app is not interactive but it shows you African hairstyles for your children. Download from Google Play. The focus is on girls for obvious reasons, men are not expected to plait, twist, straighten up, extend or dye their hair in Africa. Perhaps one day an African from out there – Botswana, Cameroon, Angola, Rwanda or Congo will design an app for managing African boys’ hair – cutting, trimming and combing the African way.
African Stories and Folktales
This includes great stories passed on across generations. The author of this app said “Stories are one of the powerful things which can make who you are. This App is specially designed to tell different tales of Africa which include tales and many other inspiring stories. You can keep this storybook app to tell stories for your kids and it’s also good for an adult to have a better view on African culture too”. The app is available on Google Store.
Ambani Africa
The developer of the app describes it as follows: “The Ambani app is a fun and engaging language app for learning basic vocabulary for anyone. The app features, games, short stories and learning videos in 7 languages (English, isiZulu, sisiXhosa, Sepedi, Setswana, Tshivenda, Swahili) with new languages coming soon (Xitsonga, Shona, Yoruba etc.).”
African facts
The creator of this app describes it as “African facts is an application that allows you to learn about the African culture. It offers facts about Africa, African proverbs, as well as the meaning of the flags of all African countries. You can receive every morning the African proverb of the day, and so start your day!”
AfroCharts
Stream African Music like no other. View music charts (usually top 100) from almost all Afrian countries. Sign up to allow your kids to play popular music like Davido, Wizkid or Burnaboy’ from Nigeria, Jah Prayzah’s from Zimbabwe, Sauti Sol’s from Kenya, Master KG’s from South Africa (the maker of the popular song Jerusalema), Eddy Kenzo’s from Uganda, Diamond Platnumz’s from Tanzania and many others.
Africa – The RPG game
Lost and found. In this game you play as an 8-bit character founded by a small African village near the sea. As you complete tasks you gradually regain memories about your past, family and find out what has been terrorizing your family and village. RPG simply means role-playing game, in case you have been wondering. The game uses African names which is good because at times we cherish foreign names that we forget that our own names have deeper meanings and relevance. Here are some English names found in Africa in their meanings, the meanings are not know by Africans, they just favour the names because they are used by white people:
- Olympus – Mt. Olympus not only the highest mountain in Greece but is known as the home of their twelve supreme gods and goddesses.
- Addison Adam’s son.
- Adolf warrior wolf.
- Antonia or Anthony or Antoinette means invaluable.
- Arlington means someone comes from the settlement or place called Alffrith.
- Barbara means stranger or foreigner.
Other Sources
African books
There are lots of African books for kids and these can be sourced from street sellers, bookshops, libraries, African Books Collective, Ebay, Amazon or other websites.
Smart Phones
On smart phones, you find several settings that could help users Africanise their experience. Simpler settings like using Black emojis and GIFS is quite useful. Setting in African screen background or sleep mode image is easy, you simply upload a photo or photos that represent what you want.
You the African Parent – You’re the Best Source
While we have all these apps, no app is better than telling your child a story, singing for them, drawing African figures with them or on their own, passing jokes to them, sharing African facts with them, cooking and eating African food at home, wearing African clothes, associating with other Africans’ and looking at displayed African art.
List of Media to Use
- Smart phone or tablet – to videos, games, music, photos and to create content
- Books – reading, reading and more reading of relevant books is better for kids
- Television – to watch videos and listen to music
- Walls – to stick or pin pictures, African artwork
- Car radio or player – for music from CDs, podcasts and CDs.
- Desk computer – for online or downloaded content, games and to create content
- The family – the most useful media
Gaps
While digital apps are important, their accessibility is not uniform. There are many families on our continent without access to smartphones, televisions and computers. This means that they are unable to access these resources. If they do, they may not have internet to view, download or read. Or, the internet may be expensive. These access issues affect rural kids families more. Another access issue is to do with language, while it is easier to develop apps in English, users find this as a barrier.
The solution lies in making these resources in schools. When they are accessed for more kids, it becomes easy. Government funding can also be available through schools. Another solution lies in designing apps that could be used offline once uploaded. Another solution is to use local languages in design.
Parting words…
Before you go, here are some amazing Bino and Fino videos from YouTube.
We hope you will find this useful, as a parent or older sibling, as a family of community member, as a student or as a social or development worker. Starting early in life contributes to decolonisation in a deep way, and the outcome is deep decolonisation that gives African families and their kids pride. If you have any apps to share, please email asw@africasocialwork.net