African Culture and Colonial Education: The William Ponty School Cahiers and Theater

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Periodical article

Title:	African Culture and Colonial Education: The William Ponty School Cahiers and Theater
Author:	Sabatier, Peggy R.
Year:	1980
Periodical:	Journal of African Studies (UCLA)
Volume:	7
Issue:	1
Period:	Spring
Pages:	2-10
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Senegal
Subjects:	colonial policy acculturation secondary education theatre colonialism Education and Oral Traditions Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Architecture and the Arts
Abstract:	The Ecole William Ponty, located near Dakar, was essentially the apex of the French colonial educational system in French West Africa from the early twentieth century to the late forties. The elite William Ponty School, in a more sophisticated form of educational adaptation, used students' indigenous cultures as source material for independent work. As part of the formal curriculum students engaged in individual research projects in or near their homes; as an equally important though extracurricular activity they wrote and performed plays on African themes, in the Ponty African theater. It is these two facets of the Ponty educational experience and their significance which are explored in this article. Notes.