Transcending the majority rights and minority protection dichotomy through multicultural reflective citizenship in the African Great Lakes region

Abstract

In this paper, the author examines how colonial racist policies and western-bound post-colonial educational practices have contributed to the recurring ethnic conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa. After defining democracy and reflective citizenship within the African context, she discusses how teachers' roles should be redefined and pedagogy revamped within a multicultural perspective in order to prepare students to become reflective citizens who are empowered to reframe interethnic relations in the region beyond the pervasive majority rights and minority protection discourse.