Apart from the natural tensions embedded in this debate is the deeper issue of the effects of a colonial education on the consciousness of the colonized. What is indeed troubling is that in this terrain of amnesia, the imperialistic power sows its values on the colonized mind. I am not denying that the British bequeathed a decent education system for her colonies. My concern is that it carried with it a great cost.
Colonial education privileges the banking method.
Yet this knowledge is not the kind that generates change since it does not distinguish between analysis and interrogation. What is seductive about this strategy of teaching literature to colonials, for instance, is the great emphasis that is placed on universal themes. This facile representation endorses the belief that human nature surpasses all. Othello is jealous, Caliban is a savage and Shylock is greedy. What is lacking in this learning environment is what hooks would call an awareness of gender, race and class.