Contested historical Narratives with Yosa Wawa

The JUSTHIS project invites you to an open lecture with Professor Yosa Wawa from the University of Juba, South Sudan, on contested historical Narratives, followed by a Q&A.

The theme of the lecture is: Contested Historical Narratives. The South Sudan Secondary School Textbooks

About the lecture

The curricula and textbooks of South Sudan’s primary and secondary school levels have been influence by instruments such the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UNESCO’s principles on tolerance. As the curricula are learner-centred, they dictate that the learner takes centre-stage in learning.

Some of the topics in the history textbooks such as social history has stereotypes, and democracy and rule of law, heroes and heroines, poverty and corruption, ethnicity, and colonialism with associated collaborators or resistors have contested narratives. This often forces some teachers to either avoid topics which bring about contestations in the classroom and the school environment or resort to age old, teacher-centred instruction method.

Dr. Yosa Wawa is Professor and Chair of the History Department at the University of Juba, School of Education. Dr Wawa has extensive experience in research on history in the Nile Valley and played a central role in textbook and curriculum development in South Sudan. He supervises several Masters and PhD students of history. He is a fellow of the Rift Valley Institute.