Every Saturday in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique in southeastern Africa, a vibrant handicraft market comes to life. Artisans from across the region gather to sell handmade goods crafted with care and tradition. Among the most captivating items are the vividly patterned capulanas — bold, stylish fabrics that embody the essence of African flair. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 20 (Korea Bizwire) — A leading South Korean civic organization has formally requested the Education Ministry revise middle school social studies textbooks, arguing that current depictions of Africa remain oversimplified and culturally biased.
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), known for its activism in correcting historical and cultural inaccuracies, stated on Friday that it found persistent generalizations in five major publishers’ textbooks — including Cheonjae Education, MiraeN, Donga Publishing, Visang Education, and Achimnara.
Among the issues cited were chapters that group together distinct African cultural elements, such as musical instruments and masks, without acknowledging the continent’s rich regional and ethnic diversity.
“Africa is not a single country,” VANK said in a statement. “Yet textbooks present it as a cultural monolith, failing to reflect the complexity of its 54 nations and countless ethnic groups.”
For example, the textbooks introduce various instruments such as the mbira from East Africa, the vuvuzela from South Africa, and the djembe from West Africa, under the single label “African instruments” — an approach VANK says fosters misunderstanding and erases cultural nuance.
The group also criticized a unit titled “Efforts for Sustainable Development in Africa,” which, it argued, isolates global sustainability challenges as if they are unique to Africa, portraying the continent as a passive recipient of aid rather than an active participant in global change.
“This framing runs counter to the 2022 revised national curriculum’s emphasis on global citizenship,” said Ji-eun Park, a youth researcher at VANK. “If sustainability is the core theme, examples should be drawn from across the world to avoid reinforcing an outdated donor-recipient narrative.”
VANK Director Ki-tae Park added, “Africa is indeed a continent with some shared cultural threads, but it is also one of immense internal diversity. Just as we wouldn’t group all Asian nations under one umbrella, textbooks should avoid doing so with Africa.”
An evocative sunset unfolds over the African savannah, with the sky painted in deep crimson hues and the silhouettes of acacia trees stretching gently across the horizon. (Yonhap)
In its formal proposal to the Education Ministry, VANK recommended:
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Providing more region- and ethnicity-specific content when discussing African cultures,
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Portraying African nations as agents of change, and
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Renaming chapters with terms like “Africa’s Future and Cooperation” rather than “Sustainable Development in Africa.”
The organization has also launched a public petition through its civic engagement platform “Ullim,” encouraging citizens to support textbook reform. This follows earlier campaigns targeting elementary school textbooks that VANK said overly emphasized poverty, famine, and civil conflict in Africa, while omitting examples of self-driven development and cultural vitality.
Looking ahead, VANK plans to expand its review to high school world history and social studies textbooks. Its long-term campaign seeks to reshape how Africa is viewed across all levels of education — not as a distant “other,” but as a partner in shared global progress.
Known for past advocacy on issues like the East Sea naming dispute, Dokdo sovereignty, and historical distortions of Korea, VANK now sees its Africa initiative as part of a broader push to advance global citizenship education and restore balance in international perspectives.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
