Education Marginalization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policies, Politics, and Marginality Obed Mfum-Mensah, Lexington Books: 2018, 240 pages.

Abstract

Obed Mfum-Mensah brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and insight to his book, Education Marginalization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policies, Politics, and Marginality. The book is organized in two parts: theory on marginality and education; and education policy and practice regarding marginality. He provides a synopsis of human capital (education for production) and human rights (education for all) theoretical and philosophical arguments. His work falls squarely within a human rights framework as he defines the need for an education structure that advocates equity and provides the structures and policy to ensure equity in education to everyone in the wider society. The chapters are designed to defend and promote the argument of education for all to fulfill what has been touted as a global education mandate. This noble mandate resonates in most teacher education programs today as the accepted or expected goal for national education programs. Mfum-Mensah positions this mandate against the historical and contemporary realities of national education systems across sub-Saharan Africa that simultaneously seek to educate all students as they also supply trained labor for the nation-state. These two theories, human capital and human rights, represent a global struggle within education. His specific mission in this work is to demonstrate the need to better identify how to engage
marginal groups across sub-Saharan Africa in national education. His work contributes to the development and restructuring of sub-Saharan African education systems to ensure full participation of presently marginal groups.