Knowledge is Light

In 1917, in West Africa, an expert made the following observation: colonial schools are the best way to assimilate populations. Schools were then built, children forced to attend. Children learned to count, read and write in French, without reference to their language, nor their culture.

The documentary Knowledge is a light explores the impact of this colonial policy, nearly a century later, in Burkina Faso. With poetry and intimacy, the film delves into the surprising worlds of traditional African education and modern schools. By a series of colorful and poignant stories, the film confronts the legacy of these two educational systems, born a thousand miles from each other.

Unlike most people, I did not go to school before the age of 12. I grew up on a boat with my brother and sisters. Before entering the public school in Québec, we had never studied more than two hours a day. However, subsequently, we always have been successful. The comparison between these two experiences really made me think; why is it so necessary to keep children in school all day? Why, in our society, is school considered as the only place where children can learn?

Directors note

With this project I wanted to explore the contrast between our Western educational system and other educational methods and values.

In Burkina Faso, despite the growing popularity of Western schooling and the pressure of ”modernity”, some educational ancestral customs still exist.

The context there allowed this comparison and revealed another side of Western schools: the use of schools in the times of colonization as a tool of social control and influence.

Even today, throughout the world, children undergo an educational system inherited from colonization, in which their language and culture are not taken into account.

Most of the First Nations of North and South America are in this situation.