Education: Free Thought in Nigeria

"The moment we all become gentlemen, this country is dead," says Nigerian Schoolmaster Tai Solarin. As founder of the Mayflower School in Ikenne, Western Nigeria, he is dedicated to destroying the educated Nigerian's British-bred notion that the ideal product of education is a black gentleman in a white collar.

When his first 70 boys arrived five years ago, Solarin told them to start building the school with their own hands. They were startled, but Solarin's infectious enthusiasm got them hewing and hauling. From a one-room hut, Mayflower by last week had grown to 35 white-washed buildings with 400 primary and...

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