In a world increasingly defined by uncertainty, crisis, and rapid cultural change, education must do more than transmit knowledge—it must help society rethink meaning itself.
This was powerfully demonstrated at the University of Education Winneba, where artists, researchers, and students gathered for a transformative creative experiment titled “De/Composing”.
Organised under the Centre for Research, Culture and Creative Arts (CeRCCA) global conference on Sankofaism in Arts and Cultural Research, the workshop challenged participants to rethink one of Africa’s most enduring philosophical ideas—Sankofa.
Rather than treating Sankofa as a simple call to “go back and retrieve,” the workshop asked a deeper question: what must be allowed to break down, decay, or disappear before true transformation can occur?
This shift in thinking is not just artistic—it is profoundly educational and social.
In a time described by organisers as a period of global “polycrisis,” students from UEW’s Department of Art Education engaged in a two-phase creative process that blended ritual, experimentation, and reflection.
The first phase, “DE,” focused on deconstruction—using fire, fabric, and symbolic breakdowns to explore themes of loss, memory, and transformation. The second phase, “COMPOSING,” rebuilt meaning through play, using everyday materials to design interactive games that questioned dominant narratives.
The result was not just artwork, but a living classroom of ideas.
These works were later showcased in the exhibition “Visual Arts as an Agent of Change in Times of Polycrisis,” held from 31st March to 2nd April 2026 on the UEW campus, turning the university into a space of public reflection and engagement.
Facilitators from different parts of the world—including Allan Charles Chipman, Isadora Canela, Elsa Cuissard, Kirimi Thuranira, Lukas Sterzenbach, and David Anderson Hooker—worked alongside Ghanaian academics such as Agnes Onumah and Ngugi Waweru, ensuring that global collaboration remained rooted in local cultural intelligence.
Local coordination led by Patrique deGraft-Yankson, Ebenezer Acquah, Nyamewero Navei, Ebenezer Kow Abraham, and Wilberforce Sarpong ensured that Ghanaian artistic traditions were not overshadowed but actively shaped the process.
What emerged from this collaboration is a powerful advocacy message for education systems across Africa and beyond.
Too often, African knowledge systems are treated as cultural artifacts—preserved, referenced, or admired—but not actively used as frameworks for innovation. This workshop demonstrated something different: that indigenous philosophies like Sankofa and Nnoboa can be reactivated as living tools for addressing contemporary global challenges.
As facilitator Ebenezer Kow Abraham noted, Sankofa must be “inhabited as movement,” not reduced to metaphor. That distinction matters.
Because it means African thought is not static history—it is active methodology.
The University of Education Winneba and CeRCCA have therefore done more than host a workshop. They have demonstrated a model of education where creativity, cultural philosophy, and critical thinking intersect to respond to real-world crises.
This approach carries an important lesson for policymakers, educators, and cultural institutions:
If Africa is to shape global futures, it must stop treating its knowledge systems as heritage alone and start recognising them as intellectual frameworks for innovation.
The “De/Composing” workshop shows that when tradition is not merely preserved but reimagined, it becomes a powerful tool for transformation.
And in a world in crisis, that kind of thinking is not optional—it is necessary.
