This article consists of five sections. First, it briefly describes the results of the authors' previous studies on the history of colonial education in view of the problem introduced by the special issue of which this article is a part. Second, it links these results to such central concepts as the so-called grammars of schooling and educationalisation. Third, in order to further nuance and deepen these concepts, it concentrates on the crucial case of the 1950s in which - in terms of educational as well as social, political and cultural factors - an "elite" was slowly but surely emerging in the Congo. Fourth, it deals with the question of the extent to which the forging of this elite created cultural hybridity in the colonial and postcolonial era and how to research it. Fifth, it tries to qualify the authors' aspirations for future research.