African studies and the bias of Eurocentricism

Arowosegbe, Jeremiah O.

doi:10.1080/02533952.2014.942074

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Since a significant way of producing new knowledge is through research, for effective African knowledge production, researchers, and primarily emerging researchers, should begin to attempt fresh means and methods of studying and researching. Using Claude Ake's corpus, Arowosegbe (2014) suggests that researchers should begin to counter Eurocentric claims of universality through the cultivation of an alternative discourse. Such alternative measures should see research work premised on African theories and methodologies, which is the thrust of this study along with its new suggestion of postgraduate involvement.…”

Section: Locating Indigenous Knowledge In African Research: a Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Postgraduateness”—A Project for Constructing a Renaissance Africa: A Decolonial Approach

Oparinde

Govender

2019

EAC

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This paper discusses the role of postgraduate research in the construction of a renaissance Africa where African ways are represented in African research. The study contends that, through postgraduate research, African institutions can effectively impart significant intellectual development which will allow the continent to actively answer African questions through the development of indigenous knowledge. Through a desk research approach, this study finds that problems on the African continent could be better tackled using Afrocentric approaches. As such, constructing an African renaissance requires thinking African, imagining African, researching African, and in a way, learning African by slightly unlearning the European and American. While the study does not propose totally discarding Eurocentric approaches, we propose the idea of hybridity, where existing Eurocentrically minded research can be used to conceive of and implement indigenous frameworks and methodologies which could be employed in addressing problems in Africa. Importantly, research work in Africa should begin to mirror African societies, with the objective of constructing a reborn African continent.

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Section: Locating Indigenous Knowledge In African Research: a Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Postgraduateness”—A Project for Constructing a Renaissance Africa: A Decolonial Approach

Oparinde

Govender

2019

EAC

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“…By the first half of the twentieth century, the colonial archive provided the apparatus and sources for studying African history. By developing substantive curricula, the interventions in Ibadan and later Zaria projected African history and African philosophy as teachable sub-disciplines in all Nigerian universities (Arowosegbe 2014). Arabic sources and oral history were affirmed as authentic and valid sources for the production of African history.…”

Section: Development Of Academic Departments and Disciplinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

African universities and the challenge of postcolonial development

Arowosegbe

2023

Africa

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Extensively ignored by the literature on the subject, recent interest in the fate of academic freedom in Africa is linked with shared concerns about the exploding nature of its societal crises. The collapse of political integration and social cohesion; the decline of the civil society and the implosion of conflicts; the rise of authoritarian, non-developmental populist regimes amid extreme poverty; and the worsening material conditions of the populations are major indications of such crises. Nowhere are these crises worse illustrated than in the universities where constrained funding, infrastructural collapse, massive brain drains and strained relations with the state inhibit the production of knowledge. This article reflects on the trajectory of the universities in postcolonial Africa. It draws on the national public universities in Nigeria and accounts for the changes and continuities underlying their performance against the backdrop of hostile material conditions and uncongenial political control, which not only remain disruptive but continue to undermine institutional autonomy and the integrity of scholarship in the universities across Africa.

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“….A. Ajayi; and literary icons such as Chinua Achebe, Ousmane Sembène, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Okot p'Bitek, and Wole Soyinka(Arowosegbe 2014a). South Africa can draw lessons from these African countries and create similar schools and adopt research techniques such as nationalist historiography and oral sources to capture the socio-economic and political realities of contemporary South Africa.…”

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confidence: 99%

South Africa’s Curriculum Transformation: Insights from Post-Independence Africa and Post-Civil Rights Movement in the United States

Tella

2022

SRSA

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The #MustFall campaigns, student-led protests that began at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2015 and reverberated across South African universities, ignited calls for curriculum transformation, the abolition of Eurocentric epistemologies, and the embrace of indigenous knowledge systems. Given that despite more than two-and-a-half decades of majority rule, South African universities continue to promote hegemonic Western thought, the call for genuine curriculum transformation is understandable. Against this backdrop, this article investigates the challenges associated with curriculum transformation efforts in South Africa. It offers potential solutions by drawing lessons from transformation efforts in the humanities in postcolonial African states and African-American studies in the civil rights movement in the United States (US).

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African studies and the bias of Eurocentricism

Cited by 13 publications

References 6 publications

“Postgraduateness”—A Project for Constructing a Renaissance Africa: A Decolonial Approach

“Postgraduateness”—A Project for Constructing a Renaissance Africa: A Decolonial Approach

African universities and the challenge of postcolonial development

South Africa’s Curriculum Transformation: Insights from Post-Independence Africa and Post-Civil Rights Movement in the United States

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