Decolonizing the knowledge canon: Reflective case studies across four african universities

Abstract

In this paper, we think about the University in Africa relative to four different institutional contexts. Using the reflexive case study approach, we reflect on our experiences as teachers, researchers, community practitioners on our respective decolonial practice. Our individual experiential accounts elaborate on our concern with knowledge epistemology, pedagogical practice and research, and the western knowledge canon. We plot a path for how this canon can be disrupted by drawing attention to some strategies, alternate epistemologies that we have encountered/adopted in our own practice. Our contexts are different: post-apartheid South African academic context and its grappling with neo-liberal influences that witnessed the recent #FeesMustFall and other student movements have surfaced a critical interest in decolonization; Ethiopian context characterized by drive toward internationalization goals has surfaced contradictory paradoxes on the role and practice of the university and community service; and Ugandan context, grappling with a colonial legacy that permeates academic research practice that seep into the research supervision practice and relationship. Our partnership is deliberate. We are part of a network of scholars with an interest in decolonizing the publishing ecosystem by building networks that produce alternate knowledge and create supportive fellowship. We engage our different contexts of navigating the academy in Africa as part of learning about our respective challenges and sharing strategies for how we navigate and disrupt the western-centric knowledge canon. We take turns to give first-person accounts of our own pedagogical and academic experiences. We then explicate our experiential accounts with theoretical arguments rooted in decolonial approaches. We conclude with a turn to decolonial hesitation as part of this strategy.