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This paper seeks to examine the relevance of the term 'cyberterrorism' within African spaces. Although the notion of cyberterrorism as a concept is contested by scholars such as Jason Burke and Marc Sageman, the application of the concept in an African context raises a number of concerns. Firstly, rather than focusing on the semantic and conceptual issues only, more attention should be paid to the material implications of such discourses for people and states on the continent who are on the receiving end of such conceptualisation. Discourses regarding fear are always very complex and shape the way in which reality is perceived, understood and how hegemonic power-relations are formed within certain contexts. Secondly, these discourses reflect a Eurocentric bias, because, as visible in the definition used and accepted by US defence analysts, cyberterrorism would refer to " Unlawful attacks and threats of attack against computers, networks, and the information stored therein when done to intimidate or coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives.". These types of discourses are largely state-centric or government-centric, created to operate in spheres where effective governance varies from what is accepted as such on the African continent. While connectivity and globalization are becoming increasingly important for Africa as a whole, it begs the question whether the term is not more appropriate for highly globalized, technologically advanced contexts of the global North. In contrast with countries in the global North, African countries' limited use and penetration of information technology thus underline the need for a critical (re)examination of the discourses relating to cyberterrorism in the African context. What needs to be established is whether cyberthreats, specifically cyberterrorism, pose a real threat on the continent, or whether the concept has become a platitude or blanket term to describe any form of information-based hostility. The paper questions the application of concepts such as cyberthreats, cyberterrorism and cybersecurity in African-centered approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys the scholarship surrounding the history of African political thought, which is a growing interdisciplinary area of study. The study of the history of political thought has a long tradition but has tended to be Eurocentric, with limited reference to the Global South. Recent decades have seen moves to correct this, with more research being given over to African political thought, both ancient and modern. This article explores the plethora of discussions, which are happening in the field, including how the subject is defined, the impact of theories of decolonisation and the relationship between African thought and ideas from elsewhere in the world. In doing this it, also notes where there is scope for further research to be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I historicize decolonial theories within the context of epistemic contestations and knowledge production in Africa. I offer a critical appraisal of decolonization as simulated within Western academic institutions and argue that the current tempo of decolonization movements is by no means an accident of history; it is, in fact, a residual narrative of colonial epistemology. I offer internal critique and discuss the limitations of decolonization as an intellectual strategy, before addressing how Western academics have appropriated the discourse in a manner fitting an intellectual crusade. The decolonial scholar is, at the same time, perpetuating the mandate of colonial epistemology by substituting coloniality with subjective displacement. Finally, I suggest a modest proposal for adopting a new framework that admits the epistemic virtues of decolonization while eschewing its limitations and internal contradictions. My argument is that decolonization studies, as understood in contemporary African philosophy, has remained afflicted with the same disease it seeks to cure by (i) uncritical affiliation with historical generalizations, (ii) failure to recognize that history is no location of innocence and (iii) recolonization of non-Western ontologies through epistemic imperialism and network legitimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rare consensus points to the question of normativity, with an inclination towards the Eurocentric Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, which seems to have been central to Critical Terrorism Studies (CTS). Given the universality of knowledge exerting pressure on scholars to conform with traditional theoretical perspectives, terrorism studies pose inequality from Eurocentricity emerging in "the battle for hearts and minds" research. Some of these studies fall to the allure of connivance with the progressively "authoritarian demands of Western, liberal state and media practice". Consequently, terrorism research risks being dominated by ethical and logical blindness within established research formations. In Africa, for example, some CTS scholars are subdued to cynically use their Africanity to authenticate the neo-colonial and neo-liberal agenda in terrorism research. This article explores the reimaging of subjugated knowledge through decolonisation of methods in CTS. Rooting for cognitive justice and adequate space for alternative knowledge to imperial science, the article contests the battle for Africa's hearts and minds as a failed process that needs transformation. Consequently, this work is a contribution to epistemological debate between the global North and South, and the subsequent theoretical contestations in CTS. We argue for hybridity by re-constructing alternative frameworks of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconsiders Molefi Asante's idea of Afrocentrism. It discusses Eurocentrism and the search for identity that provoked Afrocentrism as an intellectual paradigm. It details some basic tenets of the Afrocentric paradigm and makes some critical remarks on certain issues in the conceptualisation of the Afrocentric paradigm. Essentially, those remarks revolve around the notions of multiculturalism, identity and language. First, the article argues that the Afrocentric paradigm, through its openness to anyone interested in it - an extension of its claim to multiculturalism - drags itself back into the problem of identity that it initially set out to resolve. This is because it provokes the dilemma of extreme inclusivity and extreme exclusivity. Second, it uses the language of Eurocentrism to fight against Eurocentrism, which seems absurd. Third, it glosses over the fact that, apart from Africa, other cultural civilisations might have significantly influenced the intellectual development of the ancient Geeks. The article argues, therefore, using the methods of analysis and critical argumentation typical of philosophical writing, first, that Afrocentrists may need to re-articulate the Afrocentric paradigm in such a way that would address the problem of identity which it set out to resolve by properly delineating its boundaries. Second, they need to address the language question, which is an important aspect of the problem of identity. Third, they need to recognise and respect the contributions of other cultural civilisations to the Greek intellectual development. This does not upset their multiculturalist programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2021, the largest free trade area in the world measured by number of participating countries came into effect. This African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which links 54 countries and 1.3 billion people, is designed to foster rapid economic growth and pull tens of millions of people out of poverty. Despite the fact that this project raises issues central to International Political Economy (IPE) scholarship, major journals in the field including Review of International Political Economy (RIPE) have given it negligible attention. The paper begins by asking why the AfCFTA has remained at best, marginal, and at worst, absent in the IPE literature. Drawing on the critical and postcolonial literature in the field to address this question, the paper identifies IPE's Eurocentrism as the root cause of the discipline's oversight of the continent. After uncovering the implications and costs of this oversight, the paper discusses the insights that emerge from a close consideration of the AfCFTA, including the Pan-African ideology which undergirds the project and insights that contribute to the literature on regionalism. Highlighting the implications of both the AfCFTA and the analysis, the paper additionally discusses the promises and challenges in the future trajectory of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of current feminist thought in Africa is tainted by colonialism. Colonial and postcolonial anthropological thought and Eurocentric scholarship have misrepresented Africa as a society where social and gender roles were largely lopsided. Hence, current feminist thought (which are largely Western) on oppression of women, subjugation and suppression were imposed on the historicity of Africans. In this article, we argue that the misrepresentations of feminism of the indigenous societal order in Africa should be ignored. We bring to the fore some ideas that advance the view that precolonial African society was not anchored on biology or ordered by gender, but was organised by age or seniority, and provided both men and women a sense of equality. Furthermore, we contend that embracing indigenous cultural values in the 21st century provides, on the one hand, a valuable tool for solutions to issues that women face currently, and, on the other hand, a viable means of detaching feminism from Eurocentric misrepresentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current trends in refugee protection within the African continent expose the deep-seated manifestations of coloniality. The 20th-century Eurocentric approaches to the management of people of concern continue to guide refugee protection in Africa. The approaches that are arguably a triumph of 'European Universalism' or Eurocentrism in refugee protection, both in theory and praxis, continue to be questioned because of their unmistakable results - the formation of hierarchies between Africans based on nationality and territoriality. This has led to the categorisation of African people and power conflicts, clashes, and intense contests for co-existence. Such a status quo has been normalised to be natural, occasioning deplorable refugee situations in the continent. Against such a background, this article aims to augment and complement the broad swathe of literature in the quest for African Renaissance movements using a Decolonial approach to refugee protection. It departs from untangling the lived experiences of the forcibly displaced, particularly refugees and asylum seekers, to critique the Westerninfluenced system of refugeehood in Africa. The research argues that the modern approaches to refugeehood rooted in Eurocentrism have eliminated ways of acceptance and co-existence amongst Africans, disregarding some of the traditional ways of incorporation, inclusion and integration. Instead, the refugee regime has been ordering, othering and hierarchizing the forcibly displaced, making them typical subjects of coloniality. It suggests decolonising the asylum system, considering an African-driven refugee regime and the involvement of local communities in the management of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. The purpose of this article is to challenge the notion that a largely Eurocentric education is the best one for African universities. It is not by any means suggested that Eurocentric notions should be discounted, but rather that African education should be devoid of any form of subordination and be all owed to assume its rightful equal place and space, in an interconnected global education arena alongside a range of epistemologies and ontologies. Methods. A literature review was conducted on the topic and the researchers surveyed scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to the area of research. The review conducted to a lesser or greater extent enumerates, describes, summarizes, issues relating to the theme. Results. Knowledge should be sought for its value to communities through individuals and it should perpetually produce sensible, empathetic, and responsible citizens. African education must inter alia reflect a multiplicity of perspectives and notions that are grounded on local knowledge. Conclusion. The existing form of Eurocentric university education in Africa certainly has defects when viewed Afro-centrically. Originality. Decades after the demise of colonialism [if it has in fact ended], African universities still embrace a Eurocentric epistemological paradigm and are for the most part consciously or unconsciously disparaging or ignoring Indigenous African knowledge systems. This is far from liberating, and it is argued in a novel way that what is required is a vigorous promotion of African scholarship which is infused with African values, philosophies and knowledge that can also be promoted to our erstwhile colonisers and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this paper, based upon a reading of original sources, is to discuss existing narratives on the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the African continent and to contribute to the elaboration of alternative interpretations, that insist both on the crucial role of the Ottoman provinces of Africa in the definition of the very nature of the Empire and on the depth of the links between the Ottoman realm and the core of the African continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, there has been increased visibility of, and attention paid to, enduring issues such as racial discrimination toward Black Americans. Black psychologists have been called upon to explain various race-related mental health issues to the public, as well as their colleagues and students. Discussions about how to heal from persistent, intergenerational, oppressive attacks on the African psyche are important, but the theories and treatments in which most practitioners are trained and considered “best practices” are Eurocentric in nature. Africancentered (or Africentric) psychology is a well-established school of thought, predating the philosophies often discussed in Western/American psychology’s History and Systems curriculum, that provides an authentic understanding of the psychology of people of African descent from an African perspective. In this article, we present the historical contention about the lack of inclusion of an African perspective in conceptualizing and addressing the psychological needs of people of African descent, provide an overview of African-centered psychology including its underlying worldview and philosophy, development, and key contributors, and advocate for the inclusion of Africentric psychology in APA-accredited psychology graduate programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than three decades of theories critical of cultural colonialism have given rise to many voices calling for a different way of interpreting, thinking, and expressing the world. In recent decades, the social sciences and humanities have played a central role in the debate on the epistemological and intellectual implications of Western colonial domination over territories in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The critique of Eurocentrism in the social sciences encompasses currents such as postcolonial critique, subaltern studies, decolonial theory, Afro-American Marxism, Chicano and border feminism, indigenous thought, and epistemologies of the South. The emergence of these theories that are critical of Eurocentrism has brought about a process of profound theoretical renewal in the social sciences that has called into question Eurocentric legacies, colonial projects, and the hegemony of Westernized universities. Historiographic production has remained, to a certain extent, on the margins of this theoretical renewal undergone by the humanities and social sciences. This article recapitulates the fundamental contributions of theories critical of Eurocentrism to the formation of a new historiography that overcomes the legacies of Eurocentric and colonial knowledge. We review the fundamental contributions of postcolonial studies, subaltern history, and decolonial theory to the interpretation of the past in order to think about the formulation of a new theory of history and a new non-Eurocentric historiography. We propose that this should critically examine the implications of the colonial legacy in how historiography itself and the rest of the social sciences and humanities conceive the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, a raising awareness concerning the Eurocentric nature of knowledge production infused the research on EU development cooperation. As a consequence, this field of study had to face a post-development and a post-colonial challenge. In this context, a renewed interest towards Africa and the multifaceted agency of the EU from a socio-ontological and normative perspective emerged. By combining normative political theory and empirical research, three books offer relevant insights concerning intra-EU norm coordination, situated norm collision, and norm problematisation in Africa-EU relations. In a global scenario that leaves no space for oversimplifying dichotomies and epistemic stances shaped by outdated hegemonies, these contributions prove to be an essential starting point for future research that aims at analysing post-2020 EU development cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the years, there has been regular discourse among African social work scholars regarding the production of indigenous knowledge in Africa. Most of the arguments hold that social work knowledge creation and production is often based on Eurocentric approaches due to the dearth of African-centered social work literature from the continent. This paper attempts to explore the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings of African-centered social work education and practice. Using Ghana as a case study, information is provided on theoretical and conceptual thought processes about African-centered social work education in response to the shortage of insights pertaining to African culture. By means of purposive and availability sampling, we recruited three graduate students to be interviewed. The interviews were analyzed using thematic inquiry. We explored African paradigms and argued that the practice of social work education on the continent of Africa should not be based on the Eurocentric approaches only, to the detriment of traditional African ways of knowing. We believe that for social work education in Africa to thrive, we should embrace indigenous African practices and values of spirituality, collectivity, interconnectedness and reciprocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges the Eurocentric entrepreneurship narrative from postcolonial and pan‐African feminist perspectives. Based on interview research conducted with 24 Zimbabwean women entrepreneurs, we narrate their microstorias in order to expose the legacy of entrepreneurial colonialism and patriarchy in Africa. The microstorias reveal the colonial past as well as the patriarchal norms that disenfranchise women entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe. Yet, they also reveal their struggle, resilience, resistance and their ongoing fight to construct their own identities as entrepreneurs. The paper contributes to enhance and advance further postcolonial, decolonial and critical voices in entrepreneurship and organization studies by challenging the prevailing western discourse of entrepreneurship from the introduction of necroentrepreneurism; giving support to intersectional postcolonial and Pan‐African feminist perspectives that voice global South women entrepreneurship and, by decolonizing and decentring the theoretical debates on entrepreneurship and organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining developments in the history of education in Africa as a whole raises far-reaching philosophical, anthropological and historical questions about what Africa is and whether such a history is even possible as such. The course of that history and its tributaries wend around social theories; its dominant issues, tensions and gaps represent ideological interventions that highlight competing narratives in attempts to theorise social progress along a set of converging historiographic projects through which the conflicts between positivist, Marxist and poststructuralist (and other critical theory) perspectives – and the Eurocentricity of their objects – become visible. Anticipating broadened inquiries that centre Africans in historical narratives concerning education in Africa, this review (a) critiques historians' obsession with and dissensions on colonial education, (b) clarifies epistemic ruptures in the well-worn quest for 'truth' in history evident in that obsession, and (c) proposes some prospects for decolonial futures in the history of education in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Much of what is taken for education in Africa is not African, but rather a reflection of Europe in Africa. Our curriculum is a site where the English language is sacralised, and the internalisation of bourgeois European values in our curricula is interpreted as an index of progress. This study eclectically draws on decolonising scholarship to critique a curriculum that continues to perpetuate stereotypical and patronising views of Africans. It challenges overt and covert Eurocentric assumptions and rationality that alienate and 'other' Africans by referencing the rich cultural and linguistic heritage of Africa. It strategically draws on African folktales, aphorisms, and praise poetry that have been excluded from the curriculum by colonial and apartheid malfeasance. This study argues that this African corpus has profound and liberating pedagogical utility. Moreover, it provides a space in which Africans experiences of the social world are validated and in which Africans may recognise themselves. This study postulates that there is a plethora of African folktales, dirges, lullabies and other creative works that are transformative, speak to African ways of knowing and embody an ideology that honours and is progressive of the African psyche. Finally, this study adroitly rebuffs Eurocentric prejudices and fallacious assumptions that the linguistic heritage of Africans is not worth knowing. It does this by persuasively demonstrating that African aesthetics, philosophies and cultural artefacts should contest western capitalistic individualism and serve as powerful transformative agents in our curricula that motivate an inclusive, thoughtful, equitable and dignified existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of this article is to explore the paradoxes of 'universal knowledge' in public administration that claims cross-cultural relevance and validity, while remains highly parochial (non-universal) in terms of representing mostly the Western administrative traditions imposed and imitated worldwide. It re-examines African and Asian public administration knowledge to explain how the borrowed Western knowledge de-indigenized local administrative traditions, and how it continued to remain exclusive in terms of severe underrepresentation of African and Asian scholars and institutions in the processes of knowledge production, utilization and ownership. The article critically reviews existing literature to evaluate publications (books, articles and reports) on the origins, theories and practical models of public administration in Africa and Asia. It concludes that what is often presented as universal knowledge in the field is actually based on its inherent Eurocentric parochialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing community of international relations (IR) scholars who argue for the importance of investigating Global South approaches to IR scholarship, making room for theories and concepts that challenge the discipline's Eurocentricity, and debating the merits and pitfalls of globalizing IR by including perspectives from various Global South locations. In addition to acknowledging this existing critical scholarship that aims at resisting mainstream epistemologies and methodologies of knowing and doing IR, this article's central contribution is to probe the epistemic hegemony and knowledge-production hierarchies that are emerging from within the Global South. The article does not seek to uncover the truth about the representation of Global South actors by Global South IR communities. Instead, it is interested in demonstrating how epistemic hegemony and knowledge-production hierarchies do not exist only in relationships of exclusion and Othering but also in relations of inclusion and Selving. We illustrate our argument with an analysis of the representations of "Africa" in China-based IR intellectual communities. We find that Chinese discourses on solidarity, friendship, community, and shared history lead to a narrative of sameness and Selving whereby Chinese postcolonial experiences are taken to be expandable and applicable to other developing states, making Chinese perspectives seem representative of others, thereby silencing and representing African voices at once. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One phantasm of the colonial experience in Africa is the spirited search for an African identity, which Eurocentrism tried to blot out through different ways, ranging from the denial of its existence to an outright replacement of it with accounts that revert to the occidental for validation. As a contribution to this identity-crisis management project, Afrocentric scholarship, from ethnophilosophy to present-day decolonial discourses, has tried to challenge that dominant narrative based on suppressed facts and logical reasoning. Studies of these kinds generally swing between oppositional scholarship and equalization schemes, without investigating Africa per se from a non-oppositional stance. Thus, this study, which is qualitatively descriptive and logically analytical, in addition to being deductive and synthetical in design, investigates the imaginative in a typical African poem. Aided by Derridean deconstructive strategy, the study reconstitutes an image of the African as more than rational, thereby implicating the imaginative functioning as a possible condition for cultural re-engineering and engagement of reality beyond reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histories and stories of Europe's two "World" Wars are generally centered on narratives that privilege metropolitan empire perspectives over the perspectives of their satellite countries and their societies. As Spivak correctly observes, European and American academic writing is produced to support the economic interests of these countries. Similarly, knowledge or information is never innocent as it expresses the interests of its producers. It has invariably been in the interest of Eurocentric academic chroniclers of the Europe's "World" Wars to write Africa's contributions out of the dominant narratives of those wars. Just like European military regiments containing African soldiers and soldiers of African descent, who fought in Europe's second "World" War and enabled Allied Powers' victory over Nazi Germany and its Axis Powers allies, were "bleached" off every post-victory battle photographs of the War, the dominant narratives of the two "World" Wars are "bleached" to rid them of Africa's economic contributions to the successful prosecution of both wars. This article represents an intervention to de -center such dominant albeit erroneous narratives on both wars. It brings focus on Africa's economic contributions to the war efforts with the underscoring argument that but for Africa's economic contributions, Africa's European colonizers could not have achieved victory over Germany in both wars. The article advocates a de-centering agenda, which stems from postcolonial studies and theoretical framework as a useful tool for such corrective scholarship endeavor. The conclusive argument is that Africa's economic contribution to the successful prosecution of Europe's "World Wars" is primarily phenomenal rather than epiphenomenal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deconstructing International Relations (IR) episteme acknowledges its generation of power imbalances in security knowledge that relegate African experiences to the margins of global politics. Central to this process of relegation is a pervasive 'methodological whiteness', which, while eliding coloniality and racism, projects white experience as a universal perspective. Accompanying this Eurocentric bias has been the intrusive projection of the Weberian state as the most effective site for security governance and conflict prevention on a continent with states that are characterized by a hybridity of political orders, which deviate substantially from the ideal-type state that they seek to mimic. Not only has this resulted in disastrous policies in many parts of Africa, but critical questions arise as to the relevance of conventional IR and security studies as neutral sites for dispassionate knowledge production and policy-making on African security, thereby necessitating alternative perspectives. This article reflects on the ways in which IR and security studies have been responsible, in part, for the production of a racialized mode of security knowledge generation that obfuscates the security policies and experiences of people in African locales. It draws on insights from post-colonial discourses and the episteme of alternativity to explore how the study of events and processes in Africa in a theoretically conscious manner could advance IR scholarship as a whole. It contends that incorporating African experiences as they manifest through hybrid security orders can broaden the empirical base for IR theorizing about security since they offer another perspective outside the conventional western assumptions and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is imperative to recognise the effects of the intrinsically Eurocentric development agenda on attaining transformative evaluation that appropriately addresses development priorities in Africa. The role of international development agencies as critical anchors in African evaluation practice needs examination to advance the Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) discourse. Objectives: This article critiques the dominance of a Eurocentric lens to evaluation in Africa, illustrating how this impedes MAE. It harnesses the importance of MAE as a transformative, contextually relevant approach to espousing Afrocentric values in evaluation theory and practice. Method: Through a desktop review, the article examines the intrinsic power relations inherent in Western knowledge systems and how the effects of coloniality on African knowledge systems can deter the progression of a transformative, decolonial evaluation agenda. Results: The article recognises positive strides towards legitimising African knowledge systems and harnessing a more African evaluation agenda, for example, through the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), leading the standardisation of African evaluation competencies and guidelines. Conclusion: It establishes, however, the adverse effects of long-standing power imbalances, with the development agenda in Africa being primarily set by international development organisations, such as donors. This leaves little room for African evaluators to manoeuvre and define contextually appropriate approaches to the evaluation outside of the dominant Eurocentric evaluation standards. The article contributes to understanding the role of the dominant international development agencies on evaluation in Africa and proposes recommendations for achieving a more decolonised evaluation agenda. It highlights the importance of the legitimisation of African knowledge systems, a multidisciplinary approach to monitoring and evaluation (M&E), ensuring inclusivity and representation in evaluation and negotiating power balances with international development agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has happened since Dipesh Chakrabarty, at the turn of the millennium, paradigmatically called for a "provincialization of Europe". The paper connects with three major trends in current history of technology, exploring these threads with regards to the Global South in general and post/colonial Africa in particular: (1) exemplifying and (later) disentangling transnational connections; (2) rethinking (colonial) infrastructures; and (3) exploring technologies-in-use, everyday practices and perceptions. Unpacking established Science and Technology concepts such as Thomas P. Hughes "Large (Socio)Technical Systems" (LTS) approach for post/colonial contexts, the paper argues that we need to move beyond the much-invoked "key figures" and drivers of global technological (ex)change and scrutinize place- and time-specific landscapes of technology instead. In particular, we need to pay closer attention to seemingly peripheral actors and actants as well as to the manifold interrelations between the human and the "natural" world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the article is to explore the possibilities of philosophic discourse in the present postcolonial African situation. As indicated in the title, it will begin by exploring and laying out grosso modo, the character of philosophy as a discipline. It will then engage in examining, again broadly, Africa's present: the situation that has prevailed since the end of formal colonialism. Consequent on the two expositive presentations, the article will then indicate the role that philosophy can and should play in this situation. The aim is to explore the possible beyond the demise of colonialism in the hope of catching sight of a truly postcolonial future. The article is thus a concise articulation of the hermeneutical stance in contemporary African philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a discursive critique of the Eurocentric paradigms of knowledge production that characterise much of the underlying logics in the age of neoliberal discourses on resilience, pointing out important areas not given sufficient attention. In particular, it highlights the limits of the modernist ontology of resilience, whereby extremely "vulnerable" African communities are encouraged "to become resilient" to climatic disruption and environmental catastrophe and to "bounce back" as rapidly as possible. The article moves the discussion forward, drawing from critical decolonial approaches, in alignment with Indigenous knowledges, to question and rethink meaningful alternative ontologies, ways of knowing and being, in adaptive governance. I argue that the recognition of the plurality of many worlds, rather than one world, highlighted through critical decolonial understandings of epistemic forms with Indigenous knowledges, can be counterposed to Western universality as an innovative ontology to decentre the world order in the problematic dominant development of resilience thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate triggered by recent publications and research justifying colonialism demands an intellectual engagement with the histories of colonialism, and their impact on postcolonial trajectories of development, peace and conflict. The argument that colonialism inspired development in societies that embraced its modernity project, enlightened governance and efficient administration – which in turn inspired national consciousness embedded in anti-colonial struggles – has been extensively critiqued. However, less attention has been paid to colonialism’s enduring everyday impact and visible continuities. We argue that the present political moment defined by right-wing, conservative and insular nationalisms and racisms – particularly in Western polities – requires deeper critique. It demands an intensive re-engagement with colonialism’s legacies, the politics of race and racism and the postcolonial (un)making of ‘selfhood’ and ‘nation-statehood’ evidenced in many parts of the world. This collection revisits the impact of colonialism on the postcolonial politics and decolonial developments in Africa; its focus is to reinvestigate the endurance and efficacy of the power relations devised and propagated by the European colonial projects and their continued presence in African states and societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of ubuntugogy appears as an ordinary grammatical prowess to some, while it also remains unknown to many. This conceptual paper attempts to conceptualise ubuntugogy, not only as indigenous teaching and learning but also as a decolonial pedagogy with liberating potentials. An assumption exists that today's pedagogical process in Africa is still laced with subjectivism, and it fails to challenge the Eurocentric hegemony that lies within school systems. The failure to address Eurocentrism explicitly leads to the need for ubuntugogy. Ubuntugogy, therefore, needs to be unpacked for better understanding. That is, this study is not to challenge the hegemony of westernised classrooms and their pedagogical process in Africa but to conceptualise the hidden potential of ubuntugogy to fill out the limited literature of the concept in the world of academics. Hence, the study provides answers to questions such as; what is ubuntugogy? What is the epistemology of ubuntugogy? What are the transformative tendencies of ubuntugogy, and how does ubuntugogy relevant in 21st Century classrooms? The study concluded that the idea of ubuntugogy is to create a learning environment where everyone feels empowered, encouraged and free from the burdens of Eurocentric and Americentric imposition with an open tendency of knowing and being human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the lens of an anticolonial (as opposed to postcolonial) analytical framework, this conceptual paper examines decolonising efforts (and failures) in Religious Education (RE) as a school subject in post-independent sub-Saharan Africa. It critiques the missionary/European epistemological hegemony that continues to render RE a colonial rather than a postcolonial project. Beyond rhetoric of the impact of colonialism, the paper laments the perversity of a 'colonial caged mentality' affecting the conceptualisation of RE in what is supposed to be a postcolonial milieu in which Africans should design school curricula that suit their particular needs. It calls for the re-conceptualisation of RE de-linked from colonial/Eurocentric thought patterns and presents an 'envisioned' decolonised RE (post-confessional, inclusive and multi-faith) that speaks to the political and socio-cultural reality of a postcolonial environment in sub-Saharan Africa. The argument in this paper is that sub-Saharan Africa should yearn for a paradigm shift not only to ensure the decolonisation of the RE curriculum, but also crucially to challenge embedded colonial residues inherent in stakeholders 'manning the gates' ensuring that decolonised RE is supported and implemented effectively in the curriculum and schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We argue that African philosophy scholars are sometimes blinded by Eurocentric tendencies in the practice of African philosophy, and that it is important to identify and overcome these problems. The research gap we intend to fill is that the route of self-examination, self-criticism and self-evaluation has been underexplored in the practice of African philosophy at universities in Africa. The self-understanding of African philosophy is necessary for the reconstruction of indigenous elements for the purpose of African development. Firstly, African philosophy is divided along Eurocentric lines of analytic and continental philosophy. We argue that such a dualism closes other approaches to African philosophy. Secondly, the practice of African philosophy is done in the language of the colonisers; however, concepts from indigenous African languages remain largely unexplored. Thirdly, the Eurocentric approach of making philosophy "universal" and "transcultural," results in African scholars seeking a general African philosophy that fails to accommodate the diversity and richness of African cultures. Fourthly, African philosophy, as practised in African universities, tends to disregard African culture as the basis of philosophical thought in trying to make philosophy scientific and objective. We argue for decolonial thinking as a means of making African philosophy more genuine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reexamines the figure of Franz Kafka (1883–1924) in light of his largely ignored, recursive links to circum-Caribbean and Black Atlantic processes of racialized exploitation and corporal punishment. When we centre Kafka's extensive biographical and literary engagements with these processes, the persistent debate over Kafka's status as a Holocaust prophet emerges in a new light. Kafka's archival trail connects his lifelong attention to African enslavement and New World plantation economies to his nightmarish vision of murderous bureaucracies – a connection that crystallizes concretely in his 1919 short story "In the Penal Colony." The archival and aesthetic connections direct us to a historiographical one, namely the increasingly excavated genealogical linkages between the Holocaust and anterior genocidal depredations in Africa and the New World under the auspices of European colonialism. This historiographical reorientation allows us to recast, in a global frame, the debate over Kafka's status as a prophet of world history, a debate that has heretofore operated through the exclusion of the transatlantic slave trade. Kafka's extensively documented attunement to colonial political economies provides formal, figural mechanisms that not only link the juridical–economic worlds of Caribbean slavery and Hitler's Third Reich, but also anticipate, and disable, the dehistoricized, Eurocentric appropriation of his textual archive as a premonition of Auschwitz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper considers the Eurocentric conceptualisation of risk, which reinforces language, culture and business practices that are in conflict with Africa’s own traditional business methodologies. It attempts to identify the rent-seeking methods and resource-seeking strategies that sustain the hegemony of global corporations in Africa.Design/methodology/approach The paper explores non-linear historical narrative around the concept and construction of the idea and language of risk. It follows discourse analysis to identify how the Eurocentric concept of risk was exported and incorporated within the language of international business in non-Western business traditions. The fundamental research question driving this paper is: To what extent does the conceptualisation of risk perpetuate the African continent as risk-ridden?Findings The rent and resource-seeking strategies used by multinational corporations (MNCs) are central to “manufactured” risks, and this negatively creates impact for post-independent Africa. Whilst the state is inconsistent in its approach to dealing with this crisis, global corporations continue to do business, extract resources and expand their capital and market base in Africa.Research limitations/implications The paper, therefore, proposes a further full empirical and theoretical enquiry to examine the nature of manufactured risk from an African perspective on the discursive psychological methodology to investigate how African leaders report on risk as the authors believe that risk theories in the Western-based theories are exaggerated and discursively shaped by their own ideals which do not necessarily apply to the contextual realities in Africa.Practical implications It is imperative for African governments to implement a nationalist-modernising strategy whereby initially the levels of export from local businesses could be proportioned to the levels of MNC resource-seeking activities. This approach would ensure the proliferation of local business groups that could gain access to local and international capital to maximise local production. In this sense, the government would not have to deal with manufactured risk and the challenges that emanate from the flight of capital.Social implications There are political implications for the nation-states, as MNCs use the instabilities and weaknesses of governments on the continent to seek and exploit resources to maintain their competitive advantage at the global level. On the economic implications side, weaker governments cannot have a proper development programme for their countries, thereby perpetuating a cycle of uncertainty and unemployed younger graduates. Instability in economic realms leads to social unrest whereby governments are constantly and fully blamed for the inadequacies in social equality.Originality/value The philosophical basis of risk and its historical foundations in the African context are presented. Neo-colonial business methods, languages, cultures and strategies are explored and consideration is given as to how African governments could address the issue of co-option, as well as how to respond to the risks arising by MNCs’ business practices. The paper adds to the theoretical narratives by arguing that when considering entry into the marketplace, MNCs must ensure they integrate African perspectives (native categories) into their operational strategies. Moreover, management practitioners might consider addressing the essential topics of language, culture, business systems and business practices using ethnomethodological lenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, many Jeremianic scholars have spent much time on the study of the various contentious issues in order to resolve them. However, there has been no unanimous agreement yet. One of these contentious issues is the relationship of the prophet Jeremiah to ancient Africa and Africans which is the main focus of this article. The author of the book Jeremiah made references to Ancient Africa and Africans about 53 times in the Septuagint, and 67 times in the Masoretic Text. This indicates that the prophet Jeremiah is very familiar with ancient Africa and Africans. Using a historical–biographical and theological method of reading Jeremiah, this article examines the portrayal of ancient Africa and Africans in the book of Jeremiah. It is also part of an investigation of the African presence in the Old Testament which, to Africans, is an important moral and self–lifting scholarly exercise. It is also gratifying information in itself to know that Africa and Africans have participated in the drama of redemption which has not been recognised as such by either Eurocentric scholars or by the majority of Africentric scholars themselves. While in the Pentateuch references to Africa and Africans appear more than 577 times, in the Major Prophets there are about 180 references. What this means is that not only the author of the book of Jeremiah, but biblical authors in general are very familiar with ancient Africa and Africans, and deliberately took time to identify them. The continued recognition by scholars and non–scholars of Africa and African presence in the Bible has great implications for Christianity in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a critical examination of existing literature, this article examines some generic features of Afrocentric approaches to conflict transformation in Africa, while exposing the challenges of Eurocentric approaches in addressing conflicts on the continent. The article however cautions that these Afrocentric approaches are not a panacea for the resolution of all types of conflicts in Africa especially in the contemporary age of globalisation. It concludes that in spite of these challenges, African indigenous approaches should form the basis for the sustainable resolution of conflicts as they are more culturally relevant than Eurocentric ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African American and Black Caribbean relations dominate research on interactions across black ethnic divides. Using National Survey of American Life data, we explore a different aspect of black interethnic attitudes: how close these groups feel towards Africans. African Americans and Black Caribbeans were largely similar in their feelings of closeness to Africans. For Black Caribbeans, younger and male respondents, those reporting higher levels of financial strain, living in the northeast and persons who immigrated to the US at least 11 years ago, report feeling especially close to Africans. Being male was the only significant correlate among African Americans. The findings are discussed in relation to how race, ethnicity and national origin shape personal identities within the US and their significance for intergroup perceptions. These broader issues warrant further consideration in light of assertions that race as a defining feature of American life and intergroup relations is obsolete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural landscapes in countries across Africa arc daily being transformed for many reasons. Such transformations are informed by the need for economic development which appears to be mainly from a single perspective -- the Eurocentric viewpoint. Consequently, little or no attention is being paid to traditional landscapes, sometimes regarded as 'irrelevant' in addressing the problems and challenges of contemporary society. Ironically, in the Western world such traditional landscapes are either left intact or minimally modified to serve as tourist attractions and sacred places of popular interest. This paper is concerned primarily w ith conservation problems generally in selected parts of Africa. Primary data were, however, derived from a field survey carried out in Ibadan in particular, one of Nigeria's megacities which has experienced exponential transformation in the last 50 years owing to a combination of factors. Historical and ethnographical surveys in Ibadan reveal that human settlements, new forms of social organisation, government policies, and changing cultural practices have all caused significant problems for cultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project of critical citizenship studies and comparative political theory utilizes a framework of multiple modernities in order to deeply explore the ontological foundations and complexities of a non-Western conception of citizenship and nationhood: political pan-Africanism. It does so through a study of the political thought of Kwame Nkrumah, a deeply influential political theorist and actor, in the context of the Gold Coast’s struggle for independence and in the initial years of Ghanaian post-colonialism. How did Nkrumah conceive of Pan-Africanist citizenship and nationhood in political and ontological terms? How does this relate to both modern conceptions of citizenship as tied to the nation-state and traditional Ghanaian conceptions of citizenship and belonging? After considering these questions, this paper explores how Nkrumah’s vision of Pan-Africanism was influenced by, yet contradicted central tenets of, Western political thought and modernity. It explores the theoretical and practical tensions inherent between this non-Western conception of the nation and the dominance of aspects of ‘Western’ modernity. Exploring these questions through the lens of Nkrumah’s political thought offers an Afrocentric study in an effort to strengthen African historical agency and to deparochialize citizenship studies and political theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For a very long time, African history has suffered from Eurocentric biases so much so that the history and civilisation of this continent was understood as European activities. Historians of Africa paid scant attention to fashion and beauty of its people which could be partially known in the social science as sexuality. This is likely because it was considered an exclusive domain of anthropology and perhaps psychology. This situation has dramatically changed since the 1990s as trans-disciplinary studies have been encouraged. On the other hand, historians and social scientists of Africa have little interaction with visual images which can be used as alternative sources of historical phenomena. Photographs as one of the visual sources can be used to understand fashion and beauty in Africa, taking Kom in the Northwest of Cameroon as a case study. On the basis of this, I intend to look at pictures and how these made and remade the body at different times in the history of Kom as a form of leisure and fun. My interest is to showcase indigenous understanding of this type of leisure which the Kom people engage with. What type of indigenous materials was used for their fashion and beauty? From the photographs, how can one understand the socio-cultural basis of sexuality? How can one read meaning into the various forms of body adornment, putting on of various objects such as ear rings and bangles to beautify the body, tattooing, scarification, and different hair styles at different periods of Kom history? I further wish to compare sexual representation in the photographs of Christians and non-Christians, educated and uneducated, members of royalty and commoners, and how this was shaped by ideology or social status. I collected these photographs from private archives in Cameroon and Europe during field work for my PhD thesis between 2008 and 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay poses and attempts to answer the central question: ‘What does African Cultural Studies do?’ It takes an autobiographical approach to address the genealogy, status quo and the potential future of the floating signifier that is African Cultural Studies. It unpacks and multiplies African Cultural Studies and contextualises it as a form of African studies and as both interventionist in and contributory to transnational cultural studies. African Cultural Studies’ marginality in the global discourse is rearticulated as both a positioning of disempowerment on the one hand and one of generative and insurgent politics on the other. Stressing the need for continental and diasporic Africans to self-identify issues to be addressed (in place of Eurocentric, imposed preoccupations), the essay identifies as examples the always already complex nature of identity and belonging (and the irony of emergent xenophobia); continental and diasporic relations that trouble the taken-for-grantedness of what constitutes Africa(ns), and queer Africa in the face of institutionalised homophobia. Whether local nativist or globally engaged approaches are taken, the essay concludes that African Cultural Studies ought to be self-reflexively dedicated not only to doing Cultural Studies but to what the doing of African Cultural Studies does for Africa(ns) and for Transnational Cultural Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this short paper, I reflect on the issue of what the decolonisation of political theory might constitute. I consider what it would mean to deparochialise and decolonise political theory for it is within the discipline of political theory, that a charge of eurocentrism is particularly valid. First, this is because what we teach and study as African political theorists merely perpetuates the idea that thinking and theorising around the normative questions of politics has traditionally been a Western dominated concern. Second, it is because it is within the discipline of political theory, that a eurocentrism of ideas is more apparent and evident as opposed to elsewhere in political science as both our research and pedagogical objectives have been confined almost exclusively to the Western ‘canon’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates and discussions about the African renaissance and the Africanisation of universities have raged for decades. The goal of developing an emancipatory Afrocentric system that frees African education from the continuous and dominant influence of Euro- and American-centric cultural values remains a challenge. This is particularly so with respect to conventional African legal training and research programmes. Some African legal scholars, sometimes imbued with xenophilia, have in many ways participated in the process that has seen the continuous marginalisation of studies on the law in Africa and African law. This paper argues that there is a need to rethink the place devoted to the study of African law and African legal systems. It contends that African law generally and African legal systems specifically will hardly be able to develop when present-day students spend most of their time, especially in a course such as comparative law, studying western legal systems. In order for African legal education to be relevant and meaningful it must prepare and equip today’s lawyers to operate in a global world. It is therefore suggested that an Africanised legal programme should include a course on African legal studies and aim to be contextually and globally relevant whilst being sufficiently innovative and flexible to address the urgent needs of our times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores what challenges African sociologists face in the contemporary period. It argues that one needs to go beyond references to resource constraint or the emphasis on the market or the state in order to fathom the deeper canonical and epistemological problems that keep work outside and distant from the sociological canon. Part of the challenge is that most coherent work on the continent occurred outside the confines of sociology as such. After exploring the snares involved, the article turns to the kind of work that animated sociological thought from indigenous and endogenous forms of knowledge, development and underdevelopment debates, violence and power and a growing emphasis on labour studies. It concludes in trying to consolidate the areas of consensus among African sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on Sino–African relations has debated whether or not China's growing presence is a threat to Western or African interests, and has come to the conclusion that China's behavior is not uniquely immoral. Many countries, including Western liberal democracies, similarly give aid to local autocrats to secure natural resources. Why, then, has so much effort been made to come to this perhaps unsurprising conclusion? We argue that the literature on Chinese foreign policy remains heavily influenced by Western states' policy interests, resulting in an impoverished debate that is primarily concerned with the idea of a China threat. In order to recover the diversity in our research on Chinese foreign policy, we argue for the need to go beyond the confines of Western strategic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the characteristics or 'nuts-and-bolts' of the epistemology of Afrikology as a universal scientific epistemology that goes beyond Euro-centricism or other ethnocentrisms, using cultural case studies from East Africa. Looking at three specific case studies, it makes an attempt to find out what Afrikology looks like. The author argues that the liberal paradigm imposed on African communities has undermined the hermeneutic power of Africans to interpret the world through their own symbols - which has led to a crisis of meaning via life, person, and community. In realising the falsity of the dichotomisation of complex human relations by certain restraining epistemologies, communities are attempting to correct this under a system of restorative practices that include; justice, medicine, and cross-border restorative cultural activities through Afrikology. Hence, through practical means and community-centred interactions, the author works to demonstrate how communities are moving away from the perspective of African "victimhood" and cultural pluralism by experimenting with cultural clusterism, adapted to the epistemology of 'thinking from the heart' as an approach towards renewed community-centred empowerment, and restorative cultural intellectualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]