conference

Africa Knows! It is time to decolonise minds

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Accepted Paper: B10-02. To panel B10.

Title of paper:

Authors:

Faisal Garba (University of Cape Town);

Leander Kandilige (University of Ghana).

Long abstract paper:
This paper presents an analysis of select Continental and diasporic scholarly networks that draws-in Ghanaian and other African and Africa-descended scholars from the run-up to the attainment of political independence (across the Continent) to the present. The paper adopts an ecosystem model to carry out a spatial analysis of the ties that connect Ghanaian scholars with various layers of the knowledge environment. i.e. the relationship of Ghanaian intellectual diasporas with a reorientation of academic focus relative to how knowledge groups at different spatial levels (microsystem, mesosystem and macrosystem) have shaped academic focus in Africa. While each of the networks that are examined were/are preoccupied with their own scholarly interests and set of issues, they were/are all seized with the African predicament. In the colonial moment, this meant contesting the intellectual justifications of colonial domination. Most of that generation of scholars were part of different and occasionally convergent networks of socially committed intellectuals who were not necessarily in the academy. Made up of anti-colonial fighters, African students in the colonial metropole and diasporic Africans, this group was an important component in organisations that mobilised and fought for independence. Subsequent generations of intellectuals addressed themselves to the African condition depending on the defining issues of their time. A constant preoccupation is the place of Africa in knowledge production. The colonial legacy of extroverted knowledge production in and on Africa continues to define mainstream scholarly work about Africa. It is in this context that the current debate about decolonization takes place. This paper poses a set of questions about the 'decolonial turn': it's potentials and pitfalls: Does the present decolonial moment signal a deep cleanse or a tinkering at the edges of knowledge production on Africa? What models of decolonising knowledge production in Africa has the debate thrown up i.e. changes in academic curricula; funding of innovation in academia; setting research agenda; who controls the African narrative?

Keywords: ecosystem model, epistemic community, decolonization, Ghana, knowledge production.