Bringing Africa into New Epistemologies: Rethinking the University in Africa (original) (raw)

The concepts Africanization and decolonization have been stressed in the 1960s by the founder leaders of the free African states. Pan African leaders such as Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere sought to establish truly independent states free from Europeanization and colonialism. The mission was to liberate various institutions from colonial ills. These leaders wanted to transform government institutions including institutions of higher learning. The 1960s witnessed the leaders' search for relevance and liberatory philosophies. Since the advent of colonization, the African continent there has been the gradual alienation that has seen the African lose not only culture but history, language and indigenous ways of thinking. The leaders in newly independent states strived to redress this barbarism veiled as modernism which was widespread in African institutions. This article examines the reasons behind the sustained calls for Africanization and decolonization in higher education institutions in Africa. The following five topics are examined: i) Why re-Africanize the university in Africa ii) Revisiting and fostering the relevant soul of the university iii) New epistemologies and reawakening the renaissance of knowledge iv) Research, curriculum and pedagogy infusing the new idea of a university v) Rethinking thinking

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact