An Afrocentric Idea on Contested Knowledge: Selected Cases

The uniqueness of the conversations in this book is that all of its chapters are based on the convictions of Afrocentricity, hence it aspires to provide a contextual and alternative viewpoint which is based on the auto-ethnographic approach of the lived experiences of the Africans. The literature is rich on the relevance and use of this approach. The key lesson of such on what stems from the literature is articulated by Milam (1992), when he argues for the centrality of the researcher in all research stages, including data collection and analysis. In relation to this, Xu and Storr (2012: 14) suggest that: “Human beings are not capable of an omniscient point of view; interpretations and conceptions imposed on external reality can be challenged or resisted.” and hence, the current author’s decolonial Afrocentric ontological standing. As correctly pointed out by Xu and Storr (ibid), “The discretion of what to observe is in the hands of the observer,” and this reality was exactly the case in this work which resulted in the production of this text. The choice of decolonial Afrocentricity as a theoretical framework for this book was informed by the author’s belief that Euro-American theories, concepts and philosophies only provide a partial guide to the understanding of scholarly conversations in Africa, hence they do not capture the essence of African reality. While each chapter of this book addresses a different dimension of scholarly conversations in Africa, there is an unavoidable element of the duplication of a few arguments especially as it concerns methodological and theoretical framing of each chapter. Thus, they all emphatically seek to independently and in an integrated manner, unmute the Afrocentric idea, which has been marginalised by the hegemony and epistemic violence of Eurocentricity. Definitely, this book re-presents a reimagination and recollection of fifteen chapters which address critical issues about the general knowledge structure of the political economy of Africa, South Africa and Zimbabwe in particular. This book is limited in scope and does not claim to cover all of the African continent. However, it arbitrarily uses South Africa and Zimbabwe as test cases, which clearly wields lessons for all nation-states in Africa and the Global South. Despite the differences on a few aspects of life, nation-states in Africa and the Global South have a lot of commonalities in terms of colonial history, political and socio-economic experiences. Kgothatso B. Shai is a Professor of Political Science and Head of the Department of Cultural & Political Studies at the University of Limpopo, in South Africa. At the time of writing this book, he was the President of both the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS), and the South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM). He was also serving as a Member of the Executive Committee for International Political Science Association (IPSA, 2023-2025). He is an NRF-rated researcher and author of a book titled: Scholarship and Politics in South Africa’s Higher Education System. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed and DHET-accredited journal articles and book chapters. ~ “A lucid and robust enunciation of decoloniality as a profoundly scholarly project to expand frontiers of knowledge, not a slogan shouted for self-serving ends”. Mcebisi Ndletyana, Professor of Political Science, University of Johannesburg.