African studies and the bias of Eurocentricism

Abstract

Animating Africa within the field of African studies is presently deeply problematic. This is mainly because the power undergirding the construction of Africa within the field is wielded within the epistemic modes of Western intellectual thought. Consequently, unless Africanism is decolonised from that epistemological mode, African studies not only remains a colonised field of enquiry, but also continues to legitimise and validate the theses on Afro-pessimism. Its utilitarian value for the continent also remains ineffectual. Actualising the decolonisation of knowledge in this regard is no doubt an epistemological project. It is also a matter of intellectual and political struggles. This is mainly because the actual histories of the various disciplinary practices around which knowledge production takes place – on Africa – have a profoundly colonial genealogy. The task of working Africa’s destiny out of that heritage is therefore a compelling task for postcolonial studies. How did Africa become the object of historical and scientific enquiries? Through what historical conditions did the African subject become the object of a possible knowledge system? How can African historical knowledge further African development? And how might African studies serve as an instrument of liberation and progress rather than domination? These questions are central to my attention in this article. Drawing on differend as an illustration of the opposing claims and premises around which knowledge production on Africa takes place, it underlines the Africa-driven interventions in this field and discusses some of the foremost attempts at combating the subjugation of endogenous knowledges on the continent.