African Management Research Articles

Perspectives of Hospital Staff on Barriers to Smoking Cessation Interventions among Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Patients in a South African Management Hospital.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains a major cause of illness and death, with personal and non-addiction-related barriers. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of hospital staff on barriers to smoking cessation interventions (SCIs) for in-patients at a DR-TB management hospital in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of eighteen hospital staff (HS), and the data were analyzed using NVivo 10. Three core themes were identified: patients' barriers (addiction to tobacco, relapse after improvement in health, and non-disclosure of smoking status to HS), staff personal barriers (poor knowledge of smoking's effect on treatment outcomes and smoking cessation aids), and institutional barriers (staff shortage, time constraints, lack of pharmacological smoking cessation aids, access to cigarettes around hospital premises, and SCIs not prioritized and not assigned to a specific category of HS). Training on SCIs for HS, assigning SCIs to specific HS, integrating SCIs within existing services, and banning access to cigarettes within the hospital premises are assumed to assist DR-TB patients in smoking cessation, improving their response to TB treatment and overall health outcomes.

A systematic literature review of spiritual leadership within African management philosophies

Orientation: Spiritual leadership has been proposed as an alternative to lead a generation where personal values and beliefs are central to employee contentment and organisational success.Research purpose: To critically analyse organisational spiritual leadership (SpL) from an African Management Philosophies (AMP) perspective and whether these are secular or non-secular.Motivation for the study: Knowledge would be drawn from two bodies of scholarly literature, namely SpL and AMP.Research design, approach and method: Literature will be systematically reviewed, focusing on three aspects of the body on knowledge, namely concepts, definitions and typologies (elements).Main findings: The concept of SpL seems empirically much more operationalised than AMP. Central to organisational spiritual leadership are the leader’s values, attitudes and behaviours that intrinsically motivate followers to have a sense of spiritual survival through membership and calling, while AMP emphasise traditionalism, communalism, co-operative teamwork and mythologies.Practical/managerial implications: The research seeks to highlight the existing gaps in literature of a contextualised African measure of SpL.Contribution or value add: A secular and non-secular approach to spirituality emerges, which looks at AMP as emboldened by Ubuntu ideality that is contrary to extant literature on organisational spiritual leadership.

The Neocolonial Structural Model Re-Foundation and The Pragmatic Inference of Organizational Culture in Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Devil on The Cross (1980)

Through the frame frequency of the imported state and the westernization of the African political order, the social construction of the African bureaucracy appears as a structural device of abstraction, exploitation, and brutality. Then, through the frame of reference with the importation of conceptual juridical coordination and perceptual representative consensus, the African public administration enhances a frameshift transformation and a succession of causality. Therefore, in combinatorial and transactional analysis, the framework of Devil On The Cross progresses in a method of empirical processing decomposition. Within this respect, the elemental and pure imaginary of the African administration proceeds as a functional derivative governmentality and a colonial functional inception power. Subsequently, with its interaction design, processing system, and volume technique, the realm of Devil On The Cross inserts a paradigmatic analysis and a value engineering within which this African administration happens as an characteristic structural formula and an inefficient relational frame theory. Moreover, within the space-time continuum, the configuration management and the linear configuration programming of the African management apparatus, Devil On The Cross becomes a holomorphic function and an analytic continuation that reveal the anachronism nature and the asynchronous system of the African post-colonial administration.

Innovations by the German Modernising Apartment Ownership Act of 2020 (WEModG 2020) to the management of apartment ownership (sectional title) schemes compared with the South African management legislation and regulations

Die Duitse Moderniserende Deeltitelwet (Wohnungseigentumsmodernisierungsgesetz – WEModG) van 2020 bevat die volgende innoverende bestuursbepalings: Woonsteleienaarsverenigings Die woonsteleienaarsvereniging word erken as ’n regspersoon met die bevoegdheid om regte en verpligtinge te verwerf en om as eiser of verweerder voor die hof te verskyn. Die woonsteleienaarsvereniging kom tot stand wanneer die onderverdeling van die grond en gebou in die registrasiekantoor geregistreer word. Die bestuur van die gemeenskaplike eiendom is nie meer die gesamentlike verpligting van die professionele bestuurder en die deeleienaars nie, maar die uitsluitlike verpligting van die deeleienaarsvereniging. Die deeleienaars is aanspreeklik vir die skuld van die woonsteleienaarsvereniging in verhouding tot hulle deelnemingskwota. Die woonsteleienaarsvereniging kan slegs ontbind word indien die gebou totaal vernietig word of die eienaars eenparig besluit om die skema te ontbind of indien die gebou gedeeltelik vernietig word sonder ’n verpligting om te herbou. Verder word die reg van ’n verbandskuldeiser om tenuitvoerlegging van ’n skuldvonnis die woonstel in eksekusie te verkoop of die huiseienaarsvereniging insolvent te verklaar slegs toegelaat indien die woonsteleienaarsvereniging gelyktydig ontbind word. Die woonsteleienaarsvereniging word verteenwoordig deur die professionele bestuurder in hofaangeleenthede en aangeleenthede buite die hof. Wanneer grond aangekoop of ’n leningsooreenkoms aangegaan word moet die transaksie egter gesteun word deur ’n meerderheidsbesluit van die woonsteleienaarsvereniging. Die professionele bestuurder Die professionele bestuurder word aangestel deur die woonsteleienaarsvereniging en kan enige tyd afgedank word. Die bestuursooreenkoms kom egter tot ’n einde ten laaste ses maande na sy of haar afdanking. Die professionele bestuurder moet ’n eksamen deur die Duitse kamer van nywerheid en handel slaag om as gesertifiseerde professionele bestuurder dienste te lewer. Die professionele bestuurder word toegelaat om besluite te neem oor minder belangrike aangeleenthede soos geringe herstelwerk aan die gemeenskaplike eiendom en die betaling van skulde van die huiseienaarsvereniging en om reëlings te tref betreffende die afhandeling van dringende kwessies om verliese te voorkom. Die algemene vergadering mag egter besluit om beperkings te stel op die afhandeling van bogenoemde kwessies byvoorbeeld om beperkings te plaas op betalings aan diensverskaffers. Die professionele bestuurders ontvang gewoonlik betaling ooreenkomstig die getal eenhede en die deelnemingskwota van die eenhede in die skema. Die administratiewe adviesraad Die Duitse administratiewe adviesraad bestaande uit lede van die woonsteleienaarsvereniging word deur meerderheidsbesluit verkies om toesig oor die finaniele en ander bedrywighede van die professionele bestuurder te hou en hom of haar te ondersteun. Dit stem tot ’n groot mate ooreen met die toesig wat die lede van die regspersoon oor die professionele Suid-Afrikaanse bestuursagent moet uitoefen. Indien die professionele bestuurder ontbreek, mag die voorsitter van die adviesraad ’n algemene vergadering byeenroep of ander addisionele funksies vervul volgens meerderheidsbesluit van die woonsteleienaarsvereniging. Die adviesraad ontvang geen vergoeding vir hulle dienste nie maar word vergoed vir hulle uitgawes in die uitvoering van hulle funksies aangegaan. Hulle word slegs aanspreeklik gehou vir skade wat deur hulle opset of growwe nalatigheid veroorsaak word. Die algemene vergadering Die algemene vergadering word bevestig as die plek waar beleidsbestuursbesluite geneem word. Die kennisgewingstydperk vir die agenda van die algemene vergadering word verleng van twee na drie weke. Die kworum vereiste vir algemene vergaderings word afgeskaf omrede die vereiste selde nagekom word in groter skemas en omdat uitgestelde vergaderings gewoonlik nie ’n voorgeskrewe kworum het nie en voortgegaan word met slegs twee of drie lede. Daar word gewys op die koste verbonde aan die huur van ’n saal vir die uitgestelde vergadering en die man-ure wat verlore gaan deur die bywoning van die vergadering. Alle besluite op die algemene vergadering is meerderheidsbesluite. Gevolglik word alle verwysings na eenparige besluite, spesiale besluite en ander bykomende meerderheidsbesluite afgeskaf. Besluite deur die rondomtalie-manier geneem, hoef nie meer deur lede onderteken te word nie. Dit kan per e-pos of selfone gekommunikeer en aangeneem of verwerp word. Hoofsaaklik omdat virtuele vergaderings gedurende die COVID-19 tydperk persoon-tot-persoon vergaderings vervang het, bekragtig die Moderniseringwet virtuele vergaderings mits daar terselfdertyd voorsiening gemaak word vir persoonlike bywoning van persone sonder selfone of toegang tot die internet in ’n saal onder beheer van die professionele bestuurder. Ten slotte bevat die bespreking waardevolle inligting deur Duitse regspraktisyns betreffende riglyne en voorwaardes oor tegnologie keuses; kommunikasiemetodes; toegang tot en vertroulikheid in deelname aan virtuele vergaderings; die gebruik van toepaslike harde- en sagteware en die indiensneming van opgeleide personeel om daarmee te werk; die voordele van en uitdagings wat aanlynvergaderings in die gesig staar; databeskermingskwessies en tegniese probleme in aanlyndeelname. Die bogenoemde nuwighede word breedvoerig ontleed en vergelyk met ooreenstemmende bepalings in die Suid-Afrikaanse wetgewing en regulasies.

South African managers self-regulating their after-hours smartphone usage: a revised perspective of work-family border theory

ABSTRACT In a prior quantitative study, we found that South African managers could be categorised into three different border-keeper groups to integrate or segment their work and home domains when receiving after-hours communications through their smartphone from work. In this study we investigated how these three groups of border-expanders, border-adapters, and border-enforcers regulated their after-hours smartphone usage for work purposes in the home environment. We employed a reflexive thematic analysis of 27 in-depth interviews (20 smartphone users and 7 of their partners). This work updates Clark’s Work-Family border theory to include border concepts in the context of smartphone technology. The border-keeper groups were found to differ in how they used the physical, psychological, and temporal planes to integrate and/or segment their work and home domains. Moreover, this was also attributed to the way in which each group determines the importance and/or urgency of each communication and therefore the development of self-regulatory patterns in how they operationalise the facilitation of after-hours work communications.

Unveiling the Dynamics of African Post-Colonial Administration: A Holistic Analysis of Devil on the Cross

Through the frame frequency of the imported state and the westernization of the African political order, the social construction of the African bureaucracy appears as a structural device of abstraction, exploitation, and brutality. Then, through the frame of reference with the importation of conceptual juridical coordination and perceptual representative consensus, the African public administration enhances a frameshift transformation and a succession of causality. Therefore, in combinatorial and transactional analysis, the framework of Devil On The Cross progresses in a method of empirical processing decomposition. Within this respect, the elemental and pure imaginary of the African administration proceeds as a functional derivative governmentality and a colonial functional inception power. Subsequently, with its interaction design, processing system, and volume technique, the realm of Devil on The Cross inserts a paradigmatic analysis and a value engineering within which this African administration happens as an characteristic structural formula and an inefficient relational frame theory. Moreover, within the space-time continuum, the configuration management and the linear configuration programming of the African management apparatus, Devil On The Cross becomes a holomorphic function and an analytic continuation that reveal the anachronism nature and the asynchronous system of the African post-colonial administration.

Spiritual leadership within the ambit of African Management philosophies using interactive qualitative analysis

Orientation: This research is about a focus group of managers and their experiences relating to spiritual leadership in the South African context.Research purpose: To critically examine mainstream spiritual leadership, within the context of African management philosophies (AMP), towards describing and prosing a southern African spiritual leadership scale.Motivation for the study: A systematic literature review revealed a stark gap in empirical evidence of the existence of spiritual leadership as a harbinger of employee contentment, welfare, and organisational success in Africa.Research design, approach and method: Through the interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) process, data from eight managers were collected and analysed, and an interrogation of the existence of spiritual leadership via the African lens using AMP typologies was conducted. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted via a focus group of eight managers drawn using biased sampling based on ‘distance and power’ analysis to the phenomena of spiritual leadership.Main findings: Connection to nature principles (nurturing) are a primary driver to employee welfare. Life as a universal current’s elements (compassion and empathy) influence Ubuntu principles, national culture principles (a set of behaviours, customs, and beliefs) and Indigenous knowledge systems (unadulterated knowledge). Ubuntu also influences co-operative teamwork (togetherness) which is a circulator in the scale that triggers intrinsic motivation which is impacted by traditionalism (adherence to accepted customs and beliefs), and communalism principles (belonging to a community). Intrinsic motivation impacts employee turnover which is influenced by engagement, performance, productivity, and mythology (African myths and lore). Employee turnover ultimately influences employee welfare which is a primary outcome.Contribution or value add: This research helps undergird spiritual leadership in the South African context by equipping leaders with a new paradigm that uses local management principles that measures its enablers and inhibitors.

The political economy of bilateral aid: African development and the manufacture of consent

ABSTRACT This paper discusses implications for African development arising from our analysis of the political economy of bilateral aid (Blunt, 2023). We argue that the existential threats posed to life on Earth by global warming and nuclear war are a product of capitalist excess led by the neoimperialist countries of the West. Africans have long been, and remain, among the main victims of the capitalist rampage. As capitalism’s “smiling face”, bilateral aid facilitates the exploitation of developing countries. Management education in Africa is complicit because it contributes to the manufacture of consent. The prevention of nuclear and climate catastrophe subsumes African development and requires genuine collaboration between world powers and the abandonment of capitalism, which seem unlikely in the short-term. Nonetheless, African managers should be at the forefront of informed resistance from below, which can only be achieved if management education in the continent adopts a more critical disposition.

The role of ambidextrous leadership in developing team-level ambidexterity: Exploring the supporting roles of reflective conversations and ambidextrous HRM

ABSTRACT This study highlights how constructs of importance to management in Africa – ambidextrous leadership and team learning – can extend or modify our existing management theories. Adopting an exploratory design with an interpretive philosophy, this study explores how supermarket store managers engage their subordinates in team learning sessions to enable their collective ambidexterity, facilitated by the presence of reflective conversations (RC) and ambidextrous human resource management (HRM) policies and practices. Based on our raw data, we develop a process-based model that shows how ambidextrous leadership behaviors can help develop team-level ambidexterity, including the supporting roles of RC and ambidextrous HRM practices in the process. This model thus seeks to motivate theoretically future ambidexterity research in Africa, as the theoretical ideas and themes in this study can be replicated and be broadly applied to future ambidexterity research on the continent. This model will, therefore, contribute to the theoretical development of African management literature and, accordingly, adds significant value to the mainstream ambidexterity literature.

Last interview

This article pays tribute to Chris Skinner who was a participant in my master’s research entitled“Corporate communication strategy: aligning theory and practice amongst selected publicrelations practitioners in South Africa.” A man who needs no introduction to the South African public relations industry, Chris Skinner was known as a passionate leader and mentor who left indelible footprints as a lecturer andas the author of the highly influential ‘Public Relations Handbook’. A fellow of the Institute forPublic Relations and Communication Management Southern Africa (PRISA); an accreditedpublic relations practitioner and a well respected communication specialist, Skinner had 40 years’experience in business and corporate affairs (LinkedIn, 2017). During his career he worked,amongst others, as a research associate at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) andas a senior consultant with the East and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI), andcontributed significantly to public relations education, corporate social responsibility, conservationand crisis communication. In addition he served as Chairman of the Wildlife and EnvironmentSociety of South Africa (Amanzimtoti) and president of the Amanzimtoti Rotary Club. Skinner diedon June 9, 2016. It was only after I learned of his death that I realised this might have been his last interview. Iwould like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution he made to public relations,and share his comments on corporate communication strategy.

Road to Africanizing Management Theory Development

The purpose of the study: This phenomenon-based theorization aims to move towards a plausible theoretical reasoning by generating and evaluating explanations that render the Africanization of management theory development (AMTD) understandable. Study approach: We will use sensemaking in discussing decolonization, indigenous culture research methods, and cultural groups who use the African Ubuntu principles and values as a stable object in creating proximity for advancing the scholarly conversation about AMTD, offering one type of Africanizing theory development. The Discussions: The current conversations about Africanizing management theory development (AMTD) have offered us three common threads, being that of decolonization, indigenous culture research, and similar Ubuntu principles and values across Africa, which provide a possible pathway to Africanizing management theory. The Implications: By establishing some common attributes in Africanized management theories, the article could contribute to operationalizing new organizational dynamics and management guidelines suited for African management development by applying sensemaking.

Introduction to the Thematic Feature

This article shows how international business/management (IB/IM) research can be articulated to an in-depth understanding of Africa to serve both academic knowledge development and African priorities. It critically recalls the central characteristics of IB/IM as a field of research, shows how Africa is studied in this field, suggests “African management” as one response to some of the major criticisms of current research in IB/IM, outlines some crossovers between IB/IM and African management, and discusses the contribution of Africa-focused publications in the journal International Management to some of the foundations of the proposed cross-fertilization between IB/IM and African management.

1 South African Constitutional Court: Union for Police Security and Corrections Organisation v. South African Custodial Management (pty) Ltd and Others [2021] zacc 26, 7 September 2021

1 South African Constitutional Court: Union for Police Security and Corrections Organisation v. South African Custodial Management (pty) Ltd and Others [2021] zacc 26, 7 September 2021

COVID-19 disaster, an opportunity for the South African disaster management legislation betterment?

COVID-19 disaster, an opportunity for the South African disaster management legislation betterment?

Towards advancing African management scholarship

PurposeThis paper aims to address the main arguments put forward in Grietjie Verhoef’s article and contribute to a wider debate among management scholars on the role of indigenous theories. It challenges the view of African management as illusory and points to the rising support for indigenous theories as indicative of the weakening of the unquestioned dominance of universal theories.Design/methodology/approachThis paper takes a conceptual and critically reflective approach, underpinned by a 360-degree evaluation of pertinent literature and theoretical arguments.FindingsThis paper reveals an underlying symmetry and interconnectedness, anchored on a shared communal ethos, among Afrocentric management concepts, specifically Ubuntu, Ekpe and Igbo apprenticeship systems. This symmetry points to an underlying indigenous management theory that begs to be further conceptualised, evidenced and advanced.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper affirms Verhoef’s demand for Ubuntu, Ekpe, Igbo apprenticeship system to be more rigorously developed and theoretically coherent and urges scholars to intensify effort towards advancing the conceptual and empirical foundations of African management. Echoing Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless counsel, this paper calls on critics of African management to join the effort to bring about the change they wish to see in African management theorising.Social implicationsThis paper disavows the alleged effort to impose a single “African management” model or perpetuate the “colonial/indigenous” binary divide but equally cautions against an effort to veto scholarly striving for a common identity, to learn from history or not embrace collective amnesia. As examples from the USA and Europe show, diversity, even heterogeneity, needs not to preclude the forging of a commonly shared identity complemented with appropriate sub-identities.Originality/valueThis paper links the African management-centred themes addressed by Verhoef to the wider debate among management scholars about lessening the dominance of universal theories and allowing space for context-resonant indigenous theories. It calls on African management scholars to invest the premium and intensified effort towards building a more robust and coherent body of indigenous theory that will have the capacity and efficacy to inform, explain and advance organisational practice and outcomes across Africa.

Portfolio performance under dynamic systematic risk and conditional betas: the South African unit trust market

This study examines whether South African unit trust managers can outperform the market and demonstrate distinct market-timing abilities under systematic dynamic risk. A conditional portfolio evaluation method is used under dynamic systematic risk. The BEKK-MGARCH model is applied to estimate the time-varying CAPM beta. The sample of the study includes 86 unit trust funds for the hardly studied multi-asset class between 2010 and 2019 in South Africa. The findings of the study show positive evidence that portfolio managers in the South African unit trust market possess some skills for market timing and outperformance. These results differ from most of the outcomes obtained through model-free performance-evaluation methods. The significant contribution of this study to the literature is in conditioning beta to both time and economic variables within the same asset pricing model, and then applying it to the emerging market of South Africa. Another strength of this paper is maintaining patient and formal adherence to econometric requirements of model validation. The empirical findings of the study should benefit portfolio managers, investors, and regulators with updated insight into the importance of considering both risk variability and changing economic factors in portfolio evaluation.

Sectoral Analysis of Capital Structure and Distribution Policies of Companies listed on the JSE

Abstract The objective of this paper was to investigate whether companies listed in four sectors of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) treated their financing and distribution policies differently and the interdependence thereof because of sectoral nuances. The research employed a single equation (fixed effect) and a simultaneous equation (3SLS) on a sample of twenty three companies from the basic materials sector, nine companies from the consumer goods sector, sixteen companies from the consumer services sector and twenty one companies from the industrial sector over the period 1990-2017. The empirical findings provide evidence that sectoral nuances played an important role in explaining the treatment of financing and distribution decisions across these four sectors of the JSE. The empirical findings revealed that dividend payments and capital structure are positively significantly correlated with each other in the basic materials sector and consumer service sector, while in the consumer goods sector, capital structure and dividend payment are negatively significantly correlated with each other. Furthermore, the results provided evidence of joint determinants affecting the sectors significantly and differently because of sector nuances. Profitability, size, and assets tangibility were the strongest in explaining the effects of joint determinants within the 3SLS approach. The research proposed that South African managers must consider sector differences when formulating and inter-relating financing decisions to payout decisions.

The management discourse: collective or strategic performance drive?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to engage with the discourse on the assumed existence of an distinct “African management” model. It critically deconstructs the concepts and submits an alternative strategy to address the need to understand what is happening in management of business in Africa.Design/methodology/approachQualitative critical text analysis is used to understand the discourse on the nature of “African management” from the extant literature. The identity theory informs the understanding of the references to “African” as fundamental to identify a distinct management model. This analysis is supplemented by empirical case study research into successful African business.FindingsScholars failed to conceptualise what is “African”, and subsequently also what constitutes “African management”. This conceptual void undermines the critical reconstruction of a single African management model. Empirical research into actual management practices emerge as fundamental to systematic progress in this discourse. This research points to diverse management traditions converging into pragmatic practices.Research limitations/implicationsOnly a limited number of case studies were conducted into management history in Africa. This paper argues for an extended research programme, but this is future work.Practical implicationsIt suggests a research strategy for scholars in African business studies, business history and management history to collaborate towards making a solid contribution to the economic development of our continent.Social implicationsThis research has the potential of forging collaboration in business among all of the people in Africa.Originality/valueA critical text analysis is used to expose the conceptual lacunae that undermines progress in the discourse. This paper contributes to the literature on “African management” by systematically deconstructing the concept of “African identity” as a prerequisite to the management discourse. By signalling ethnic nostalgia, the critical reconceptualisation of Africanness offers an intellectually creative strategy out of the stalled discourse.

Threshold capital structure and predictors of choice between distribution strategies

Orientation: The determination of a threshold capital structure and company specific attributes as predictors of choice between distribution strategies is crucial in the creation of shareholders’ wealth.Research aim: To investigate whether the change in regimes given a threshold capital structure maximises distribution strategies over the period 1990–2017 and 1999–2017. In addition, the study examined how the capital ratio and company specific attributes were used in the process of choosing between distribution strategies.Motivation for the study: The need to determine the impact of the capital ratio within different regions on distribution strategies motivated this study. In addition, the majority of studies on predictors of choice between distribution strategies have ignored the dual and the no distribution policy alternatives relative to share repurchases.Research approach/design and method: all the data used in this research were sourced from the Iress data bases. The research employed an advanced panel threshold regression estimation and a multinomial logistic regression (pooled and fixed effects using the generalised structural equation model).Main findings: Firstly, over the period 1990–2017 the empirical results revealed the existence of a single threshold effect between the debt-to-equity ratio and the dividend payments, and a double threshold effect between the total debt based on the book value and the dividend payment. Secondly, the choice between distribution strategies was driven by company specific attributes.Practical/managerial implication: These findings provide useful insights to South African managers for formulating and maximizing pay-out decisions.Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to the scant body of knowledge on the effect of threshold capital ratio and company specific attributes on distribution strategies.

Narratives underlying research in African river basin management

River modifications through hydropower dams and other infrastructure have far-reaching economic, ecological and social effects that are viewed in highly contrasting ways depending on underlying narratives. As part of a Euro-African research consortium funded by the European Commission we studied pathways for sustainable river basin management in the Omo-Turkana basins in Ethiopia and Kenya. Based on a literature review, stakeholder workshops, targeted interviews and considering our own positionality, we identified underlying narratives related to (a) economic transformation and modernization, (b) indigenous rights and (c) nature conservation, which were all connected through water, energy, food and ecosystems within a (d) landscape nexus. Yet, we also identified a (e) living museum narrative suggesting that international advocacy for indigenous rights and nature conservation is a means through which Western societies want to preserve African societies in an “undeveloped” state. National governments use this narrative to silence external critique, while the tourism industry promotes it to advertise visits to pastoralist tribes. This narrative reveals powerful, yet largely ignored hindrances for collaborative projects resulting from cultural and historical biases in Euro-African collaborations. Based on our analysis, we argue that international research projects in sustainability sciences need to increase the transparency of open and hidden narratives that influence research directions and power relationships between scientific partners, also those using mostly technically-driven approaches. We emphasize that African landscapes are not to be viewed as living museums, and collaborative research should be based on fairness, respect, care, and honesty to allow for multiple narratives that underlie research.