Epistemic injustices in African Studies: Roots and remedies

By Abdifatah Mohamed Abdi

Where I am coming

In his last piece of poetry, the late Somali philosopher and poet Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame
(Hadraawi) questions why knowledge about and in Africa merely contributed to the
development of the Continent. In that poem titled ‘Dubahuwan’ in Somali which roughly
translates ‘ A series of questions that lead to more questions than answers’’, Hadraawi
explains how his years of formal schooling in colonial Aden, Yemen, and the knowledge he
acquired through it, mislead him-as he believes- to find where the Somali political and
economic crises stem from. He points out that European schools and the knowledge produced
through the European lenses failed to bring solutions to Somali society. He underlines his
half-century work influenced by his formal education and his ideas as one of the most
celebrated Somali social and political philosophers wasn't more than an exploratory cycle of
hypothesis formulations that always proved wrong when tested against real-life situations due
to mismatch between the knowledge required by the problem and the one applied. He finally
calls for a reformist approach of going back to the old methods and approaches that
traditionally African societies used to produce knowledge in the pre-colonial era. He believes
that only African knowledge produced through an African lens and indigenous methods can
bring lasting solutions to the multitude of Developmental challenges Africans faces now.

Although I may differ with Hadraawi’s restorationist solution, his thoughts bring to the fore
one of the most basic questions of epistemic challenges in Africa ‘Whose knowledge?’.
While the question of Epistemic injustice goes beyond that and crosses to the aspects of
methodologies and approaches to knowledge production, it is also important to appreciate the
roles played by the financial and other Organisational factors that are pivotal in conducting
‘Quality research’.

In this paper, therefore, I will explore the question of the ‘Epistemic injustices’ as it exists in
the field of African studies. To do so, I will thoroughly examine the essence of ‘knowledge
about Africa’ and how ‘African voices’ are alienated from it. In this regard, I will initially ask
the question of ‘Whose knowledge?’, and then proceed to the roles played by ‘methods and
theoretical foundations, the facilitating factors of ‘Finances’ and other ‘organizational
factors’ of knowledge production that create these epistemic injustices. Finally, and most
importantly, the paper will provide pragmatic remedies to the challenge of Epistemic
injustices.

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Epistemic injustices in African Studies: Roots and remedies
By Abdifatah Mohamed Abdi

1. ‘Whose knowledge?

(Zegeye and Vambe, 2006) 1in their work on ‘knowledge production and publishing in
Africa’ detail, the motivations behind that governments and societies invest a great deal of
time and finance in the efforts of producing knowledge. They attest that the knowledge
production process is primarily geared toward solving problems that require interventions if
not scholars only want to expand the frontiers of knowledge. This is the distinction always
made between applied and pure research.

Europeans and Arab explorers, geographers, and sailors started studying Africa long before
the advent of colonialism (Shillington 2005)2. For example, the British explorer, spy, and
orientalist Richard Francis Burton(Waterfield et al, 1967)3 arrived on the coast of Somaliland
in 1854 and later the African great lakes in 1856. His mission to Somaliland and the city of
Harar in Ethiopia was documented in his book ‘The first footsteps in East Africa’. According
to (Melber, 2009)4 the two factors that motivated people like Burton-who roamed in Africa
before the colonial masters ever set foot in Africa-to undertake their missions were first
employment and also to feed European state institutions with important information about the
‘other World’.

It was this information generated through these missions that paved the way for the colonial
powers to arrive in Africa. As a result, a common European scholar’s view of Africa until the
end of the colonial era was then that Africa lacked both a legitimate civilization and a
substantial history (Du Pisani and Kim, 2022)5. Burton (1894)6 for example, in his book
mentioned above, found it funny that the Somalis he met during his exploration of the Eastern

1
Zegeye, Abebe, and Maurice Vambe. “knowledge production and publishing in Africa.” Review (Fernand
Braudel Center) 29, no. 4 (2006): 329–58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40241671.
2
Shillington, Kevin. 2005. ‘Encyclopedia of African History’. In African Historiography, edited by Funso
Afolayan, 2:626–33. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn
3
Brodie, Fawn M., Richard Burton, and Gordon Waterfield. 1967. ‘First Footsteps in East Africa’. The
Geographical Journal 133 (1): 91. https://doi.org/10.2307/1794410.
4
Melber, Henning. 2009. ‘The Relevance of African Studies’. https://www.researchgate.net/publication
/280554205.
5
Du Pisani, Jacobus Adriaan, and Kwang-Su Kim. 2022. ‘Precolonial African Historiography as a
Multidisciplinary Project’. Cromohs - Cyber Review of Modern Historiography 24 (June): 42–65.
https://doi.org/10.36253/cromohs-13366.
6
Richard Burton. 1894. ‘First Footsteps in East Africa’. The Geographical Journal 133 (1): 91.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1794410.

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tip of the continent believed Mosquitos transmit malaria. It was, however, the Europeans who
discovered this fact only in 1889 just a year before Burton published his book (Cox, 2010)7.

Those distorted images of Africa by the early European scholars commissioned to study
Africa in the pre-colonial period served the specific strategic interests of their governments
(Babatola 2012)8. What they provide, therefore, are accounts of anthropological, Historical,
and political world views of Africa with the aim of expansion, conquering, domination, and
imperialism (Nhlapo and Garuba, 2012)9.

The colonial era was, unfortunately, not different from it is predecessor age. Colonial
administrations brought with them researchers that were trained to study the colonized
societies for the purposes that colonial agendas effectively implemented in Africa
(Abrahamsen, 2003)10. The British protectorate of Somaliland produced and funded many of
those regarded today as the pioneers of the scholarly field of Somali Studies like the doyen of
the field I.M. Lewis who came to Somaliland under the British colonial administration
(Haakonsen 2014)11. Lewis and other anthropologists, economists, and Historians that
accompanied the British colonial rulers focused their studies on understanding the social
structure like that of clans in the Somali case which enabled the British colonial
administration to sustain their extraction and exploitation through it’s ‘divide and rule’ policy
(Lewis, 1954)12.

Similarly, postcolonial African Studies is a continuation of what has preceded it. The field is
still dominated by scholars of European and American origin that produce a euro-centric
view of the continent (Rita, 2003)13. It is also worth mentioning that research agendas are
formulated and guided in the metropole centers in Europe. This is due to that access and
control of financial and other facilities for conducting research about Africa are concentrated
in those areas. Colonial accounts are as well today referenced and referred to while their

7
Cox, Francis EG. 2010. ‘History of the Discovery of the Malaria Parasites and Their Vectors’. Parasites &
Vectors 3 (1): 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-3-5
8
Babatola, Jadesola. 2012. ‘Eurocentric views of Africa and European imperialism’ 2: 11.
9
Nhlapo, Ronald Thandabantu, and Harry Garuba. 2012. African Studies in the Post-Colonial University. Cape
Town: University of Cape Town in association with the Centre for African Studies.
10
Abrahamsen, Rita. 2003. ‘African Studies and the Postcolonial Challenge’. African Affairs 102 (407): 189–
210. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adg001.
11
Haakonsen, Jan Monteverde. 2014. ‘In Memory of I. M. Lewis’. Nomadic Peoples 18 (2): 1–9.
https://doi.org/10.3197/np.2014.180201.
12
Lewis. 1954. ‘Peoples of the Horn of Africa. Somali, Afar and Saho (I. M. Lewis) (z-Lib.Org)’.
13
Abrahamsen, Rita. “African Studies and the Postcolonial Challenge.” African Affairs 102, no. 407 (2003):
189–210. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3518676.

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methodologies are adopted and re-adopted (Jean, 2003)14. All these together point out that
since neo-colonial structures are still present in the field of African Studies, agendas and
motivations for research about Africa are similar to that of colonial and pre-colonial periods,
current scholarship presents the continent in ways that are uniquely similar to the colonial and
pre-colonial periods.

In regard to those realities, asking to extent that ‘knowledge about Africa’ is an African itself
is both a legitimate and contributing endeavor. for me it’s fair to conclude that the current
knowledge produced during the different eras of the African Histories, was largely motivated,
funded, and implemented by and for either colonial or neo-colonial agendas. As a result, the
ownership of this knowledge solely rests on the interest of the European and American
political, economic, and social interests.

2. Roots of the injustice

As outlined in the above section of the current paper, ‘epistemic injustices’ in the field of
African studies exist in different forms. Among those forms include access to technical skills
for conducting ‘Quality research’(Frank, 2013)15, access and control of the financial
resources(Dotson, 2018)16 that are necessary for mapping and executing research plans, and
access to dissemination and publication structures. African scholars in the continent have
little or no access to these aiding factors while scholars of the metropolitan centers have
better opportunities in accessing these structures. In the following part, I will outline how
these variables create and maintain ‘epistemic injustice’ in the field of African Studies.

To start with, Contemporary techniques and methods employed while conducting research
in/about Africa were developed and grown in Western Europe. Universities in these countries
developed systemic processes of approaching scientific inquiries and answering them
subsequently (Gershenhorn, 2009)17. This has resulted in the belief that there are truly
internationalized social sciences methods while disregarding the indigenous methods and
14
Allman, Jean. “Kwame Nkrumah, African Studies, and the Politics of Knowledge Production in the Black
Star of Africa.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 46, no. 2 (2013): 181–203.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24393385.
15
Frank, Jeff. “Mitigating Against Epistemic Injustice in Educational Research.” Educational Researcher 42, no.
7 (2013): 363–70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24571232.
16
Dotson, Kristie. “Accumulating Epistemic Power: A Problem with Epistemology.” Philosophical Topics 46,
no. 1 (2018): 129–54. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26529454.
17
Gershenhorn, Jerry. “‘Not an Academic Affair’: African American Scholars and the Development of African
Studies Programs in the United States, 1942-1960.” The Journal of African American History 94, no. 1 (2009):
44–68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25610048.

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techniques of knowledge production in Africa. In its worst form, this assumption of

mainstream African Studies justifies that the types of knowledge produced in the West are
superior and therefore worthy of dissemination to the accounts of African scholars that
adopted African methods (Sholock, 2012)18. To give an example of this, the accounts of the
Somali Historian and writer Aw-Jama Omer Esse, who writes about his experiences of the
dervish movement in Somaliland and their 20 years of holy war against the British Empire
until the late 1920s, are hardly cited or referenced as an academic source by the Somali
Studies scholars due to reasons related to that his methods were not ‘Scientific’ enough.

These usages of western approaches to knowledge production, however, as universal and

blueprint methods of knowledge production are for me an unfair defining rule of what ought
to be regarded as scientific knowledge. From this rule, western knowledge is the scientific
one while the African accounts produced through an African lens are not scientific and
therefore cannot be trusted and relied upon.

From this point of view, several scholars in the global South like (Iyasere , 1975)19 think that
the field of African studies is full of colonial and universalistic premises; and subject to the
legacy of Euro-American parochialism. According to my own stand, this is where the
epistemic injustices primarily stem from.

Moreover, another factor that contributes to the epistemic injustice in African studies is the
Financial and funding capacities of the African Universities and research centers. (Saint,
2004)20 in his article “Comments on ‘Challenges Facing African Universities.’” Highlighted
that African universities and research centers face a myriad of challenges in conducting
‘quality research’ that can compete with that of the so-called ‘International Universities’.
Among those challenges include the absence of financial capacities and high dependence on
external funding agents. (Colemen, 1972)21 to support his argument, took the example of
Nigerian universities where a predominance of external funding and expatriate leadership
became the norm. the presence of these expatriates in the inception, and frequently the

18
Sholock, Adale. “Methodology of the Privileged: White Anti-Racist Feminism, Systematic Ignorance, and
Epistemic Uncertainty.” Hypatia 27, no. 4 (2012): 701–14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23352290.
19
Iyasere, Solomon O. “Oral Tradition in the Criticism of African Literature.” The Journal of Modern African
Studies 13, no. 1 (1975): 107–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/159699.
20
Saint, William. “Comments on ‘Challenges Facing African Universities.’” African Studies Review 47, no. 1
(2004): 61–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1514798.
21
Coleman, James S. “Some Thoughts on Applied Social Research and Training in African Universities.” The
African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs 2, no. 2 (1972): 289–307.

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conception, of research projects in the Nigerian Universities, tend to produce outcomes that
are not much different from those produced in the northern hemisphere. Dependency in this
sense, therefore, creates a situation where the African voices in the field of African studies
are highly influenced by the leadership and the finances of the funding institution from the
North.

(Cloete et al, 2018)22 in their book ‘Research Universities in Africa. African Minds’’ also
bolded the existence of the problem of lack of research funding in the African Academic
institutions. They however added that in the cases of, for example, Eduardo Mondlane
University and the University of Nairobi indicate a combination with other material
conditions, the incentives for research, which are weak and crowded out by incentives for
other activities such as teaching, have failed to encourage a research culture at these
institutions.

It is therefore this gap of funding and lack of incentives for research compared to other
activities that Western institutions in the name of capacity building or institutional
partnerships intrude the African research landscapes as discussed by (Cloete et al, 2018)23 in
that same book. They found that 80% of the research income of Makerere University is
coming from donor agencies, mainly on a project-by-project basis. The institution’s leaders
lack the funds to build the academic and infrastructural foundations required to help it to
become a research-intensive university.

Lastly, on this point, although there is a multitude of factors that result in the epistemic
injustice in the field of African Studies, the above three issues of methodological dependence,
lack of finance, funding, and expertise transfer from the North can be parental factors for the
creation and maintaining of epistemic injustices in the field of African Studies.

3. Some pragmatic remedies for the epistemic injustice in the field of African
Studies

In the coming section, I will outline some pragmatic remedies for overcoming the challenge
of epistemic injustice in the field of African Studies. I will detail how Decolonising research
methods of knowledge production in Africa, Re-organizing African University structures, and

22
Cloete, Nico, Ian Bunting, and Francois Van Schalkwyk. 2018. Research Universities in Africa. African
Minds. https://doi.org/10.47622/9781928331872.
23
Cloete, Nico, Ian Bunting, and Francois Van Schalkwyk. 2018. Research Universities in Africa. African
Minds. https://doi.org/10.47622/9781928331872.

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promoting funding for research can contribute to reversing the situation of Epistemic
injustices in Africa.

3.1. Decolonizing research methods

Linda Tuhiwai Smith's powerful book, Decolonizing Methodologies (1999) cited by

(Graham, 2003)24, Forwards the existence of the inextricable link between colonization and
research. Local knowledge, especially indigenous ones, has been the object of research rather
than being a tool for research. Due to Western pretenses of epistemic diversity and the
insistence that its knowledge system is scientific, universal, and monolithic, indigenous
knowledge systems in Africa have been demoted to second-class status (Musila, 2017)25.

Contrary to that, scholarly works of many indigenous researchers now appreciate that
indigenous knowledge systems are the heartbeat of methodologies and approaches that are
more holistic, inclusive, animate, and pragmatic in studying African societies compared to
the Eurocentric approaches that position themselves as an outsider, overlooking, and alien to
their subjects and research environment. Indigenous methods have proved that closer
experiencing on matters while fully immersing in the research community and the ‘Everyday
life’ gives the research more nuanced experiences that are always lost in what colonial
research methods call ‘ in the translation’ but in reality ‘ lost due to weak bond between the
research environment and the researcher’ (Hart, 2009; Wilson, 2008) as cited by (Kovach,
2013)26.

Mainstreaming these Indigenous methods, however, into the research projects has two
standpoints as argued by (Adams, 2014)27. The first is an epistemological standpoint of
African studies and has its foundation in the ‘experience’ of (rather than observations about)
people in African spaces. An important feature of this epistemological standpoint is a
prominent consciousness of neo-colonial oppression as an enduring force in the modern
global order. This standpoint of African studies directs identity-conscious attention to the
ongoing coloniality of everyday life as it applies to the experience of relationality.

24
Harvey, Graham. “Guesthood as Ethical Decolonising Research Method.” Numen 50, no. 2 (2003): 125–46.
25
Musila, Grace A. “Part-Time Africans, Europolitans and ‘Africa Lite.’” Journal of African Cultural Studies 28,
no. 1 (2016): 109–13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24758436.
26
Kovach, Margaret, Jeannine Carriere, M. J. Barrett, Harpell Montgomery, and Carmen Gillies. “Stories of
Diverse Identity Locations in Indigenous Research.” International Review of Qualitative Research 6, no. 4
(2013): 487–509. https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2013.6.4.487.
27
Adams, Glenn. 2014. ‘Decolonizing Methods: African Studies and Qualitative Research’. Journal of Social
and Personal Relationships 31 (4): 467–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407514521765

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Another resource for decolonizing knowledge production methods as laid down by (Adams,
2014)28comes from the methodological practices of accompaniment: ways of knowing in
which researchers immerse themselves in the flow of community life and experience events
alongside people in the context of everyday activity. Rather than ethnocentric conclusions
common in research from a geographical or personal distance, practices of accompaniment
provide a greater opportunity for researchers to understand reality from local perspectives.

Lastly and in line with the ideas of (Oyler, 2002) 29, employing African Languages for
research not only in writing up but also for all other stages starting from as early as the
conceptualization stage is pivotal in the decolonization of research about Africa. This coupled
with embracing the usage of Oral sources like poetry, songs, folklore stories, etc. that
Africans used as archives of important historical events for generations will be
revolutionizing methodological approaches used in the field of African studies (Roberts,
1976) 30.

3.2. Re-organization of African Universities

In contemporary society, higher education performs three main functions: teaching,

community service, and research (Atuahene, 2011)31. While the teaching and service roles are
focused on developing human capital and fostering social cohesion, respectively, the research
goal offers the chance for knowledge production, development, innovation, and
dissemination. University research is an important feature that sets them apart from
institutions at lower levels of education (Atuahene, 2011)32.

However, in the developing world, and particularly in Africa, economic, political, and
organizational factors made it difficult for faculty members and students to engage in active
research. African universities, for instance, struggle to undertake academic research due to
other major and basic issues of governance, management style, quality, and the relevance of

28
Adams, Glenn. 2014. ‘Decolonizing Methods: African Studies and Qualitative Research’. Journal of Social
and Personal Relationships 31 (4): 467–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407514521765
29
Oyler, Dianne W. “Re-Inventing Oral Tradition: The Modern Epic of Souleymane Kanté.” Research in
African Literatures 33, no. 1 (2002): 75–93.
30
Roberts, Andrew. “The Use of Oral Sources for African History.” Oral History 4, no. 1 (1976): 41–56.
31
Atuahene, Francis. 2011. ‘Re-Thinking the Missing Mission of Higher Education: An Anatomy of the
Research Challenge of African Universities’. Journal of Asian and African Studies 46 (4): 321–41.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909611400017.
32
Atuahene, Francis. 2011. ‘Re-Thinking the Missing Mission of Higher Education: An Anatomy of the
Research Challenge of African Universities’. Journal of Asian and African Studies 46 (4): 321–41.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909611400017.

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academic programs, as well as, most importantly, financial austerity which we will be
detailed in the coming part (Sawyerr , 2004)33.

However, the root cause of this issue can be linked to the historical aim of higher learning in
Africa, which was to produce trained civil and public employees for positions as public
administrators throughout the post-colonial era in an effort of filling the positions vacated by
the colonial bureaucrats. Regarding this need, research was not a priority for the newly
independent African universities, a lot of effort was, therefore, inserted into opening doors,
providing possibilities, and producing the intelligentsia and technocrats who were urgently
needed to replace the colonial officeholders (Kithinji, 2012)34.

(Kalie and Magda, 1999) 35 see two possible solutions to re-organizing the African university
structurally and re-orienting them functionally in conducting complementary research that
fills gaps produced by the western academia. Firstly, forging connections that are necessary
for re-organizing itself to fit with the research needs of the free market has to be prioritized.
Currently, African Universities’ only relationship with the industry is the production of the
graduates, and responding to the Human resource needs of the market-which many times is
misguided. Establishing networks and connections between the universities and other state
and non-state institutions beyond that, to the areas of research and innovation will promote a
local partnership that will benefit both the institutions and the Universities.

The second possible intervention for re-organizing the African universities as pointed out by
(Kalie and Magda, 1999) 36 is the introduction of state regulatory mechanisms and standards
that guide the universities functionally and structurally. Through this way, universities will
dedicate part of their focus to the development of research agendas that are responsive to the
local needs and with the help of indigenous methods bring up new world views of the
continent.

3.3. Financial and intellectual independence

33
Sawyerr, Akilagpa. “Challenges Facing African Universities: Selected Issues.” African Studies
Review 47, no. 1 (2004): 1–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1514797.
34
Kithinji, Michael Mwenda. 2012. ‘An Imperial Enterprise: The Making and Breaking of the
University of East Africa, 1949–1969’. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des
Études Africaines 46 (2): 195–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2012.702084.
35
A. H. (Kalie) Strydom, and Magda Fourie. “Higher Education Research in South Africa:
Achievements, Conditions and New Challenges.” Higher Education 38, no. 2 (1999): 155–67.
36
A. H. (Kalie) Strydom, and Magda Fourie. “Higher Education Research in South Africa:
Achievements, Conditions and New Challenges.” Higher Education 38, no. 2 (1999): 155–67.

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Epistemic injustices in African Studies: Roots and remedies
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The Somali proverb that translates ‘He who doesn’t earn his meals, has no say in his destiny’
for me captures well this aspect of ‘epistemic injustice’ in the field of African Studies. It
explains the fact that most African research establishments in the continent according
(Clapham, 2020)37 are highly dependent on external funding and are not capable enough to
carry out research independently. He pointed out that the resulting research, however, is
inevitably guided by the priorities of those who pay for it and may well be seen as replicating
the role of the ‘research assistants’ working with expatriate staff in the late colonial and early
independence eras.

Moreover, since Funds are more accessible in Western countries than in African countries
and are often pooled as ‘aid money’ requiring pre-set paradigms of engagement and areas of
study, such as studying ‘fragile states’ or providing ‘capacity building’, research agendas are
mainly not readily available for African researchers. This creates a political economy of
research that is centered on the former colonial metropole and is oriented around extraction
and paternalism: taking knowledge to ‘help’ Africa (Kessie, 2020)38.

In overcoming this financial dependence, Alternative sources of funding for research in

Africa need to be recognized and materialized. Getting an alternative source that
acknowledges the intellectual independence of African research is key to planting the seeds
of research culture in African Universities and research institutions(Teffera, 2013) 39. African
states are the first to be regarded as providing an alternative source of funding to African
Universities and research institutions. (Shangase, 2017) 40 pinpoints that to arrive at this end a
political commitment is not only necessary but also pivotal much like neck to head.
According (Frankema,,2021)41 the image that Africa is so poor that it cannot fund its
development projects including that of research and knowledge production equally deserves
to be rejected and challenged in this line.

This will hopefully improve the ownership of research projects by enabling African
researchers to undertake research independently and free them from requirements imposed by

37
Clapham, Christopher. 2020. ‘Decolonising African Studies?’ The Journal of Modern African Studies 58 (1):
137–53. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X19000612
38
Kessi, Shose, Zoe Marks, and Elelwani Ramugondo. 2020. ‘Decolonizing African Studies’. Critical African
Studies 12 (3): 271–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2020.1813413.
39
Teferra, Damtew. “Funding Higher Education in Africa: State, Trends and Perspectives.” Journal of Higher
Education in Africa / Revue de l’enseignement Supérieur En Afrique 11, no. 1–2 (2013): 19–51.
40
Shangase, Mabutho. 2017. A New Chapter Beckons: South Africa at the Crossroads. Institute for Global
Dialogue
41
Frankema, Ewout. 2021. ‘Why Africa Is Not That Poor’. In The Handbook of Historical Economics, 557–84.
Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815874-6.00035-6

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Northern funding agents. Researchers in the continent will therefore get the opportunity to
conceptualize and implement projects using their own independent techniques, methods, and
worldviews, and in turn raising the African voices in the field ( Rohen, and Sarah Botton,
2020)42.

Another source of alternative funding is Africa’s private sector. Although the role of the
private sector in the economic development of the continent is vastly discussed there is not
much said, unfortunately, on their corporate social responsibilities like that of research
(Rogerson, 2017)43. Before Embarking on this, African academics have the duty of educating
the business sector about the mutual benefits that would result from funds they may inject
into the research works of the universities and research centers(Ofodile et al, 2012)44.

In line with that, several promising areas of collaboration between the profit-seeking and the
research entities can be pointed out including market and customer trends, demographic and
population studies, trends in the local and the international Economy, etc. which all both the
business and research institutions are interested in. As I have discussed in the above sections,
it is, however, the links between these institutions that are missing, and forming them will be
the gateway to in part liberating African researchers from the external funding that they
always rely on.

Finally, the importance of south-south collaboration is seen by many as another alternative

way of pooling funds to finance independent research in Africa. (Boshoff, 2010) 45 for
example, argues that South-South collaboration between the countries in Austral Africa
provides an environment where there is an equal power relations in accessing structures and
funds allocated to research activities. (Asubiaro et al, 2021) 46 also adds that the funds pooled
regionally in Subsaharan countries during the covid-19 were more responsive and quickly

42
Rohen, and Sarah Botton. 2020. ‘Rethinking International Funding of African Research Towards a Coalition
of Stakeholders Rethinking International Funding of African Research Towards a Coalition of Stakeholders’.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352212389.
43
Rogerson, C.M. 2017. ‘The Private Sector and Local Economic Development in South Africa’. GeoJournal 39
(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00174934.
44
Ofodile, Uche Ewelukwa, Sarah A. Altschuller, Anna Dolize, and Michael Fessler. “Corporate Social
Responsibility.” The International Lawyer 46, no. 1 (2012): 181–97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23827359.
45
Boshoff, Nelius. 2010. ‘South–South Research Collaboration of Countries in the Southern African
Development Community (SADC)’. Scientometrics 84 (2): 481–503. https://doi.org/10.1007 /s11192-
009-0120-0.
46
Asubiaro, Toluwase Victor, and Hafsah Shaik. 2021. ‘Sub-Saharan African Countries‘ COVID-19 Research:
An Analysis of the External and Internal Contributions, Collaboration Patterns and Funding Sources’. Open
Information Science 5 (1): 263–77. https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2020-0125.

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available for the researchers than those channeled through western NGOs. This was because
of the many bureaucratic processes and procedures required by the latter.

4. Conclusion

The Question of the epistemic injustice in the field of African Studies has many folds and
complexities. It has, First, historically evolved, and changed shapes. The fact it remains to
exist has its roots on structural, psychological, and cultural factors. Battling with the
challenge of epistemic injustice, therefore, requires a wide array of interventions that start
with psychological readiness to more structural and radical steps of de-linking with Western
research institutions, their approaches and funds. The following lines from Hadrawi’s ‘Life’s
essence’ poem reflects that radical solution and I want to conclude this paper with it.
Addressing to the daughter of his dear friend, Hadrawi says:

Hear me, Sahra, and pay heed:

where the people are purposefully exploited

and persecuted in every possible way,

they should not cling to patience,

nor stretch out their necks on the block;

they should neither start at shadows

nor let themselves scatter;

they should neither sleep too deeply

nor expect deliverance by magic;

they should not set one against another.

Those who wait for deliverance from me

when I waited for you for so long:

what is it you are really waiting for?!

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