Decolonizing the African University

Abstract

This article focuses on the higher education system as an object of developmental analysis by examining the challenges and prospects of decolonizing the knowledge base of higher education systems across the Continent of Africa. The purpose of the article is to show that African countries’ seeming lack of progress relates to the character of her education system, which is deeply rooted in the context of coloniality and ‘metacolonialism.’ Using an analogical approach, the article discusses the attachment problem, which forms the pedestal for the continued undermining of indigenous knowledge as the basis of the pursuit of developmental goals. Universities in Africa have developed several kinds of attachments to and have been uncritical of received knowledge from the Western societies through their colonial roots. What African societies need at this moment is a knowledge system that integrates with the existential realities of African students and intellectuals.