Pathways to Alternative Epistemologies in Africa

This volume investigates alternative epistemological pathways by which knowledge production in Africa can proceed. The contributors, using different intellectual dynamics, explore the existing epistemological dominance of the West—from architecture to gender discourse, from environmental management to democratic governance—and offer distinct and unique arguments that challenge the denigration of the different and differing modes of knowing that the West considered “barbaric” and “primitive.” This volume therefore constitutes a minimal gesture that further contributes to the ongoing discourse on alternative modes of knowing in Africa.  

Chapter One: Introduction: Alternative Epistemologies and the Imperative of an Afrocentric Mythology

Part I: Theories and Methodologies

Chapter Two

Between Particularism and Universalism: The Promise of Epistemic Contextualism in African Epistemology

Chapter Three

The Quest for Africanizing Qualitative Inquiry: A Pathway to Methodological Innovation

Chapter Four

The State and the State of Knowledge Production in African Universities: Rethinking Identity and Curricula

Chapter Five

Afrocentricity, African Agency and Knowledge Systems

Part II: Epistemological Practices

Chapter Six

Cultural Environmentalism in Wale Ogunyemi’s Langbodo and Femi Osofisan’s Many Colours Make the Thunder-King

Chapter Seven

Security, Local Community, and the Democratic Political Culture in Africa.

Chapter Eight

The “African Prints”: Africa and Aesthetics in the Textile World

Chapter Nine

On the Search for Identity in African Architecture

Chapter Ten

Towards an Endogenous Interpretation of Polygamy and Gender Relations: A Critique of Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

Chapter Eleven

Religion, Patriarchal Construction and Gender Complementarity in Nigeria

Chapter Twelve

Yoruba Traditional Instrumental Ensemble and Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Chapter Thirteen

Adeshina Afolayan is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso is Professor of Political Science at Babcock University, Nigeria.

Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba is Associate Professor at Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, University of South Africa and Visiting Professor, Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.