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.  

1 Introduction: Alternative Epistemologies and the Imperative of an Afrocentric Mythology.- Part I Theories and Methodologies.- 2 Between Particularism and Universalism: The Promise of Epistemic Contextualism in African Epistemology.- 3 The Quest for Africanizing Qualitative Inquiry: A Pathway to Methodological Innovation.- 4 The State and the State of Knowledge Production in African Universities: Rethinking Identity and Curricula.- 5 Afrocentricity, African Agency and Knowledge System.- Part II Epistemological Practices.- 6 Cultural Environmentalism in Ogunyemi’s Langbodo and Osofisan’s Many Colours Make The Thunder-King.- 7 Security, Local Community, and the Democratic Political Culture in Africa.- 8 The “African Prints”: Africa and Aesthetics in the Textile World.- 9 On the Search for Identity in African Architecture.- 10 Towards an Endogenous Interpretation of Polygamy and Gender Relations: A Critique of Lola Shoneyin’sThe Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.- 11 Religion, Patriarchal Construction and Gender Complementarity in Nigeria.- 12 Yoruba Traditional Instrumental Ensemble and Indigenous Knowledge Systems.- 13 Knowledge Production and Pedagogy Among the Islamic Scholars in Kano: A Case-Study of Shaykh Tijani Usman Zangon Bare-Bari (1916–1970).

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.