So many ‘Africanists’, so few Africans: reshaping our understanding of ‘African politics’ through greater nuance and amplification of African voices

ABSTRACT

Who produces knowledge on ‘African politics’? Within political science, our understanding of politics in Africa is overwhelmingly shaped by non-Africans who spend most of their time far removed from Africa. This reality has serious consequences for the academic community, policymakers, students and citizens across the world. Using a new data set of undergraduate syllabi and doctoral exam reading lists, this article sheds further light on this knowledge production and instruction problem and provides suggestions for how we might redress this problem. In doing so, we can generate more nuanced understandings of governance dynamics that are centred on African voices and perspectives.

RÉSUMÉ

Qui produit les connaissances sur la « politique africaine » ? Dans le domaine des sciences politiques, notre compréhension de la politique en Afrique est essentiellement façonnée par des non-Africains qui passent la plupart de leur temps loin de l’Afrique. Cette réalité a de graves conséquences pour la communauté universitaire, les responsables politiques, les étudiants et les citoyens du monde entier. En utilisant un nouvel ensemble de données regroupant des programmes de cursus de premier cycle universitaire et des listes de lectures obligatoires pour des examens de doctorat, l’article apporte un éclairage supplémentaire sur ce problème de production de connaissances et d’enseignement, et fournit des suggestions quant à la manière d’y remédier. Ce faisant, nous pouvons générer une compréhension plus nuancée des dynamiques de gouvernance, centrée sur les voix et les perspectives africaines.

KEYWORDS:

• African politics
• Africanist
• knowledge production
• research methods
• education
• epistemologies

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Politique africaine
• Africaniste
• production de connaissances
• méthodes de recherche
• éducation
• épistémologies

Acknowledgements

I thank Nadège Compaoré, Theodore Kahn and Linda Lu for helpful comments. I am also indebted to my students at American University who shared their views and insights in class discussions and to Maria Adamou and Hilary Kung for excellent research assistance. All errors remain my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Zack Zimbalist is a visiting foreign professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. His research interests focus broadly on economic development, governance, political behaviour, and public opinion in developing democracies, mainly in Africa. His research has been published in Review of International Political Economy, Government and Opposition, International Journal of Public Opinion, Development Policy Review and Development Southern Africa.

Notes

1 See Duffield (2014) for a case study on Sudan. Some researchers continue to spend substantial time outside of capital cities interacting in local languages but, given the nature of teaching loads and other responsibilities, there is frequent parachuting into cities for quick meetings and data collection visits.

2 In a study of articles published in two leading African studies journals, Briggs and Weathers (2016, 466) find that Africa-based authors are less likely to generalise to the African continent compared to authors based outside of Africa.

3 Another issue to consider is the real possibility, suggested by Ayoade (1980), that language itself shapes political thought and behaviour and can affect what the researcher discovers about political activity. Thus, two researchers conducting their work in different languages may discover different political processes in the same country.

4 I note this in my own research, which I conducted in English in South Africa and Portuguese in Mozambique.

5 A recent survey of academics found that 87% of respondents under 50 years old reported that a lack of research funding negatively impacted their career, and 45% reported that they had not received any research funding in the past three years. See https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/half-academics-africa-receive-no-research-funding#survey-answer

6 The location for unauthored newspaper and magazine articles was determined based on headquarters.

7 I am transparent about my ignorance and lack of insider knowledge or affiliation with any of these organisations. Discussion is based on a reading of their websites.

8 Rachel Strohm’s blog (Strohm n.d.) is a good resource for efforts in this area, and she keeps an updated list of scholarship opportunities for African students.