Attaining epistemic justice through transformation and decolonisation of education curriculum in Africa

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I explore the position that the transformation and decolonisation of the education curriculum in Africa constitute a way of attaining epistemic justice. Drawing on Miranda Fricker’s seminal work, epistemic justice is understood as partly residing in the genuine acknowledgement and acceptance of the contribution of the indigenous people of Africa to knowledge generation, and involves the significant presence of their knowledge paradigms in the formal education curriculum presently dominated by Western knowledge paradigms. I present the argument that epistemic justice ought to surpass this parameter and lead to the awakening of the agency of learners, such that they contribute meaningfully to the determination of their own destiny in life. This dimension has been largely neglected, as defenders of decolonisation through transformation are often preoccupied with attaining epistemic justice, that is, recognition and acceptance of the epistemological paradigm of the indigenous people of Africa as one among knowledges that ought to inform the education curriculum in Africa. I propose here that the problem that education suffers in Africa surpasses the problem of exclusion of the indigenous people’s knowledge paradigms, to include, most importantly, how such knowledge paradigms could be of use in responding to their prevailing circumstances.

KEYWORDS:

• Africa
• decolonisation
• transformation
• education
• epistemic (in)justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. However, as I will argue later, decolonisation ought to surpass this.

2. However, non-domination could play a double role of being both a precondition to and an outcome of epistemic justice. It is a precondition, in the sense that epistemic justice might not be attained when there are asymmetrical power relations between knowers. Non-domination could be considered an outcome of epistemic justice in the sense that epistemic justice ushers enabling conditions for non-domination.

3. I find Mazibuko’s (2009, p. 162) thesis that universities have to pay special attention to ‘the developmental imperatives and peculiarities of the continent’ quite relevant for my purposes here, where it is understood that transformation and decolonisation ought to be done at all levels of education.

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Dennis Masaka

Dennis Masaka is a holder of a PhD in Philosophy and a senior lecturer in Philosophy at Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe. He is also a Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He has published papers in journals such as South African Journal of Philosophy; Philosophical Papers; Education as Change; Journal of Black Studies; African Study Monographs; Journal of Negro Education; Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory; Journal on African Philosophy & CODESRIA Bulletin.