Decolonising sociology: perspectives from two Zimbabwean universities

ABSTRACT

The decolonisation of sociology continues to be characterised by debates on what it constitutes, in both theory and practice. While such debates are centred on a ‘radical decolonisation’, we argue that the decolonisation of sociological curricula is never final, but should be driven by and with ‘hybridised’ thinking on the knowledge which underpins the discipline. While the canonical thinking in sociology has come under serious critique, there ought to be ‘knowledge accommodation’ combining Eurocentric and localised thinking. We focus on the ways in which sociology and sociological theory in particular have been criticised for being Eurocentric and androcentric, and the debates about decolonising it. This article draws on ethnographic research with sociologists and sociology students based at two Zimbabwean universities, the University of Zimbabwe and Great Zimbabwe University. This contributes to a growing body of research on decoloniality, by focusing both on attempts by some Zimbabwean sociologists to decolonise and localise the discipline, and on the ways in which academics and students advance and resist this practice. We argue that the decolonisation of sociology curricula and pedagogy should embrace transmodernity, blended knowledge systems, and border thinking. Following this, we further argue that decolonising sociology is never final and that there ought to be a ‘hybridised sociology’, which accommodates both canonical thinking and localised knowledge of the discipline.

KEYWORDS:

• Afrocentricity
• transmodernity
• decolonisation
• sociology
• border thinking
• epistemic violence

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Professor Kathy Luckett, Shannon Morreira, Madeleine Hatfield for their insightful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. We also appreciate the comments and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped sharpen the article.

Notes

1. The concept of coloniality was developed by Latin American scholars like Quijano (2007) and Mignolo (2012), to explain the nibbling resilience of colonial ideologies which reproduce imperialistic tendencies across the globe in the present.

2. The use of concept of ‘bond sociology’ is interesting; it is derived from the ‘bond notes’, a local surrogate currency used in Zimbabwe. While this currency is used in the country, it has no value outside the country. Therefore, Mr Tando referenced to indigenised sociology as ‘bond sociology’ shows the anxieties and insecurities of decolonising sociology.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simbarashe Gukurume

Simbarashe Gukurume is a lecturer and faculty research chair at Great Zimbabwe University. Simbarashe holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he was a fellow at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA). Simbarashe’s research interests focus on the sociology of youth, informality and livelihoods, displacements, ethnography of money, politics and social movements, Pentecostalism, and politics of knowledge production. He has been a recipient of several prestigious research and fellowship awards such as the Harry Frank Guggenheim Young African Scholars award, New York; the Matasa Network fellowship award, IDS, University of Sussex; Emerging Young African Scholars Fellowship, Carnegie Corporation, New York; and the Academy for African Urban Diversity award, Max Planck Institute, Germany. He is also a 2016 Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI) fellow at Brown University, US. Simbarashe’s recent publications are in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, African Identities, Journal of Asian and African Studies and the IDS Bulletin.

Godfrey Maringira

Godfrey Maringira is an associate professor of anthropology at Sol Plaatje University, South Africa. He graduated with a PhD in sociology from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, in 2015. He is a senior Volkswagen Stiftung Foundation research fellow and is also a Principal Investigator of the International Development Research Center (IDRC) research on Gang violence in South Africa. Dr. Maringira is a two-time consecutive recipient of the SSRC’s Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Fieldwork and Completion Grant 2012 and 2013, respectively. He is also a three-time recipient of the African Peacebuilding Network grants: Individual Research Grant (2014), Working Group Grant (2016–2017), and Book Manuscript Grant (2018). He is currently serving as a board member for the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa program of the Social Science Research Council. Dr Maringira’s areas of research include armed violence in Africa with a specific focus on gangs, war and the military in post-colonial Africa. His 2017 African Affairs Journal article, ‘Politicisation and Resistance in the Zimbabwe National Army’, was awarded the best author prize in 2018. In addition, his 2018 African Studies Journal article, ‘When ex-combatants became peaceful: Azania People’s Liberation Army ex-combatants in post-apartheid South Africa’, was awarded The Benedict Wallet Bambatha Vilakazi Prize, which is dedicated to the memory and intellectual achievements of BW Vilakazi in support of new and young scholars in African Studies. His book, Soldiers and the State in Zimbabwe, was published in 2019 by Routledge.