Robtel Neajai Pailey , University of Oxford
Africans have always produced knowledge
about Africa. Their contributions have in some
cases been “ preferably unheard ”. In others
they’ve been “ deliberately silenced”.
So what constitutes an “African” in the heyday
of multiple citizenships and transnational flows
of goods, ideas and people? In the first
instance, an “African” has birthplace or
bloodline ties to Africa. More importantly, an
“African” has a psychological attachment to
the continent. He or she is politically
committed to its transformation.
I am approaching this question as a scholar of
African Studies. The field’s purpose is to
constantly interrogate epistemological,
methodological and theoretical approaches to
the study of Africa. Its role is to insert Africa
and its people at the centre of that
interrogation as subjects rather than objects. It
is worth examining whether or not scholars of
Africa have lived up to this mandate.
Decolonising the space
African Studies remains a colonised space rife
with misrepresentation, homogenisation and
essentialising about Africa. Early writings and
teachings about Africa are based on colonial
expeditions, missionary exploits and
anthropological ethnographies. Contemporary
scholarship is dominated by some non-Africans
who have strategically positioned themselves
as the authoritative voices in a 21st century
scramble for influence – as if Africa were a
tabula rasa with no intellectuals or knowledge
production of its own. This form of erasure is
problematic and dangerous.
There have long been active demands to
decolonise African Studies. The African Studies
Association first invited Africa-based scholars
in large numbers to its 1969 meeting in
Montreal, Canada. Black American Africa
scholars seized the platform. They argued that
African Studies was firmly cemented on a
foundation of institutional racism. Some years
later, at the association’s meeting in Seattle, in
the US, Nigerian scholar Oyekan Owomoyela
questioned whether or not African Studies had
lived up to its ideal of producing and promoting
“knowledge about Africa for purposes other
than its exploitation”.
More recently, in her keynote lecture at the
association’s 2006 meeting in San Francisco, in
the US, Nigerian feminist scholar Amina Mama
demonstrated that producing knowledge about
Africa is an ethical dilemma as much as an
epistemological consideration. This is true for
Africans and non-Africans alike. She asked:
Can we develop the study of Africa so
that it is more respectful toward the
lives and struggles of African people
and to their agendas?
She argued that Africanists in America were
complicit in advancing a colonial patriarchal
order by dismissing African scholars’
intellectual agendas. She has challenged the
“externalisation of Africa scholarship”, which
uncritically relies on externally generated
concepts and methods. These transform highly
complex processes into overly simplistic,
homogenous tropes about Africa.
Structural inequities
Mama and others have shown that publishing
about Africa is punctuated with structural
inequities in which Africans are often dissed
and dismissed. A recent scholarly article
tracked the general decline in the number of
articles published by Africa-based scholars in
two top African Studies journals between 1993
and 2013. The authors illustrate that while
article submissions from Africa-based scholars
have increased for both African Affairs and the
Journal of Modern African Studies, acceptance
rates have declined significantly. Both of these
journals are based in Europe.
There has been a wave in recent years of
African-led publications. These include Feminist
Africa , which Mama founded, and the Journal of
West African History , which was started by
author and academic Nwando Achebe . The
Dakar, Senegal-based Council for the
Development of Social Science Research in
Africa also publishes extensively about Africa
by Africans.
But this increase in alternative platforms does
not exempt non-African publishers, editors and
reviewers from addressing glaring citation and
publication gaps in the field.
In light of these developments, it is timely and
essential to ask where the “African” is in
African Studies.
I am a Liberian who has studied Africa intently
in North America, Africa and Europe. I’ve
discovered that the extent to which the
“African” in African Studies is concealed or
revealed depends entirely on who writes or
teaches about Africa. It also depends on where ,
how and what they write or teach about Africa.
Essentially, it depends on the knowledge
producer’s politics, the ethos of the institution
they represent, the pedagogy and methods
they employ, and on their level of commitment
to the continent and its people.
Foregrounding the discussion about where the
“African” is in African Studies as an ethical
dilemma raises the stakes. It forces African
and non-African scholars of Africa alike to
remain self-reflexive, humble and accountable
to the continent and its people.
A more radical approach
Perhaps, as Owomoyela has suggested , a more
radical approach to “getting ‘Africa’ back into
African Studies is to get African Studies back
to Africa”.
This can be achieved in several ways:
A canon must be established of scholarly
literature produced by Africans. It must
include male and female scholars writing in
multiple languages across the social
sciences, natural sciences and humanities.
This would be mandatory reading for all
African Studies courses across the globe.
Non-African scholars must defer to
authoritative voices and scholars on the
continent. They can do so by citing them
regularly and actively acknowledging their
contributions to the field.
Open-access publishing on Africa must
become the norm rather than the exception.
This will allow Africa-based scholars to
access, engage with and critique knowledge
produced about the continent.
More African scholars – based in Africa and
elsewhere – must serve on the editorial
boards of top-rated African Studies
journals, as both editors and reviewers. In
this way they’ll be able to influence these
publications’ research agendas.
African universities must value, support and
validate good quality scholarship about
Africa. Staff need research funding and
living wages. They need sabbatical time to
write and publish. They need paid
subscriptions to relevant journals.
These measures and more like them will
compel us to effectively re-insert the “African”
in African Studies. Not as a token gesture, but
as an affirmation that Africans have always
produced knowledge about their continent.
A longer version of this article was originally
published in African Arguments.
Robtel Neajai Pailey , Senior Researcher,
University of Oxford
This article was originally published on The
Conversation .
