Decolonisation, National Development and the Humanities

Abstract

A valuable link exists between higher education and national development – the former provides the latter with the tools and innovation needed to attain and retain global relevance. This explains the contemporary global focus on knowledge-driven economies. In the effort to belong to the class of knowledge-driven economies, many African countries have drawn out educational policies which sideline the Humanities while giving pride of place to the STEM disciplines. However, despite the attempts at preparing African tertiary institutions to provide the needed technological innovations for national development, African countries are still relegated on the global national development index. This work argues that the prime cause of the developmental struggles of African countries lies in an identifiable European epistemic hegemony in African universities, where curricula are dominated by epistemologies disseminated by Euromerican texts. Such epistemic hegemony has produced African universities whose curricula lack relevance in the African quest for development. Utilising Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s notion of decolonisation, this work, therefore, highlights the necessity for epistemic decolonisation resulting in the construction of African worldviews where the African society is the center of the episteme. This task belongs primarily to the Humanities, the academic disciplines burdened with the pursuit of knowledge about the human condition. These disciplines provide the intellectual curiosity and humanistic empathy needed to shape the foundational culture, values, practices, processes, standards, and ultimately, identity upon which scientific, technological and economic advancement can be sustained.