The Continuing Colonization of Higher Education in Africa: Interrogating the Modes and Channels at an African Premier University

The paper uses a convergence of critical scholarship, theoretical inquiry, and empirical research to understand the reasons and channels for the continued colonisation of the African Academy. This paper is structured around four critical questions: i) How do faculty at African universities perpetuate the continued colonisation of African academia? ii) What are the structural, contextual, and historical factors responsible for the colonisation of African academia? iii) Whose views and experiences pass for knowledge? and iv) How has Makerere University leveraged its reputation and faculty to contribute to the decolonisation of African academia? Ten in-depth interviews and a systematic review of 86 course curricula of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Department of Economic Theory and Analysis at Makerere University were conducted. Overall, faculty at Makerere University hardly use African-based reading materials and journal publications in the course syllabi. The faculty promotion and research agenda are heavily dependent on the rules and requirements of the Global North, with a focus on the number of publications in high-impact journals. Hence, the African academy is marred by inequalities and tendencies of academic colonialism. For the decolonisation of African academia and studies to gain traction, it is essential to emphasise that, contrary to the dominant paradigm at Makerere University, knowledge is socially constructed and contextual. It is possible to advance and promote African knowledge production and literature that highlights mutuality, accords respect, and contextualises what constitutes tacit knowledge.