Debunking the Hegemony of Eurocentric Particularism and Re-centering...: An Afrocentric Critique

Описание: Title of the Presentation: Debunking The Hegemony Of Eurocentric Particularism And Re-centering African Epistemologies: An Afrocentric Critique

About the Author: Lehasa Moloi is a lecturer of Development Studies at UNISA, He holds a Masters Degree in Development Studies and currently working on his Doctoral studies under the title: “Towards and Afrocentric development paradigm in Africa”. He is passionate on decolonization debates, in particular, as grounded on the African soil. He presented papers on numerous Academic conferences, internationally and nationally. He has been an active participant in the annual Decoloniality Summer School that takes place at UNISA and Barcelona, Spain. Recently, he contributed a book chapter entitled “Afrocentricity’s Afrofuturism and the significance of asserting African agency in the pursuit of African futures” which will appear in the book which is being edited by Professor Molefi Kete Asante, a leading Afrocentrist. He also contributed a chapter titled Afrocentric development: a model that matters for Africa in the published book titled Reinventions and Contestations of Thought-Power: Emerging Perspectives on Pan-Africanism.

Abstract of the Lecture: Historical approach to the study of Social Sciences in Africa provides a clear evidence of the dominance of Western thought and voice in the narrative of life and interpretation of social reality. This dominance has created a dilemma for African scholars to engage with the world and has downgraded their perspective to a mediocrity. To many non-European scholars, particularly those in Africa, this is the essence of epistemic racism and cultural arrogance entrenched in Eurocentrism. In the words of Molefi Asante, ‘until we (Africans) reset the social sciences, humanities, sciences and arts more closely to our own historical tales we will continue to assume the role of junior brother and sister to other world narratives as if our own experiences, that is, those of our ancestors, are less important than others. The primary argument advanced in this paper is that knowledge is bound to time and space and that no scholar is omniscient and omnipresent but that we all speak from our contexts. The historical processes under which we were socialized influence us all and we think and speak from our multiple localities. With this said, the contention in this presentation is that Eurocentric epistemology by seeking to occupy the central place and by imagining itself as a ‘universal point of view’ undermines the humanity of others and their worldviews. This presentation deploys Afrocentricity as a necessary combative paradigm for Africans in the quest to decolonize the ‘social sciences’ and education in general from Eurocentric hegemony and to liberate Africans to speak and think from their context to enable relevance.
©Lehasa Moloi

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