Epistemic Freedom in Africa is about the struggle for African people to think, theorize, interpret the world and write from where they are located, unencumbered by Eurocentrism. The imperial denial of common humanity to some human beings meant that in turn their knowledges and experiences lost their value, their epistemic virtue. Now, in the twenty-first century, descendants of enslaved, displaced, colonized, and racialized peoples have entered academies across the world, proclaiming loudly that they are human beings, their lives matter and they were born into valid and legitimate knowledge systems that are capable of helping humanity to transcend the current epistemic and systemic crises. Together, they are engaging in diverse struggles for cognitive justice, fighting against the epistemic line which haunts the twenty-first century. The renowned historian and decolonial theorist Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni offers a penetrating and well-argued case for centering Africa as a legitimate historical unit of analysis and epistemic site from which to interpret the world, whilst simultaneously making an equally strong argument for globalizing knowledge from Africa so as to attain ecologies of knowledges. This is a dual process of both deprovincializing Africa, and in turn provincializing Europe. The book highlights how the mental universe of Africa was invaded and colonized, the long-standing struggles for 'an African university', and the trajectories of contemporary decolonial movements such as Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall in South Africa. This landmark work underscores the fact that only once the problem of epistemic freedom has been addressed can Africa achieve political, cultural, economic and other freedoms. This groundbreaking new book is accessible to students and scholars across Education, History, Philosophy, Ethics, African Studies, Development Studies, Politics, International Relations, Sociology, Postcolonial Studies and the emerging field of Decolonial Studies. The Open Access versions Chapter 1 and Chapter 9, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429492204 have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

In 2012, Unisa, as the home of African intellectuals, and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, as a premiere think tank on African matters, came together to host a Colloquium on Mbeki @ 70. The essays presented on that day have been collected and edited into this book, Building Blocks Towards an African Century - Essays in Honour of Thabo Mbeki, Former President of the Republic of South Africa. In reflecting on the times and life of President Mbeki, the contributing scholars have had to contend with the challenge that the person who is the subject matter of the discourse is among us and will also read and make his own judgement about what is recorded. The work done by the contributors, both in terms of their participation at the Colloquium of Mbeki @ 70 and their writings that constitute this volume of essays, is an exceptional and outstanding undertaking. What is reflected in these essays goes beyond the person of Thabo Mbeki to include the identification of the problems that Africa needs to solve and venturing answers to some of the difficult questions that they pose. Readers will navigate through these interesting theses and will ascertain, among others, the following: A detailed account of Mbeki as a statesman and intellectual forms a compelling and must-read introduction to this volume. That includes a critical analysis of the ANC's performance under President Mbeki, its achievements, and the fault lines of South Africa's nascent democracy owing to difficult policy choices; A thorough examination of Thabo Mbeki's contribution to intellectual engagement about Africa's past, present, and future. The book offers the current generation of leaders with the tools of analysis to enable them to respond accurately to the problems facing Africa's future; While Thabo Mbeki has contributed immensely to the enhancement of Africa's profile through the AU and other multinational institutions, the authors express misgivings about the strengths, relevance, and sustainability of Africa's institutions, in particular, the AU; The important question of `Who is an African?' is thoroughly debated, and various permutations are offered as to whether that should be answered simply as a matter of colour or identity on the one hand, or a matter of ideas, vision, and commitment to Africa's agenda on the other; A strong and reasoned argument is made to assist the reader to look at Africa from a different and new perspective in terms of the need to focus on Africa's people rather than simply on the basis of social or political structures and, in that context, the authors debate the critical matter of feminism in Africa; An analysis of the fantasy of the supremacy of the white tribes in South Africa is made, which leads to the conclusion that that fantasy has the negative effect of impeding efforts towards the achievement of unity; The essays would not be complete without an examination of the important issue of leadership as epitomised by Mbeki's vision, his thinking, and his works, and that is used to pose the question: what kind of leadership is required in today's Africa to deal with her challenges?; In the end, the Colloquium sought to address the matter of Afrocentricity in the process of knowledge production as a means of responding to Africa's challenges rather than positioning Africans as simply the consumers of pre-packaged information from elsewhere and not Africa.

Epistemic Freedom in Africa is about the struggle for African people to think, theorize, interpret the world and write from where they are located, unencumbered by Eurocentrism. The imperial denial of common humanity to some human beings meant that in turn their knowledges and experiences lost their value, their epistemic virtue. Now, in the twenty-first century, descendants of enslaved, displaced, colonized, and racialized peoples have entered academies across the world, proclaiming loudly that they are human beings, their lives matter and they were born into valid and legitimate knowledge systems that are capable of helping humanity to transcend the current epistemic and systemic crises. Together, they are engaging in diverse struggles for cognitive justice, fighting against the epistemic line which haunts the twenty-first century. The renowned historian and decolonial theorist Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni offers a penetrating and well-argued case for centering Africa as a legitimate historical unit of analysis and epistemic site from which to interpret the world, whilst simultaneously making an equally strong argument for globalizing knowledge from Africa so as to attain ecologies of knowledges. This is a dual process of both deprovincializing Africa, and in turn provincializing Europe. The book highlights how the mental universe of Africa was invaded and colonized, the long-standing struggles for 'an African university', and the trajectories of contemporary decolonial movements such as Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall in South Africa. This landmark work underscores the fact that only once the problem of epistemic freedom has been addressed can Africa achieve political, cultural, economic and other freedoms. This groundbreaking new book is accessible to students and scholars across Education, History, Philosophy, Ethics, African Studies, Development Studies, Politics, International Relations, Sociology, Postcolonial Studies and the emerging field of Decolonial Studies. The Open Access versions Chapter 1 and Chapter 9, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429492204 have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.