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A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology
Thesis (PhD (Philosophy))--University of Pretoria, 2024.
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University of Pretoria
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613538169651200 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Okeke, Jonathan Chimakonam |
| author_browse | Okeke, Jonathan Chimakonam |
| author_facet | Okeke, Jonathan Chimakonam |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Thesis (PhD (Philosophy))--University of Pretoria, 2024. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/100094 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:37:44.183Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/100094 A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology Okeke, Jonathan Chimakonam evaristuseyo96@gmail.com Eyo, Evaristus UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Decoloniality Epistemic injustice African epistemology Liberative epistemology Coloniality Thesis (PhD (Philosophy))--University of Pretoria, 2024. Though much has been done in the area of epistemic injustice, not much has been done to address the logical problem of epistemic injustice against other epistemologies, especially the epistemologies of the South. Thus, the logical foundation of epistemic injustice remains under-explored in the literature of epistemic injustice. In this thesis, I seek to bridge the intellectual gap by exploring the logical foundation of epistemic injustice against African epistemology, using decoloniality as a theoretical framework. To do this, I first establish that epistemic injustice/marginalization of non-Western epistemologies is sustained by the two-valued logic of coloniality. With its principles of bivalence and determinism, this logic divides reality and people into two unequal sites: the sites of being and non-being, sites of knowledge and no-knowledge, superior and inferior, etc., this colonial arrangement, I argue, aims at presenting the epistemic accumulations of the West as authentic, superior, logical, acontextual, universal, and objective, while presenting other epistemologies as illogical, superstitious, inferior, and undesirable. I present decolonial epistemology as a veritable way of addressing this problem and problematize epistemic justice and epistemic liberation on the ground of logical inadequacy, in a sense that they are incompatible with African epistemic experiences and understanding of realities due to their adherence to the two-valued logic of coloniality which is exclusionary. I propose a revised version of epistemic liberation as a liberative epistemology, grounded on the Ezumezu logic, which is complementary and trivalent in nature. With this alternative logical variant, I argue that liberative epistemology, which entails the recognition of all epistemic sites and agents, and the allocation of equal epistemic rights to all epistemic agents irrespective of their race, gender, affiliation, and geographical location, possesses the needed capacity to ensure a balanced epistemic space for all epistemic agent to engage in a creative struggle with each other in a complementary manner without any form of discrimination. Exploring the practical variant of this proposal, I contend that liberative epistemology is adequate to address the problem of underdevelopment and techno-coloniality in Africa. While addressing possible objections from critics, I maintain that liberative epistemology does not amount to epistemic anarchism or the rejection of universality, but rather, it is an advocacy for epistemic inclusion and interrogation of the absolutization of the Western particular that has shunted other epistemologies to the margin. Philosophy PhD (Philosophy) Unrestricted Faculty of Humanities SDG-10: Reduces inequalities 2025-01-16T07:14:49Z 2025-01-16T07:14:49Z 2025-04 2024-08-29 Thesis * A2025 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/100094 https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.19029833.v2. © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Decoloniality Epistemic injustice African epistemology Liberative epistemology Coloniality A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology |
| title | A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology |
| title_full | A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology |
| title_fullStr | A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology |
| title_full_unstemmed | A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology |
| title_short | A decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against African epistemology |
| title_sort | decolonial inquiry into the epistemic injustice against african epistemology |
| topic | UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Decoloniality Epistemic injustice African epistemology Liberative epistemology Coloniality |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/100094 https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.19029833.v2. |