Epistemic Injustice and Citation Policies in African Higher Education
The establishment of alternative infrastructures through strategic complicity is discussed to overcome epistemic injustices and Western-centric academic metrics in African higher education.
While examining the challenges faced by scientists in African higher education against Western-centric academic metrics, citation practices, and infrastructures, strategic approaches and alternative pluralistic knowledge models are discussed in order to transform these systems from within.
Systemic Challenges Faced by African Science
Academics working in African higher education face the irony of having to exist in Western-centric publishing venues while simultaneously making calls for decolonization.
Data reveals that the average citation count of articles in Scopus-indexed African journals remains quite low compared to Western journals, and the overwhelming majority of sampled articles are published exclusively in English.
Epistemic Violence and Marginalization in the Knowledge World
Miranda Fricker's concepts of testimonial injustice and hermeneutic injustice are utilized to understand how academically originating works and local concepts from Africa are systematically ignored in global literature.
The neoliberal transformation of universities and performance metrics lead to the local labeling of academic outputs in Africa and their relegation to a secondary position.
Transformation from Within via Strategic Complicity
Rather than entirely rejecting colonial infrastructures, a strategy of consciously and sustainably engaging within these structures to transform them from the inside is advocated.
Securing places for African authors' works in Western journals, critiquing biases through Western tools, and building alternative infrastructures are among the core elements of this process.
Political Dimension of Citation Practices and New Proposals
Conducted content analyses clearly demonstrate that academic publications cite African-originated works and oral sources significantly less compared to Western authors.
It is emphasized that new citation protocols must be developed in order to integrate oral traditions and local knowledge sources into academic literature.
A Pluralistic Academy and Vision for the Future
Instead of a single universality, a pluralistic academy where knowledge systems based on mutual respect and equal standing coexist should be targeted.
Africa-centric research quality indicators must be based on societal relevance, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and the application of values such as Ubuntu.