Decolonial Turns and Development Discourse in Africa: Reflections on Masculinity and Pan-Africanism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/0304-615X/2303Keywords:
decolonial turn, development discourse, epistemology, masculinities, pan- AfricanismAbstract
The Euro-American hegemonic control of epistemology has produced the current modern and patriarchal world order underpinned by a Manichean outlook in which Africa is considered a site of inferior people enveloped by lack of development. This article deploys the concept of decolonial turns to understand how Euro-American thought has produced ideas of development within which Africa emerges as lacking development. It posits that Euro-American discourse of development has continued to inform those processes that resulted in the impoverishment of the African continent. The discourse was articulated in the guise of modernization theory of the 1960s and now exists in the current Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers that have currently replaced the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s and 1990s. The challenging question from a decolonial perspective for this article is whether pan-Africanism of the 21st century is able to provide the intellectual counter-weight to Euro-American epistemological domination. The article also delves deeper into question of masculinity and patriarchy that also contribute to poverty in Africa.
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