Decolonizing African Knowledge
Autoethnography and African Epistemologies

Uses textual and visual materials on the 'Self' to understand how African ways of thinking shape the nature of societies.

Toyin Falola (Author)

9781316511237, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 July 2022

524 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.97 kg

'Toyin Falola's book, which explores the connection between autoethnography and African studies, opens numerous intellectual possibilities in a characteristically lucid manner. It adds a much-needed scholarly voice and perspective to the burgeoning field of decolonial studies. This offering is most certainly an earnest breath of fresh air by Africa's most impressive historian.' Sanya Osha, University of Cape Town

Addressing the consequences of European slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism on African history, knowledge and its institutions, this innovative book applies autoethnography to the understanding of African knowledge systems. Considering the 'Self' and Yoruba Being (the individual and the collective) in the context of the African decolonial project, Falola strips away Eurocentric influences and interruptions from African epistemology. Avoiding colonial archival sources, it grounds itself in alternative archives created by memory, spoken words, images and photographs to look at the themes of politics, culture, nation, ethnicity, satire, poetics, magic, myth, metaphor, sculpture, textiles, hair and gender. Vividly illustrated in colour, it uses diverse and novel methods to access an African way of knowing. Exploring the different ways that a society understands and presents itself, this book highlights convergence, enmeshing private and public data to provide a comprehensive understanding of society, public consciousness, and cultural identity.

Part I. Introduction
1. Prologue: My Archive
2. Autoethnography and Epistemic Liberation
Part II. Fictions and Factions
3. Narrative Politics and Cultural Ideologies
4. Memory, Magic, Myth, and Metaphor
5. A Poetological Narration of the Nation
6. A Poetological Narration of the Self
7. Satire and Society
8. Narrative Politics and the Politics of Narrative
Part III. Visual Cultures
9. Sculpture as Archive
10. Textiles as Texts
11. Canvas and Archiving Ethnic Reality
12. Hair Art and the Women Agency
13. Photography and Ethnography' Part IV. Conclusion
14. Self, Collective, and Collection.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]