Decolonising the curricula and the space in Africa: An interdisciplinary approach

This chapter adopts an interdisciplinary approach to decolonising the curricula and the space in Africa. The interdisciplinary lens illuminates that the coloniality evident in media and communication studies curricula resonates with what is happening in other academic disciplines. For instance, efforts towards decolonising teaching strategies in the sciences bring to the fore the challenges that African students face if what is considered knowledge is reduced to Western Science. Thus, the chapter endeavours to disrupt disciplinary silos by acknowledging the realities of coloniality that cut across academic disciplines. Pedagogies in media and communication studies can draw and benefit from efforts to decolonise other academic disciplines and vice versa. The author’s academic experiences reveal that conceptual and analytical efforts to decolonise the curricula in sociology and its branches acknowledge the significance of individual and contextual specificities. Consequently, the modules developed and taught in this discipline are contextually relevant to Africa, her people (students and lecturers), and their way of life. The author concludes that decolonisation will forever be an incomplete process if the spaces or institutions within which the human (lecturers who develop the content and teach it, and those who are taught, i.e., students) is located are yet to be decolonised.