The Defense of the Adoption of Critical Social Theory as a Framework for African Universities
Mohammed Xolile Ntshangase 
Issue: Vol.5 No.7 Issue Article 12 pp.1207-1218
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245712 | Published online 9th July, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
With coloniality, thought itself became discriminatory and was categorized into racial forms. That discrimination and categorization of thought gave rise to the idea that philosophy itself must be differentially categorized as either Western, Eastern, or African as if thought has a race and geographic location. The issue at this age is that those categorizations get serious to the extent that it is unthinkable that African scholars can benefit from any thought system except from African philosophy. This paper argued that those vices dent human enlightenment and developmental progress. Within that purpose, this paper used an analytic theoretical framework to argue that it is an unguided racist view that there is no benefit for African scholars in Western philosophy. The adoption of Critical Social Theory was selected as one case whereby an African rural university received a plethora of criticisms as being hypocritical in the decolonization mission. Among the findings of this study one important aspect came out more clearly, that humans love unity rather than division according to race, class and so on. This study recommends that decolonization should be embraced willingly with a clear realization that humanity is one race rather than a divided existence. This study posits that having a proper perspective of decolonization will eliminate hypocrisy among scholars and create that realization of human knowledge as one racial epistemology.
Keywords: Coloniality, Philosophy, Academic Discrimination, Decolonization, Theoretic Operandi.
Ade, R. “ Leopold Sedar Senghor: From Prisoner to President,” April 24, 2020. https://www.dw.com/en/leopold-sedar-senghor-from-prisoner-to-president/a-52448430.
Adi, H. “A Hidden History of Pan-Africanism: The Debate between Garvey and Huiswoud, Is It Still Relevant?” The Black Archives, 2020. https://www.theblackarchives.nl/blog/a-hidden-history-of-pan-africanism-the-debate-between-garvey-and-huiswoud-is-it-still-relevant.html.
Ajani, Oluwatoyin Ayodele. “Decolonisation of Education in African Contexts.” African Renaissance (1744-2532) 16, no. 2 (2019).
American Psychological Association. “ Speaking of Psychology: Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Mental Health, with Riana Elyse Anderson, PhD,” May 2022. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/racial-discrimination.
Assié-Lumumba, N T. “African Higher Education: From Compulsory Juxtaposition to Fusion by Choice-Forging a New Philosophy of Education for Social Progress.” African (a) Philosophy of Education: Reconstructions and Deconstructions, 2005, 19–53.
Avidar, Ornit. “From Europeanization to Africanization The Complexities of the Technological Encounter in the Colonial Era,” 2015.
Bachman, J. The Doctrine of Human Race Examined on the Principles of Science. New York: HardPress, 2020.
Bdawi, Z. “Diamonds, Gold and Greed, History of Africa.” BBC News Africa, October 18, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLL5xt2c-0l.
Browne, C. Critical Theory and Radical Thinkers. Critical Social Theory. Los Angeles: Sage Publishers, 2017.
Carnap, R. Logical Syntax of Language. London: Routledge Publishers, 1961.
Cataliotti, J. “Colonization of Africa.” Study.com, May 15, 2022. https://study.com/learn/lesson/european-colonization-imperialism-africa.html.
Celikates, R. The Philosophy of Social Science, Critique as Social Practice: Critical Theory and Social Self-Understanding. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. UK, 2018.
Chomsky, N. “ A Brief History of European Colonization in Africa,” August 11, 2012. https://youtube.com/watch?v=oaWvAP.
Chou, V. “How Science and Genetics Are Reshaping the Race Debate of the 21st Century.” SITN: Science in the news , April 17, 2017. https://sitn.hms.havard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/.
Clinton, D., and C. Negus. Starting with Linux. Ubuntu Linux Bible. Indiana: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , 2021.
Collins, P. H. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. New Zealand: Duke University Press., 2019.
Corcos A. F. Race Is a Slippery Word. Myth of Human Races . 2nd ed. Arizona: Wheatmark, 2016.
Dant, T. Adorno and Horkheimer: Work and Culture. Critical Social Theory: Culture, Society and Critique. London: Sage Publications, 2003.
Delanty, Gerard. Critical Theory and Social Transformation: Crises of the Present and Future Possibilities. London: Routledge, 2020.
Deleuze, Gilles. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Vol. 2. U of Minnesota Press, 1987.
Duan, Fengyu. “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Modern History of Human Rights.” Available at SSRN 3066882, 2017.
Dube, Siphiwe Ignatius. “Race Silence: The Oversignification of Black Men in ‘the Crisis of/in Masculinities’ in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Acta Academica 48, no. 1 (2016): 72–90.
Durkin, Kieran. “Adventures in the Anti-Humanist Dialectic: Towards the Reappropriation of Humanism.” European Journal of Social Theory 25, no. 2 (2022): 292–311.
Ferrando, F. From Human to Posthumanism. Philosophical Posthumanism. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.
Frege, G. “Begriffsschrift. Grunddzesetze Der Arithmetic.” London: Stanford, 1906. plato.stanford.edu/entries/frege/#BasFerLogPreCal.
Galisanka, A. John Rawls: The Path to a Theory of Justice. London: Harvard University Press, 2019.
Glock J. H. What Is Analytic Philosophy? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Grange, Lesley Le. “Decolonising, Africanising, Indigenising, and Internationalising Curriculum Studies: Opportunities to (Re) Imagine the Field.” Journal of Education (University of KwaZulu-Natal), no. 74 (2018): 4–18.
Hallen, B. “Contextualism In Philosophy: Knowledge, Meaning, and Truth.” In Analytic Philosophy, edited by G. Preyer and G. Peter. Goethe University Frankfurt: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Hallen, B, and J. O Sodipo. Knowledge, Belief, and Witchcraft: Analytic Experiments in African Philosophy. California: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Harding, William. War in South Africa and the Dark Continent from Savagery to Civilization: The Strange Story of a Weird World from the Earliest Ages to the Present, Including the War with the Boers… Dominion Company, 1899.
Ince, O. U. Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Jola F. I. “Decolonizing Education in Africa-Five Years On.” International Media Coverage of Africa , February 1, 2021.
Krog, A. “Rethinking Reconciliation and Forgiveness at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” In The Limits of Transition: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission 20 Years On, edited by M. Swart and K. V. Marle. Leiden: BRILL NIJHOFF, 2017.
Lee, Royce J. “Mistrustful and Misunderstood: A Review of Paranoid Personality Disorder.” Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports 4 (2017): 151–65.
Mabasa-Manganyi, Rachel B, and Mohammed Xolile Ntshangase. “The Path to Decoloniality: A Proposal for Educational System Transformation.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Education Research 3, no. 1 (2021): 56–65.
Mandela, N. “Address to the United Nations General Assembly.” Youtube, October 3, 1994. https://www.un.org/en/events/mandeladay/legacy.shtml.
Mashatole, A., and M. Makgoba. “ Institutional Identity and Multilingualism at University of Limpopo.” In Language and Institutional Identity in the Post-Apartheid South African Education: Perspectives on Policy and Practice, edited by M. Makalela. Switzerland AG. : Springer Nature , 2022.
Masumi, B. The Evolutionary Alchemy of Reason: Stelarc. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Effect, Sensation. Duke University Press. USA, 2002.
Mbosowo, Donald E. Understanding Human Races:: The Restoration of the Lost African Race and the Final Solution to the Problems of Humanity. Xlibris Corporation, 2012.
McCarthy, M. Dark Continent: Africa as Seen by Americans. California : Greenwood Press, 2008.
McGinn, C. The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey through Twentieth-Century Philosophy. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2002.
Mentan, T. The Cotton Empire of Slavery, Racism and Resistance. Africa in the Colonial Ages of Empire: Slavery, Capitalism, Racism, Colonialism, Decolonization, Independence as Recolonization, and Beyond. Mankon: Langaa Research & Publishing CIG, 2018.
Milazzo, M. “UL Spring Lectures: Day 1,” September 5, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbhSrLil4k.
Minga, Katunga J. “African Discourses on the Africanization and Decolonization of Social and Human Sciences.” Journal of Black Studies 52, no. 1 (2021): 50–76.
Mohammad G. M. “Capitalism Is Colonialism and It’s Us All Killed,” January 21, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK62pZCXlZs.
Mudimbe, V. Y. The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge. London: Indiana University Press, 2020.
Musere, J. Africa the Dark Continent According to Foreigners. Lagos: Ariko Publications, 2016.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni S. J. “ Moral Evil, Economic Good: Whitewashing the Sins of Colonialism.” Al Jazeera , February 26, 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/2/26/colonialism-in-africa-empire-was-not-ethical.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa. African Books Collective, 2013.
Ngomane, M. I Am Only Because You Are. Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way. UK: Bantam Press, 2019.
Ntshangase, Mohammed Xolile. “A Philosophical Critique of Feminism : From the Third Wave to the Fourth Wave.” African Journal of Gender, Society and Development (Formerly Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa) 10, no. 2 (June 1, 2021): 25–40. https://doi.org/10.31920/2634-3622/2021/v10n2a2.
_____. “2022 UL Spring Lectures: Day 2,” September 6, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvJZqoblKw.
Ocholla, D. “Decolonising Higher Education in Africa: Implications and Responsibilities for University Libraries.” College & Research Libraries News 18, no. 1 (2020). https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/24481/32320.
Olson, Nicholas J, and Rohini Ahluwalia. “When Sharing Isn’t Caring: The Influence of Seeking the Best on Sharing Favorable Word of Mouth about Unsatisfactory Purchases.” Journal of Consumer Research 47, no. 6 (2021): 1025–46.
Pigeaud, F., and N. S. Sylla. Devaluation of African Currency by Colonial States. Edited by T. Fazi. Australia: Pluto Press, 2021.
Pinker, S. Enlightenment. Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Penguin Books: New York, 2018.
Quinn, Jocey. “A Humanist University in a Posthuman World: Relations, Responsibilities, and Rights.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 42, no. 5–6 (2021): 686–700.
Raji A. T. Colonization of Africa: Nature and Process. The Colonization of Africa and Its Effect on Africa Indigenous Industry. Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2019.
Rodney, R. Europe and the Roots of African Underdevelopment to 1885. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: VERSO, 2018.
Rodney, W. “Colonialism as a System for under Developing Africa.” Verso Blog , August 10, 2020. https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4810-colonialism-as-a-asystem-for-underdeveloping-africa.
Rovira, M. “ Reason Versus Emotion: The Daily Battle .” MOJ Addiction Medicine & Therapy Vol 5 (6), 2018. https://medcraonline.com/MOJAMT/reason-versus-emotion-the-daily-battle.html.
Soames, S. The Dawn of Analysis: Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century . Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Spencer, M. The End of Empire in Uganda: Decolonization and Institutional Conflict, 1945-79. Bloomsbury Publishers. USA, 2020.
Temale, S. Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Dejara Press. Nigeria, 2020.
TRT World. “The Colonization of South Africa,” June 4, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi93LjuQbMM.
Weisz, P. The Universal Mind. New Zealand: Kwarts Publishers, 2018.
Wittgenstein, L. “ Mind Association .” JSTOR 61, 1937. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2252298.
Mohammed Xolile Ntshangase is a Lecturer in Philosophy and Psychology of Education at the Department of Education Studies, University of Limpopo, South Africa. His research focuses on African Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, and Psychoanalysis.
Ntshangase, Mohammed Xolile. “The Defense of the Adoption of Critical Social Theory as a Framework for African Universities,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.7 (2024): 1207-1218. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245712
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
