UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Education
⋄
Decolonisation and Africanisation in Education:
A Critical Examination through the Lens
of Women and Education
Assignment 3 — Semester 1, 2026
⋄
Module Code: HED4804
Module Name: Philosophy in Education
Assignment No.: 03
Due Date: July 2026
Semester: Semester 1, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Philosophy in Education
at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
Contents
1 Introduction 2
2 Conceptualising Decolonisation and Africanisation in the Philosophy of Educa-
tion 3
2.1 Decolonisation as Epistemic Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Africanisation: Meanings and Contestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 The Eurocentric Paradigm and the Marginalisation of African Epistemologies 6
3.1 Epistemic Violence in the Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Ubuntu as Counter-Epistemology . 6
4 Women and Education: Gendering the Decolonial and Africanising Project 8
4.1 The Coloniality of Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2 Empirical Barriers Facing Women and Girls in African Education . . . 8
4.3 African Feminist Epistemology as a Decolonising and Africanising Force 9
5 Critical Evaluation of the Proposition 10
5.1 Strengths of the Proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2 Tensions and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.3 Towards a Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6 Conclusion 13
Reference List 14
Page 1 of 15
,UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
1 Introduction
The question of how education systems on the African continent ought to engage with their
colonial inheritance has occupied scholars, policymakers and student movements for decades.
Following the 2015 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall protests in South Africa, calls for
the decolonisation and Africanisation of curricula gained renewed force, exposing the extent to
which both higher and basic education continue to operate within frameworks inherited from
colonial and apartheid rule (Heleta, 2016). At the centre of this debate sits a proposition that
decolonisation and Africanisation in education require a deliberate shift away from Eurocen-
tric paradigms toward epistemologies that reflect African realities, histories and ways of know-
ing. This essay critically examines that proposition through the thematic lens of women and
education, focusing on the educational experiences, barriers and epistemologies of women in
African contexts as a site through which the meaning, scope and limits of decolonisation and
Africanisation can be tested.
The argument developed here is twofold. First, the proposition correctly identifies a genuine
and longstanding epistemic problem: African knowledge systems, including the gendered knowl-
edge systems of African women, have been systematically marginalised within the philosophy
of education (Heleta, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2015). Second, and more critically, an uncriti-
cal or undifferentiated shift toward generic "African" epistemologies risks reproducing exclu-
sions of its own, particularly along the lines of gender, unless decolonisation and Africanisa-
tion are held to an intersectional and pluriversal standard that does not romanticise a single,
unified African tradition (Horsthemke, 2004; Bakare-Yusuf, 2004). The essay proceeds by con-
ceptualising decolonisation and Africanisation, examining the Eurocentric paradigm that both
concepts react against, applying the women and education lens to test the proposition empir-
ically and theoretically, and finally offering a critical evaluation that weighs the proposition’s
strengths against its limitations.
Page 2 of 15
,UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
2 Conceptualising Decolonisation and Africanisation in the Philosophy of Ed-
ucation
2.1 Decolonisation as Epistemic Justice
Decolonisation in education denotes far more than the formal end of colonial administration.
Heleta (2016) argues that South African universities, despite the end of apartheid in 1994,
have not substantially altered the epistemologies and knowledge systems underpinning their
curricula, which remain rooted in colonial, apartheid and Western intellectual traditions. This
persistence is what decolonial theorists describe as epistemic violence, the systematic exclu-
sion, distortion or undervaluing of non-Western ways of knowing within what is treated as
legitimate, examinable knowledge (Heleta, 2016). Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2015) frames decolonial-
ity as simultaneously a political and an epistemological movement, concerned not only with
liberating formerly colonised peoples from ongoing structures of domination, but with gener-
ating new ways of thinking, knowing and doing that are not subordinated to a single, Euro-
North American-centred conception of modernity. Mbembe (2016) extends this argument di-
rectly into the university context, contending that curricula designed under colonialism and
apartheid cannot simply continue unexamined into the democratic era, and posing a question
central to this essay: whether decolonisation is equivalent to Africanisation, or whether the
two pursue related but distinct goals.
2.2 Africanisation: Meanings and Contestation
Where decolonisation names a critique of inherited structures, Africanisation is generally un-
derstood as the constructive project of centring African content, contexts, languages and ways
of knowing within those structures (Govender and Naidoo, 2023). Govender and Naidoo (2023),
drawing on Jansen’s influential typology of the field, distinguish at least five competing con-
ceptions: decolonisation as the decentring of European knowledge, decolonisation as the African-
isation of knowledge, decolonisation as additive-inclusive knowledge, decolonisation as criti-
cal engagement with already settled knowledge, and decolonisation as an encounter with en-
tangled knowledge systems. These conceptions are not interchangeable, and the gap between
them is decisive for how the proposition under examination should be assessed.
An additive-inclusive approach, for instance, may leave Eurocentric paradigms structurally
intact while supplementing them with African examples or token African authors. This ten-
Page 3 of 15
, UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
Conceptions of
Decolonisation
Decentring Additive- Critical engage- Encounter
Africanisation
European inclusive ment with set- with entangled
of knowledge
knowledge knowledge tled knowledge knowledge
Figure 1: Five conceptions of decolonisation in the South African curriculum debate (adapted
from Jansen, as discussed in Govender and Naidoo, 2023)
dency has been observed directly in the South African technical and vocational education and
training sector, where Africanisation has historically been reduced to symbolic gestures such
as renaming buildings or inserting African readings into an otherwise unchanged Eurocentric
curriculum (Majola, Geduld and Sathorar, 2026). By contrast, decolonisation as the decen-
tring of European knowledge or as an encounter with entangled knowledge systems implies a
more structural reconfiguration, one in which African ways of knowing are not merely added
but actively reshape what counts as a legitimate object of study, a legitimate method, and a
legitimate knower. This distinction between additive and transformative approaches recurs
throughout the remainder of this essay and is essential to evaluating the proposition fairly.
Table 1: Decolonisation and Africanisation in Education: A Comparison
Aspect Decolonisation Africanisation
Primary focus Critique and dismantling of Centring of African content,
colonial structures of power and languages and epistemologies
knowledge (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, (Govender and Naidoo, 2023)
2015)
Relation to Euro- Names and unsettles the hege- Constructs an explicit alternative
centrism mony of Eurocentric paradigms drawing on African realities and
as the implicit norm (Heleta, histories
2016)
Risk if applied Reform without redistribution Tokenism or additive inclusion
superficially of epistemic authority (Mbembe, without structural change (Ma-
2016) jola et al., 2026)
Underlying claim Eurocentric knowledge is not neu- African knowledge systems pos-
tral or universal but historically sess equal epistemic legitimacy
situated (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2015) (Letseka, 2013)
Horsthemke (2004), while broadly sympathetic to the underlying grievances that motivate
Africanisation, cautions against treating it as a self-evidently coherent project. He argues that
the idea of Africanisation can evoke a misleading sense of a single, retrievable African past or
a unified African epistemology, when in fact the continent contains an immense diversity of
languages, cosmologies and knowledge traditions that cannot be reduced to one alternative
Page 4 of 15
College of Education
⋄
Decolonisation and Africanisation in Education:
A Critical Examination through the Lens
of Women and Education
Assignment 3 — Semester 1, 2026
⋄
Module Code: HED4804
Module Name: Philosophy in Education
Assignment No.: 03
Due Date: July 2026
Semester: Semester 1, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Philosophy in Education
at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
Contents
1 Introduction 2
2 Conceptualising Decolonisation and Africanisation in the Philosophy of Educa-
tion 3
2.1 Decolonisation as Epistemic Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Africanisation: Meanings and Contestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 The Eurocentric Paradigm and the Marginalisation of African Epistemologies 6
3.1 Epistemic Violence in the Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Ubuntu as Counter-Epistemology . 6
4 Women and Education: Gendering the Decolonial and Africanising Project 8
4.1 The Coloniality of Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2 Empirical Barriers Facing Women and Girls in African Education . . . 8
4.3 African Feminist Epistemology as a Decolonising and Africanising Force 9
5 Critical Evaluation of the Proposition 10
5.1 Strengths of the Proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2 Tensions and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.3 Towards a Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6 Conclusion 13
Reference List 14
Page 1 of 15
,UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
1 Introduction
The question of how education systems on the African continent ought to engage with their
colonial inheritance has occupied scholars, policymakers and student movements for decades.
Following the 2015 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall protests in South Africa, calls for
the decolonisation and Africanisation of curricula gained renewed force, exposing the extent to
which both higher and basic education continue to operate within frameworks inherited from
colonial and apartheid rule (Heleta, 2016). At the centre of this debate sits a proposition that
decolonisation and Africanisation in education require a deliberate shift away from Eurocen-
tric paradigms toward epistemologies that reflect African realities, histories and ways of know-
ing. This essay critically examines that proposition through the thematic lens of women and
education, focusing on the educational experiences, barriers and epistemologies of women in
African contexts as a site through which the meaning, scope and limits of decolonisation and
Africanisation can be tested.
The argument developed here is twofold. First, the proposition correctly identifies a genuine
and longstanding epistemic problem: African knowledge systems, including the gendered knowl-
edge systems of African women, have been systematically marginalised within the philosophy
of education (Heleta, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2015). Second, and more critically, an uncriti-
cal or undifferentiated shift toward generic "African" epistemologies risks reproducing exclu-
sions of its own, particularly along the lines of gender, unless decolonisation and Africanisa-
tion are held to an intersectional and pluriversal standard that does not romanticise a single,
unified African tradition (Horsthemke, 2004; Bakare-Yusuf, 2004). The essay proceeds by con-
ceptualising decolonisation and Africanisation, examining the Eurocentric paradigm that both
concepts react against, applying the women and education lens to test the proposition empir-
ically and theoretically, and finally offering a critical evaluation that weighs the proposition’s
strengths against its limitations.
Page 2 of 15
,UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
2 Conceptualising Decolonisation and Africanisation in the Philosophy of Ed-
ucation
2.1 Decolonisation as Epistemic Justice
Decolonisation in education denotes far more than the formal end of colonial administration.
Heleta (2016) argues that South African universities, despite the end of apartheid in 1994,
have not substantially altered the epistemologies and knowledge systems underpinning their
curricula, which remain rooted in colonial, apartheid and Western intellectual traditions. This
persistence is what decolonial theorists describe as epistemic violence, the systematic exclu-
sion, distortion or undervaluing of non-Western ways of knowing within what is treated as
legitimate, examinable knowledge (Heleta, 2016). Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2015) frames decolonial-
ity as simultaneously a political and an epistemological movement, concerned not only with
liberating formerly colonised peoples from ongoing structures of domination, but with gener-
ating new ways of thinking, knowing and doing that are not subordinated to a single, Euro-
North American-centred conception of modernity. Mbembe (2016) extends this argument di-
rectly into the university context, contending that curricula designed under colonialism and
apartheid cannot simply continue unexamined into the democratic era, and posing a question
central to this essay: whether decolonisation is equivalent to Africanisation, or whether the
two pursue related but distinct goals.
2.2 Africanisation: Meanings and Contestation
Where decolonisation names a critique of inherited structures, Africanisation is generally un-
derstood as the constructive project of centring African content, contexts, languages and ways
of knowing within those structures (Govender and Naidoo, 2023). Govender and Naidoo (2023),
drawing on Jansen’s influential typology of the field, distinguish at least five competing con-
ceptions: decolonisation as the decentring of European knowledge, decolonisation as the African-
isation of knowledge, decolonisation as additive-inclusive knowledge, decolonisation as criti-
cal engagement with already settled knowledge, and decolonisation as an encounter with en-
tangled knowledge systems. These conceptions are not interchangeable, and the gap between
them is decisive for how the proposition under examination should be assessed.
An additive-inclusive approach, for instance, may leave Eurocentric paradigms structurally
intact while supplementing them with African examples or token African authors. This ten-
Page 3 of 15
, UNISA | HED4804 Decolonisation & Africanisation in Education
Conceptions of
Decolonisation
Decentring Additive- Critical engage- Encounter
Africanisation
European inclusive ment with set- with entangled
of knowledge
knowledge knowledge tled knowledge knowledge
Figure 1: Five conceptions of decolonisation in the South African curriculum debate (adapted
from Jansen, as discussed in Govender and Naidoo, 2023)
dency has been observed directly in the South African technical and vocational education and
training sector, where Africanisation has historically been reduced to symbolic gestures such
as renaming buildings or inserting African readings into an otherwise unchanged Eurocentric
curriculum (Majola, Geduld and Sathorar, 2026). By contrast, decolonisation as the decen-
tring of European knowledge or as an encounter with entangled knowledge systems implies a
more structural reconfiguration, one in which African ways of knowing are not merely added
but actively reshape what counts as a legitimate object of study, a legitimate method, and a
legitimate knower. This distinction between additive and transformative approaches recurs
throughout the remainder of this essay and is essential to evaluating the proposition fairly.
Table 1: Decolonisation and Africanisation in Education: A Comparison
Aspect Decolonisation Africanisation
Primary focus Critique and dismantling of Centring of African content,
colonial structures of power and languages and epistemologies
knowledge (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, (Govender and Naidoo, 2023)
2015)
Relation to Euro- Names and unsettles the hege- Constructs an explicit alternative
centrism mony of Eurocentric paradigms drawing on African realities and
as the implicit norm (Heleta, histories
2016)
Risk if applied Reform without redistribution Tokenism or additive inclusion
superficially of epistemic authority (Mbembe, without structural change (Ma-
2016) jola et al., 2026)
Underlying claim Eurocentric knowledge is not neu- African knowledge systems pos-
tral or universal but historically sess equal epistemic legitimacy
situated (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2015) (Letseka, 2013)
Horsthemke (2004), while broadly sympathetic to the underlying grievances that motivate
Africanisation, cautions against treating it as a self-evidently coherent project. He argues that
the idea of Africanisation can evoke a misleading sense of a single, retrievable African past or
a unified African epistemology, when in fact the continent contains an immense diversity of
languages, cosmologies and knowledge traditions that cannot be reduced to one alternative
Page 4 of 15
