Epistemic Hierarchies and the Marketisation of Africa Expertise

In British academia, Africa occupies a paradoxical position, highly visible as a site of humanitarian concern and policy experimentation, yet structurally marginalised in shaping research agendas and defining scholarly value. This debate piece explores how Africa is imagined both as an object of charity and as a market for research capital, institutional prestige, and consultancy. By mapping the institutional cartographies of leading UK universities, the paper demonstrates how Africa's prominence as a research site coexists with the persistent silencing of African epistemic authority. Drawing on critical political economy, I argue that current decolonising rhetorics often mask a marketised coloniality that treats African knowledge as extractable raw material. Rather than seeking inclusive engagement, this study maintains that epistemic justice requires dismantling Northern institutional monopolies. This shift is essential to enable African institutions to operate as autonomous agenda-setters, independent of the paternalistic validation inherent in the British academic market.

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