Abstract
The title of this chapter is provocative. This is because all scholars, regardless of background, always consider themselves critical thinkers. After all, academic research is by default a space for the robust exchange of ideas and the production of knowledge. At its best, media and communication studies research must be original, critical, transformative, and clearly add to the contours of a multicultural critical theory as imagined in various places and philosophical traditions. Good research must give birth to critical thinking that not only interprets the world, but changes it by unmasking all forms of domination beyond the insubstantial nature of neoliberal theory and Marxian reductionism. In the broader field of the Humanities, theory that both undergirds research and is also produced by research must be critical. As a form of higher order thinking, theory must deliver substantive rationality as opposed to instrumental rationality. In communication studies research, theory must not limit itself to craft skills needed by journalists in industry, but must also seek to produce interventions that align media work with the broader struggle for social justice, egalitarianism, and freedom of the self and community.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Abiola, O. E. (1978). History of West Africa. Ado-Ekiti: Ondo State Printing and Publishing House.
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities. New York: Verso.
Bhambra, G. K. (2014). Postcolonial and decolonial dialogues. iPostcolonial Studies, 17(2), 115–121.
Bourgault, L. M. (1995). Mass media in sub-Saharan Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Charkrabarty, D. (2000). Provincialising Europe: Post colonial thought and Historical difference. New York: Princetown University Press.
Chatterjee, P. (1993). Whose imagined community? In G. Balakrishnan (Ed.), Mapping the nation (pp. 214–224). New York: Verso.
Chirikure, S. (2015). Metals in past societies: A global perspective on indigenous African metallurgy. Cham: Springer.
Comaroff, J., & Commarof, J. L. (2012). Theory from the South: How Euro-America in evolving toward Africa. London: Paradigm Publishers.
Curran, J., & Park, M.-J. (2000a). Beyond globalization theory. In J. Curran & M.-J. Park (Eds.), DeWesternizing media studies (pp. 3–18). London: Routledge.
Curran, J., & Park, M.-J. (2000b). DeWesternizing media studies. London: Routledge.
Davis, W. (1984). Representation and knowledge in the prehistoric rock art of Africa. African Archaeological Review, 2, 7–35.
de Allen, G. J. G. (2012). In search of epistemic freedom: Afro-Caribbean philosophy’s contributions to continental philosophy. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 26(2), 394–403.
Doob, L. W. (1961). Communication in Africa: A search for boundaries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Duyile, D. (1967). Makers of Nigerian press. Lagos, Nigeria: Gong Communication Ltd.
Fiske, J. (1990). Introduction to communication studies (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977. Brighton: Harvester Press.
Garman, A. (2015). Making media theory from the South. African Journalism Studies, 36(1), 169–172.
Gordon, L. R. (2014). Disciplinary decadence and decolonizing knowledge. Africa Development, 39(1), 81–92.
Grosfoguel, R. (2007). The epistemic decolonial turn: Beyond political-economy paradigms. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 211–223.
Grosfoguel, R. (2008). Transmodernity, border thinking, and global coloniality: Decolonizing political economy and postcolonial studies. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 80(1), 10–30.
Grosfoguel, R. (2011). Transmodernity, border thinking, and global coloniality: Decolonizing political economy and postcolonial studies. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 80(1), 10–30.
Hallin, D. C., & Mancini, P. (2004). Comparing media systems: Three models of media and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Journalism, Sage Publications, 2(2), 123–147.
Hardt, H. (1992). Critical communication studies: Essays on communication, history and theory in America. New York: Routledge.
Jones-Quartey, K. A. B. (1974). A summary history of the Ghana press: 1822–1960. Accra: Ghana Information Services Department.
Kasoma, F. P. (1986). The press in Zambia Lusaka. Zambia: Multimedia Publications.
Kebede, M. (2009). Africa’s quest for a philosophy of decolonisation. New York: Radopi.
Kelner, D. (1995). The absolence of marxism. In B. Magnus & S. Cullenberg (Eds.), Whither marxism?: Global crises in international perspective. London: Routledge.
Kitchen, H. (Ed.). (1956). The press in Africa. Washington, DC: Ruth Sloan Associates Incorporated.
Liamputtong, P. (2010). Performing cross-cultural research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lugones, M. (2007). Heterosexualism and the coloniality of modern gender system. Hypatia, 22(1), 186–209.
Maldonado-Toress, N. (2007). Coloniality of being. Cultural Studies, 21(2), 240–270.
Maldonado-Toress, N. (2011). Thinking through the decolonial turn: Post-continental interventions in theory, philosophy, and critique. Transmodernity, 1(2), 1–15.
Mignolo, W. (2001) 2011. The darker side of Western modernity: Global futures, decolonial options (Latin America otherwise). Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books.
Mignolo, W. (2014). Looking for the meaning of ‘decolonial gesture’. Gesto Decolonial, 11(1), 1–18.
Mignolo, W. D. (2000). Local histories/global designs. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Mignolo, W. D. (2002). Geopolitics of knowledge and the colonial difference. South Atlantic Quarterly, 103(1), 57–96.
Mignolo, W. D. (2006). On subalterns and other agencies. Postcolonial Studies, 8(4), 381–407.
Mignolo, W. D. (2011). The darker side of western modernity. London: Duke University Press.
Moyo, L. (2016). The post-apartheid moment: Rethinking theory and pedagogy in communication studies in South Africa. Sacomm Conference, 3–7 October 2016.
Nail, T., Morar, N., & Smith, D. W. (2016). Introduction. In N. Morar, T. Nail, & D. W. Smith (Eds.), Between Deleuze and Foucault. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. (2013). Why decoloniality in the 21st century? Thinker, 48, 10–15.
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2005). Journalism in Africa: Modernity, africanity. Rhodes Journalism Review, 25, 3–6.
Obeng-Quaidoo, I. (1985). Media habits of Ghanaian youth. In F. O. Ugboajah (Ed.), Mass communication, culture and society in West Africa (pp. 237–249). Oxford, London, New York, München, Paris, Saur: Hans Zell.
Rabaka, R. (2010). Against epistemic apartheid: W.E.B. Du Bois and the disciplinary decadence of sociology. New York: Lexington Books.
Rattansi, A. (1994). Western racisms, ethnicity and identities in a postmodern frame. In A. Rattansi & S. Westwood (Eds.), Racism, modernity and identity (pp. 15–87). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Ronning, H. (1995). Democracy, civil society and the media in Africa in the nineties: A discussion of the emergence and relevance of some analytical concepts for the understanding of the situation in Africa. Innovation, 8(4), 335–352.
Rosalynde, A. (1967). The press in Africa: Communications past and present. New York: Walker and Coy.
Sachikonye, L. M. (Ed.). (1995). Democracy, civil society and the state: Social movements in southern Africa. Harare: SAPES Books.
Shohat, E., & Stam, R. (Eds.). (2000). Unthinking eurocentricism: Causes, manifestations, and solutions. London: Routledge.
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London and New York: Zed Books.
Smith, L. T. (2005). Building a research agenda for the indigenous epistemologies and education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 36(1), 78–89.
Tettey, W. J. (2001). The media and democratization in Africa: Contributions, constraints and concerns of the private press. Media, Culture & Society, 23, 5–31.
Wallerstein, I. M. (2003). Historical capitalism with capitalist civilization. London: Verso.
WaThiongo, N. (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London: James Carey.
WaThiongo, N. (2009). Something torn and new: An African renaissance. New York: Basic Civitas.
Willems, W. (2014). Provincializing hegemonic histories of media and communication studies. Communication Theory, 24, 415–434.
Zavala, M. (2013). What do we mean by decolonizing research strategies? Lessons from decolonizing, Indigenous research projects in New Zealand and Latin America. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 21, 55–71.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Moyo, L., Mutsvairo, B. (2018). Can the Subaltern Think? The Decolonial Turn in Communication Research in Africa. In: Mutsvairo, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Media and Communication Research in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70443-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70443-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70442-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70443-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)