Abstract
The project of decolonising knowledge has gained renewed prominence as scholars confront enduring epistemic injustices and structural inequalities embedded in global systems of knowledge production. Situated within long-standing anticolonial and postcolonial intellectual struggles, this article interrogates key conceptual dilemmas that continue to shape contemporary debates on decoloniality. Adopting a commentary orientation, it examines what it means to decolonise knowledge by engaging the historical foundations of decolonial thought alongside contemporary critiques that expose the persistence of epistemic hierarchies within modern academic institutions. The article argues that, without conceptual clarity, the decolonial project risks becoming analytically misguided and politically misdirected, potentially reproducing new forms of epistemic dominance under the guise of non-Western alternatives. Moving beyond reductionist and essentialist interpretations, the analysis advances a critical synthesis of decolonial scholarship to demonstrate that decolonising knowledge entails neither epistemic reversal nor indigenisation, but a commitment to epistemic pluralism grounded in reflexivity and institutional transformation. It further contends that coloniality constitutes a global structure of knowledge control reproduced through both transnational and local institutional arrangements, including within the Global South itself. Shedding light on core theoretical and conceptual tendencies, the article contributes to ongoing debates on epistemic justice and the reimagining of global knowledge systems.
Recommended Citation
Sambaiga, Richard
(2025)
"Decolonizing Knowledge as Epistemic Justice: Key Conceptual Tendencies from the Global South,"
Tanzania Journal of Sociology: Vol. 11:
Iss.
2, Article 8.
Available at:
https://commons.udsm.ac.tz/tjso/vol11/iss2/8