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Abstract

The question of Africa's developmental framework has been under scrutiny by contemporary theorists. One area concerns the role of local linguistic and cultural imperatives in shaping economic development and progress. This seminar unpacks epistemic delinking and the challenges of language as an avenue of decolonisation in contexts that perpetuate western ideology. As this discussion contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on decolonial epistemic disobedience, it also joins other discussions that seek to formulate a means for pluralistic toolkits usable for the development discourse. This discussion unpacks ‘delinking diction’, the extrication from a hegemonic language towards discovering new epistemic ideas. As this possibility is explored, there should be a consideration of the hierarchical order of marginalised languages themselves which is determined by a Western ideology. Ultimately, decolonial endeavours are incomplete as they linger with colonial remnants and what might be feasible is a pluralisation of epistemologies to be used for the development discourse.

Bio 

Min’enhle Ncube is an anthropology doctoral research fellow at the Institute for the Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests include medical anthropology, digital anthropology, developmental paradigms, material culture and user experience. Her research on the intersections of artificial intelligence-driven apps supporting maternal healthcare in Lusaka, Zambia, forms a part of HUMA’s flagship research project, Future Hospitals: 4IR and Ethics of Care, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Her project is also funded by the African Critical Inquiry Program.

Read more on Min’enhle Ncube's website