Book Review: Decolonising Media and Communication Studies Education in Sub-Saharan Africa by Selina Linda Mudavanhu,Shepherd Mpofu,and Kezia Batisai

Colonial legacies in education in Africa persist, including in communication studies education, which remain trapped in Eurocentric frameworks – marginalising indigenous knowledge and hindering academic autonomy. As African academia pushes for educational decolonisation, the book Decolonising Media and Communication Studies Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (featuring 15 scholars’ essays) offers timely insights. It explores why and how to decolonise such education, addresses key challenges, and looks at experiments like the Africa-centred Ekoaɗo framework. At its core, the book argues for dismantling Eurocentric systems and reshaping education around African perspectives, histories, and experiences.

Collectively, the authors draw heavily on Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, Walter Mignolo’s decoloniality theory, and bell hooks’ engaged pedagogy to advocate for dismantling authoritarian hierarchies, fostering egalitarian teacher–student dialogues, and empowering student agency. A few examples of such work include: Freire’s problem-posing education is applied to reconceptualise pedagogical relationships, prioritising students’ active participation in knowledge co-creation; Mignolo’s decoloniality critiques the hegemony of Western epistemologies, demanding the centring of African indigenous knowledge systems; hooks’ emphasis on participatory learning aligns with efforts to democratise classrooms and amplify marginalised voices. These theories converge to challenge Eurocentric paradigms while grounding educational praxis in African sociocultural realities.

In terms of methodology, this work employs a multifaceted empirical framework encompassing case studies, in-depth interviews, policy discourse analysis, and classroom ethnography, complemented by a comparative analytical methodology. Exemplified by Gregory Gondwe's cross-continental examination of journalism training paradigms in China, the United States, and Europe, the research uncovers the nuanced ideological influences exerted by diverse external actors on African journalistic pedagogy.

Higher education institutions across South Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe have increasingly institutionalised decolonisation initiatives – evidenced by the University of Cape Town’s curriculum reforms following the 2015 “Rhodes Must Fall” movement and Moi University’s integration of oral traditional narratives into journalism training. African scholars are advancing contextualised knowledge models through transnational networks, synthesising frameworks such as Walter Mignolo’s decoloniality and Achille Mbembe’s Critical Africanism. However, these efforts face structural constraints, including linguistic barriers in Francophone regions, Eurocentric assessment systems, and uneven resource allocation that hinder local textbook production and teacher training.

The book is structured around four thematic pillars. Part One provides a macro-level analysis of the necessity for decolonial education, critiquing the prolonged reliance of African media and communication studies curricula on Western theories and methodologies, which systematically marginalise indigenous languages, cultural contexts, and historical frameworks. For example, Selina Linda Mudavanhu argues that decolonisation does not entail outright rejection of Western knowledge but rather a reconfiguration of power dynamics in knowledge production to foster dialogue between local and global epistemologies. Cecilia Katunge Kithome and Mudavanhu further interrogate language policies, condemning African universities’ overreliance on colonial languages like English and French. They advocate for integrating indigenous languages such as Swahili and Yoruba into curricular design to revitalise cultural identity and ensure intergenerational knowledge continuity.

Part Two shifts focus to classroom praxis, exploring possibilities for pedagogical transformation. Floribert Patrick C. Endong directs attention to film education, critiquing the uncritical veneration of Western canonical theories – such as the French New Wave or Hollywood storytelling – in African film curricula. He argues that these programmes often treat Western film theory as sacrosanct while marginalising indigenous oral traditions and community-based narratives, dismissing African cinematic practices as “heretical” or “non-cinematic”. His de-Westernising strategy advocates for integrating frameworks like Filmagrioty, which bridges cinematic expression with African oral storytelling traditions, thereby recentring cultural specificity in film pedagogy.

Part Three illuminates the complexities of curricular reform. Colin Chasi and Ylva Rodny-Gumed contend that decolonising curricula demands confronting the insidious influence of Western epistemic hegemony – even when indigenous case studies are introduced, their framing within unchanged pedagogical paradigms perpetuates colonial logics. Shepherd Mpofu contends that true decolonisation requires radically redefining the university’s role in knowledge production. Examining Zimbabwe, he highlights a critical contradiction: while official policies promote indigenisation, academic evaluation still prioritises Western-indexed publications, forcing scholars to conform to Global North paradigms. This results in superficial reforms – ambitious in rhetoric but feeble in practice.

Part Four expands the analytical scope to societal and global power relations. Gregory Gondwe critiques short-term journalism training programmes sponsored by China, the United States, and Europe, arguing that these ostensibly “technologically neutral” initiatives in fact export distinct ideological frameworks. For instance, Western programmes prioritise “objective reporting,” yet this framing often erodes African journalists’ autonomy and critical thinking by uncritically replicating Eurocentric norms. Chinese initiatives emphasise “Chinese constructive journalism” – avoiding overtly negative or positive coverage in favour of “balanced” narratives – an approach that risks diluting the media’s role in holding governments accountable. In response, Blessed E. Ngoe proposes reinventing communication paradigms through Ekoaɗo, an indigenous concept rooted in Cameroonian Grassfield societies. Ekoaɗo reimagines communication as a communal bond and collective healing practice, offering an alternative to Western frameworks centred on individualism and competitive discourse.

The study of African decolonisation constitutes a critical interrogation of structural inequalities in global knowledge production, challenging the Western epistemic violence that has historically marginalised non-Western systems as mere “local experience.” At its core, this movement seeks to dismantle the dichotomies of modernity/tradition and universality/locality by reconstructing cognitive frameworks rooted in African contexts. Through theoretical tools like Mignolo's “border thinking” and Ndlovu-Gatsheni's “epistemic justice,” African scholarship not only deconstructs latent coloniality in academic structures but also transforms the Global South from a passive object of study into an active knowledge producer. Thus, research on African decolonisation transcends regional analysis, proposing instead a foundational reimagining of global knowledge networks towards genuine pluralism – a protracted yet essential endeavour for achieving epistemic equality.

This book addresses three significant gaps. First, it systematically examines the colonial legacies embedded in African media and communication education. Second, it proposes actionable solutions including “language revitalization,” “curriculum restructuring,” and “pedagogical transformation.” Third, it introduces indigenous concepts like Ekoaɗo (local epistemic framework), challenging the discipline’s epistemic hegemony. However, certain arguments remain overly idealistic – for instance, promoting indigenous languages must confront the reality of insufficient educational resources, while excessive “de-Westernisation” risks sliding into cultural essentialism and exclusionary tendencies. Additionally, the book’s heavy reliance on qualitative methodologies and relative neglect of quantitative approaches constitutes another limitation.

In summary, Decolonising Media and Communication Studies Education in Sub-Saharan Africa serves as a cornerstone work, offering both critical analysis and actionable decolonial strategies. It provides invaluable insights for scholars across education, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory, while substantially contributing to global discourses on epistemological justice and decolonial praxis.