Reading on the edge of Africa Day: Rethinking Liberation in Contemporary Africa
By Cde Mohammed Yagoub (Zerick)
The 25th of May marks one of important days in modern African history, Africans in different parts of the continent and diaspora commemorate this day. A historic day linked to founding of Organization of African Unity in 1963 that later came to be known as African Union. To many Africans this day symbolizes anti-colonial revolutionary triumph, African people’s solidarity and greater dream of continent’s unity. This is a day that has greater links with continent’s immortal revolutionary foot soldiers, leaders, fight against imperial domination and memory of liberatory movements.
Yet beneath all these ululations, speeches, symbolic celebrations and ceremonies lies a stubborn intellectual question which requires Africa to surgically confront, in this messy century is: did the so-called political independence really accomplish true liberation for the mother Africa or it merely changed faces used to be sitting at the front desks of the colonial administration with faces looked other than them while paving way for the structures of the power representing colonial system in place? This question may guide us towards understanding the difference between decoloniality and decolonization. Decolonization refers to fight against direct colonial rule in order to transfer political power to emerging African national governments. Historically it was necessary to be carried out because colonialism was based on racial hierarchy, economic exploitation, cultural domination and system of extraction. The colonizer’s administration crafted continent’s economies to serve interests of the imperial power undermining indigenous governance systems in place and started treating indigenous cultures and knowledge systems as primitive based on their own equations.
The twentieth century African liberation struggles were necessary for sovereignty and dignity but political independence did not do away with the system. Now decades later most parts of the continent still remain economically, intellectually, institutionally and psychologically trapped in the incomplete decolonization stages. Even though twenty’s century marked as important political independence stage for most parts of Africa, structurally colonialism remains intact. Postcolonial African elites who replaced colonial governors maintained colonial economic models, educational system, borders created by the colonial system, colonial assumptions about knowledge and civilization, and colonial institutions.
This is a reality that tells us why Africa Day or Africa Liberation Day shouldn’t be taken as a mere celebratory day of liberation from chains of direct colonialism rather it should be taken as serious intellectual stage that reminds us about the unfinished fight for cognitive justice, institutional transformation, decoloniality and epistemological liberation. Africa’s future doesn’t depend on mere remembrance of partial past victories against colonialism rather on surgical understanding of forms of domination which continuous even today after flags of colonialism long gone. Here it becomes necessary for us to understand the importance of decoloniality since the coloniality of power still persists.
Decoloniality forces us to make deeper inquiries than decolonization, it enables us to ask questions like: Whose language dominates institutions and education? Who has power to define which knowledge is legitimate? Whose experiences guide development models? And more importantly whose history is taken as universal history? These are necessary questions because colonialism done more than just shaping economic and political fields it has shaped the very production of knowledge.
Epistemological liberation is one of the central ideas in decolonial thought because the colonizer always put forward their knowledge as universal knowledge while portraying the knowledge systems and intellectual traditions of the colonized as primitive or inferior. This has led to production of what some scholars call epistemicide the deliberate marginalization or destruction of the indigenous knowledge systems. Epistemological liberation means breaking the chains put in place by the colonizer so as to bring back intellectual confidence and put forward that knowledge is not a singular comes from colonizer as the only source but plural.
Epistemic liberation doesn’t mean rejection of international intellectual exchange, rejection of science, becoming anti-reason or stand against modernity claiming back to roots, rather it means challenging assumptions that the legitimate knowledge always has to come from somewhere else. African peoples have important philosophies, cultural practices, ecological knowledge and intellectual traditions that are capable of contributing positively and meaningfully to humanity’s thought. African oral traditions, environmental management and communal ethics continue to provide valuable insights to modern society.
Borrowing development models and policy frameworks from outside world without having surgical look at local African realities on ground is one of the major challenges facing the continent on her way forward. Educational institutions are contributing to this mess by becoming promoters of intellectual dependency, rather than rewarding those generate original ideas on continents real experiences they are busy rewarding those who reproduce common international theories. This keeps encouraging Africa to continue as knowledge consumer rather than becoming producer, mother continent can not grow to its full potential when it entirely depending on use of frameworks written elsewhere in defining and solving her problems.
As Pan African Consciousness is progressing opportunists are turning decolonial language into scapegoat, for many political actors in the continent it’s being made a cover point for them to reproduce exclusionary political processes, corruption and authoritarianism. Revolutionaries should avoid making decoloniality as a simply anti-western populist rhetoric. Liberation is more than just criticising western dominance, those who speak decolonial language while oppressing their own peoples because of differences in their views, ethnicity or belief systems are not decolonial those are black and brown imperialists. Real decoloniality is more than that it demands for just order, institutional transformation, intellectual rigor, democratic accountability and ethical responsibility.
Sometimes celebrations of Africa Day seem to risk keeping the continent trapped in symbolic nationalism. Things like speeches, slogans, cultural exhibitions and flags regarding African pride might be powerful emotionally but symbolism on its own can’t give us sustainable development, improved education, strong institutions or transform economies. This type of anti-colonial nationalism played big role in fight against colonial empire but modern Africa is facing more complicated problems which require structural responses on questions of scientific innovation, urbanization, technological development, institutional capacity, educational reform and governance which cannot solely be handled by symbolisms.
Having glance at Urban Africa you can see the reflection of how colonialism continues up to date, colonial planners prioritized administrative control, exclusionary practices and extraction. Even today decades after the so-called independence many African cities keep reproducing inequalities having their roots in colonizer’s spatial organization. Continuous urbanization, infrastructural inequalities, informal settlements and displacements still remain major problems facing Urban Africa. Urban thinking in decolonial way inquires whose mobility matters, whose history is removed and whose history is being preserved in urban spaces and who cities are being designed for?
The question of language is a key in politics of decoloniality, colonial languages remain dominant in fields of elite communication, education and administration. Despite the role of these languages in enabling transcontinental communication high dependency on them reinforce inequality and promote marginalization of indigenous languages. As Kenyan revolutionary writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o once said languages do carry identities, worldviews and memories of peoples, epistemic liberation demands intellectual recognition and linguistic dignity of the continent’s languages.
Continent’s youth population is one of significant dimensions of decoloniality, Africa has one of the youngest populations in the world that puts it in place of risks and opportunities. Having large population of youth with less educational investment can risk producing frustration and instability while having young population equipped with necessary empowerment in fields of technology, institutional inclusion and education can be highly transformative. Continent’s youth becoming more and more connected through cultural production, digital technologies and entrepreneurship but technology is not liberatory by its own, continent must go beyond mere consumer of technologies produced outside her and scale up on becoming her own producer of knowledge, research and innovation.
It’s of great necessity for Pan Africanism itself to evolve forward into more serious fronts beyond symbolic rhetoricism. From historical point of view Pan Africanism fought against racial oppression and Africa’s solidarity against colonialism but today we have more complicated and practical issues like question of economic cooperation, Afrophobia within the continents and beyond, peacebuilding, mobility, academic collaboration and institutional development which need to be addressed urgently. Decoloniality does not give a blind eye to Africa’s internal issues and run to blame all on colonial history, some issues like ethnic manipulation, corruption, institutional weakness and authoritarianism require ethical reflections and accountability from within.
Africa Day should be taken as a point in continents history where her children stop to renew their intellectual commitments and make critical reflections regarding her tomorrow rather than point of ceremonial celebrations. Continent’s liberation path remains long because fight for epistemic freedom and cognitive justice haven’t been accomplished yet. The biggest problem facing modern Africa is not only question of political sovereignty but it’s the question of intellectual sovereignty. Is it possible for the continent’s societies modernize without necessarily reproducing dependency? Is it possible for them to become knowledge producers rather than consumers? Is it possible for them to make their institutions stronger while maintaining their cultural confidence and internationally engaged? These are some of the guiding questions of decoloniality.
The twentieth century Africa’s liberation movements changed the world history when they ended direct colonial rule in different parts of the continent but gaining political independence on its own was not enough to do away with the intrenched structures built by coloniality. The invisible forms of colonial dominance surviving through education, governance institutions, hierarchies of knowledge and economies remains active. These are reasons that make it necessary for the continent to move from decolonization stage to stage of decoloniality. Africa’s tomorrow does not solely depend on remembering history of liberation or past anti-colonial struggles rather on empowering societies to be able to strengthen their institutions, produce valuable knowledge, build intellectual confidence and encourage innovation. Epistemic liberation is a central condition for continent’s development it’s not just and abstract academic idea.
Decoloniality doesn’t mean isolation of the continent from rest of the world it means equal participation and representation of Africa, decoloniality must be kept as self-critical, internationally engaged, democratic and rational as possible. Africa Day or Africa Liberation Day should serve as reminder for the unfinished epistemic freedom, cognitive justice and transformation of institutions rather than day for celebrating political independence alone. The problems we have before us today in the mother continent are no longer problems of doing away with direct colonialism, it’s matter of empowering societies to see the world through their own eyes than eyes of the colonizer, thinking on their own, imagining, governing, carrying out development on their own terms while remain in touch with the rest of humanity fully. This is the meaning of decoloniality and the unfinished business of Africa’s continental liberation.
The end
25th/May/2026
