Toward Advancing African Scholarship through Afrocentric Leadership in Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter frames the struggles of decolonizing knowledge through the Afrocentric epistemological discourses in an African university. The chapter holds that such struggles are rooted in African scholars’ quest to transform the university into an African university underpinned by African experiences, values, and cultures. Considering the dominance of the Western knowledge systems and philosophies in the academic space, the decolonization of knowledge demands radical and decolonized leadership informed by African histories, cultures, ideas, and aspirations. The chapter argues that leadership and governance for the advancement of decolonized African university will remain incomplete unless African scholars take it upon themselves to critically engage with discourses that dislocate hegemonic systems of knowledge production and dissemination for African development. Fundamental to the process of dismantling the dominance of Western knowledge systems in academia and society at large, African scholars are urged to offer an alternative system based on African systems and traditions. For such discourses to liberate the African university from knowledge bondage imposed by the West, African scholars are tasked to provide intellectual and pragmatic leadership to benefit the development of African knowledge systems. For this chapter, the authors make use a desktop systematic review of literature on Afrocentrism and leadership in higher education.

1. Introduction

Universities are an integral part of the higher education system. Thus, higher education is endowed with human capital resources for development [1]. Primordially, higher education has been fundamental in educating “a learned, devoted and civically engaged elites” with universities occupying a central position in society [2]. With growing socioeconomic inequalities, higher education especially universities became the centers not only for the struggle against ideological hegemony but also the sites for the production of knowledge and innovative ideas [3]. In both developed and developing nations, education conferred through higher education remains a bacon of intellectual, social, economic, and political prosperity. Higher education through universities plays a critical role in: a) educating and training people with high-level skills for empowerment, b) dominant producers of new knowledge, and c) providing opportunities for social mobility and social change [4]. From a liberal education perspective, universities with their various colleges and campuses were charged with the responsibility of training people qualified to serve the public for common good [5]. This underlies education as intrinsic good for people in general with knowledge, competent citizens enhance civic participation and democratic governance [6]. Higher education has changed from being a public good to private good underpinned by liberal education [7]. Thus, commercialization of education has dire implications for the African continent, which is still grappling with socioeconomic challenges.

In the context of Africa, higher education is central in the struggle for decolonizing knowledge through the Afrocentric epistemological discourses that challenge the dominance of Eurocentric knowledge systems [7, 8, 9, 10]. The chapter argues that such struggles are rooted in African scholars’ quest to transform the university into an African university underpinned by leadership that values African experiences and cultures. Considering the dominance of the Western knowledge systems and philosophies in the academic space, the decolonization of knowledge demands radical and decolonized leadership informed by African histories, cultures, ideas, and aspirations. In this chapter, we argue that leadership and governance for the advancement of decolonized African university will remain incomplete unless African scholars take it upon themselves to critically engage with discourses that dislocate hegemonic systems of knowledge production and dissemination for Africa development. Thus, African higher education institutions have dual challenges. On the one hand, higher education is challenged to transform itself to eradicate colonial, apartheid, and imperial legacies, while on the other hand, repositioning the sector for global competitiveness and relevance [11]. Arguably, embracing and advancing Afrocentric knowledge systems do not mean abject rejection of other progressive knowledge systems, but rather reclaiming and democratizing spaces for knowledge production, management, and dissemination. This argument is reiterated by Jansen [12], who argues that there is no need to replace Western knowledge with African knowledge; hence, he advocates for both knowledge systems to enter into conversation. Fundamental to the process of dismantling the dominance of Western knowledge systems and methodologies in academia and society at large, African scholars are urged to offer an alternative system based on African value systems and traditions.

Higher education in Africa is the product of a colonial education system, which embodies Western traditions of knowledge production [13]. Despite that Africa had well-established knowledge systems through traditional higher learning centers, the colonial imposition of Western knowledge systems, and models erased its blueprint. Arguably, colonialization did not only succeed in arresting the civilization and development of the colonized people but also was brutal in reproducing the education systems that perpetuate self-denouncement, oppressive, intellectual injustices, economic exploitation, and cultural alienation [14]. Education in the colonies was designed for elites, modeled on Western university systems; hence, less attention was paid to the development of the underdeveloped segments of society [15]. Post-independence, African education systems continue to shadow colonial education with their own intended exploitative end goals [15]. In this regard, colonial administrations were vindictive in imposing Western values and philosophies through imperialism [16]. During the colonial era, a dual system existed reflective of Eurocentric and Afrocentric educational systems. However, Eurocentric worldview was accentuated as a dominant system of education over the African education systems through the process of colonialism [17]. Scholars such as Higgs [18] bear witness to how colonial education was used to disrupt and repress the indigenous epistemologies through colonial rule in Africa. In Africa at large, education has been used as a potent weapon to engender unequal social, economic, and political power relations [19].

The legacy of colonial education has not only been pursued to the detriment of African scholarship but has also been largely undermined by the leadership and governance of African universities. Contextually, university leadership is professionalized with the primary intention of integrating general notions of good leadership in society [20]. African higher education is camouflaged with multiple and unprecedented challenges. Riches of African cultural heritage and civilization are well documented painting the greatest advancement on planet Earth with indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) based on African philosophies [21]. Among these challenges are demands for and limited access, limited funding, colonial language limited and still colonized curriculum [13]. Despite these inherited and emerging predicaments besetting.

For the African continent to navigate the transformative demands imposed by globalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), Marwala [22] challenges that institutions of higher learning are encouraged to embrace reskilling and retraining students and employees to create a developed society. While there is evidence of anti-scholarship based on total resentment of Eurocentric knowledge systems and their legacies, this chapter advances African scholarship based on the context upon which African universities could be repurposed through the application of Afrocentric approach to leadership and governance. For decades, higher education has been led by leadership, which is predominantly Eurocentric. Principles of individualism, selfishness, and competition were the anchor in higher education. On the contrary, this chapter has adopted Afrocentric higher education leadership and its principles of oneness, cooperation, interdependence, and collaboration in developing scientific African scholarship [23]. These principles are also rooted within the Ubuntu philosophy of African humanity. Thus, the emergence of Afrocentric approaches to leadership particularly in academia presents African viewpoints foregrounded by reflection and identity formation among Africans [24].

This chapter seeks to answer the question: what type of leadership does higher education sector need in order to navigate transformational changes and challenges faced by Africa in the twenty-first century?

The transformed higher education institutions, would, therefore, demand the hybridization of leadership styles inclusive of transformational, redistributed, ethical, and visionary. However, the test of adopted leadership will depend on the agility of the higher education leadership in responding to the challenges imposed by the competitiveness of knowledge institutions continentally and globally.

2. Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework underpinning this chapter is Afrocentric-centered leadership in the context of higher education. Higher education leadership has a mammoth task of not only transforming these giant intellectual institutions but to also ensuring that the core business of teaching, research, and community engagement are pursued ethically and professionally [22]. Afrocentrism leadership demonstrates that like Western and Oriental cultures, Africans have ideas, norms, traditions, culture, and values that shape their worldview [25]. The Afrocentric-centered leadership is built upon the theory of Afrocentrism, which points to the fundamental African leadership framework. The central supremacy of African culture and knowledge in addressing African development challenges is the main thrust of Afrocentric leadership [26]. Afrocentric-centered leadership is a scientific approach to African development that is founded on African history, culture, behavioral patterns, beliefs, and norms. It is not a carbon copy of Western leadership models [27]. Afrocentric leadership is, therefore, an African-centered approach on indigenous African cultures in order to harvest a variety of leadership principles, patterns, practices, institutions, ceremonies, and ideas for modern use [28]. As this leadership is founded on Afrocentrism, it is a direct reaction to Eurocentrism, a cultural phenomenon that elevates European cultural values above those of other cultures and universalizes European, and thus American, experiences for other cultures around the world. According to Afrocentric-centered leadership, Fairfax [29] alludes that Western leadership and development ideologies are based on European culture and norms. Because African experiences differ greatly from those of America or Europe, Afrocentric-centered leadership contends that applying Western theories to explain African people’s ethos is inappropriate and should be deconstructed [25].

Within an educational context, Afrocentric-centered leadership strives to achieve the overarching Afrocentric theory’s goal of African-led and African-centered development. Focusing and involving critical components such as indigenous knowledge systems, African philosophies and experiences remain relevant to leadership [30]. The foundation of Afrocentric-centered leadership is based on African lived experiences, regional economic and social requirements, African values and traditions [31]. These are applied as a means of understanding diverse disciplines and carving out a place for oneself in the world. Through such use of Afrocentric-centered leadership education, Africans discover their roots, fall in love with their content, and assume responsibility for it. They possess a “decolonized agency,” as described by Abdi [30], which enables them to challenge unassuming but racist and foreign structures of knowledge that influence everyday contact. As a result, Afrocentric leadership promotes an African worldview that is inclined toward their psychic and cultural independence, which Afrocentrism claims is essential to Africa’s growth [32]. In essence, higher education leadership foregrounded on Afrocentricity has the potential to enhance scholarship that reaffirms African intellectualism and capabilities [33]. Furthermore, Sabela ([33], p. 29) argues that discourse on Afrocentrism could be instrumental in addressing issues of “inclusivity, to redress the past deficiencies of equity access and outcomes, reduce socio-economic inequality, and stimulate physical wellbeing.” For higher education to deal with the besetting challenges, transformational leadership is imperative, transformative leadership can be applied to foster collaboration among African universities in core functions of research and innovation [34]. This could include areas to build institutional capacity, exchange programs and infrastructure for effective interventions in dealing with African problems. In this regard, Marwala [35] opines that there is a need for Africa to transform the higher education system in its quest to build world-class universities. For Marwala [35], this mammoth task could be actualized by: a) reforming the curriculum for relevance, b) improving infrastructure inclusive of the 4IR infrastructure, c) increasing research capacity through postdoctoral research fellowships, visiting academics, research centers and institutes, e) galvanizing funding for human and technological readiness. Above these pointers, universities can be accessible to citizens and for public good.

Afrocentric-centered leadership is geared toward breaking free from colonial and post-colonial thinking and recommit to an African value system, leading to calls for an “African Renaissance” inside the continent itself in recent years [27, 36, 37, 38]. These concepts have gained traction across the continent and have since been used to lead businesses and communities. Therefore, aspects of “Western culture with its narrow, arrogant, empty, materialistic values of hamburger and cocaine” [39, 40, 41, 42] must be rejected in order for this shift to a more Afro-centric leadership views to take place. A reconnection with African “indigenous knowledge” that places an emphasis on interdependence and solidarity is required. However, given the hybridity argument, such an aspiration is intriguing and poses important issues regarding (a) how this Afro-centric knowledge can be (re)discovered, (b) how it can be captured and transmitted, and (c) the degree to which it will resonate with the lived experience of modern Africans on the continent and elsewhere [27, 41].

3. Method

Conceptually, the chapter employed qualitative research approach to ground the applicability of Afrocentric approach to higher education leadership in Africa. This study adopted a qualitative research approach because of its flexibility in terms of data collection and analysis. Since the chapter is not empirical, documentary analysis and content analysis were used. In the context of this chapter, documentary data analysis was based on desktop and secondary data inclusive of books, book chapters, accredited articles, reports, and governments policy documents. In line with the topic of this chapter, the dominant search of literature was on higher education and university, Afrocentric leadership, Western vs. Afrocentric knowledge systems, managerialism, African scholarship. Moreover, the techniques and principles of content analysis were employed to assess the role of Afrocentric leadership in advancing African scholarship in higher education. Considering that this is the systematic literature review (SLR), Mengista et al. [43], data were analyzed and interpreted based on the thematic areas of African scholarship, Western vs. African knowledge systems, Afrocentric leadership, and African higher education. A systematic literature review (SLR) is known for being systematic research method, which is explicit, and reproducible in identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the existing data [44]. As such, a systematic review is considered to be the key in the identification of all empirical evidence that fits the pre-specified inclusion criteria to answer a particular research question or hypothesis [45]. In this chapter, the systematic review allowed the authors to consult databases in order to find relevant articles on the subject matter. Thus, this chapter used the framework of Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, and Analysis (SALSA) as employed by Grant and Booth, [46] as a methodology to determine the search protocols to be followed when using systematic literature review.

Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar were the main databases utilized to research data for this chapter. Table 1 reflects on the descriptors and databased used.

No	Descriptor	Database
1	African scholarship	Scopus, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar
2	Afrocentric leadership	Scopus, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar
3	Western knowledge system	Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar
4	African knowledge system	Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar
5	African university	Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar
6	Decolonized knowledge	Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar

Table 1.

Descriptors and databases.

Literature review was conducted based on peer-reviewed articles from local and international journals and publications. ScienceDirect is an online collection of published scientific research operated by the publisher Gonçalves et al. [47] while Scopus is an international database of peer-reviewed publications from all over the world [48]. The third database used was Google scholar, which provides useful information not covered by other databases highlighted above. Apart from the articles obtained from the abovementioned databases, the chapter also relied on peer-reviewed books and book chapters on Afrocentric leadership and African knowledge systems.

4. Dominance of managerialism leadership in higher education

This section discusses new managerialism as an emerging leadership model for governing institution of higher learning. New managerialism is stylish and embodies ideology that serves the needs and interests of managers in public services such as public education [49]. Through the practices of managerialism as a form of leadership in higher education, power relations, and dominance are consolidated. In essence, managerialism, for Davis et al. [50] has led to a tyranny of bureaucracy, which did not only disempower middle managers but also the entrenched culture of conformance over collegiality, control at the cost of innovation and experimentation, and an over-articulation of strategy, which devalues the strategy.

Universities are run through faculties staffed with professionally hired staff supported by centralized and decentralized service units created to maintain the corporate image and service both the primary (students) and secondary (government, funders, and society at large) stakeholders. As such higher education in Africa and throughout the world operates based on corporate cultures, values, and practices. Universities emulating industries made Bass [51] to conclude that:

Increasingly, the universities hired faculty who held appropriate doctoral degrees. Business leaders who served on college and university boards of overseers sought a more professional and business-like organisation to replace the prevailing structure, or lack of thereof. Their oversight and direction of the university encouraged presidents-vice-chancellors to develop managerial plans reflecting best practices from the private sector.

The consequences of embracing managerialism led to the erosion of academic freedom and autonomy, scholarship and activism. According to Davis et al. [50], managerialism engenders bureaucratic tyranny, which brought a culture of conformance over collegiality, control at the cost of innovation and experimentation, and an over-articulation of strategy. Viewed from a “managerialist” discursive notion of leadership, public institutions such universities are turned into profession-based organizations with market mechanisms, corporate organizational structures, and clear principles of accountability and responsibility being the underpinning pillars [20]. The new economic order demands that academic institutions become more efficient and effective in producing and transferring education [52]. Essentially, these managerial directives are further determined by corporate strategic plans anchored on maximizing academic performance through outputs, improving teaching and learning models, as well as terminal efficiency in higher education. Within higher education, corporate structures and cultures are reinforced by administrative and support units responsible for “student affairs, enrolment management, legal affairs, financial aids, public safety, information technology, human resources” ([53], p. 26). This is a huge enterprise for higher education leadership to contend with in the mist of swiping challenges globally. Ndlovu-Gatsheni [54] contends that:

The quest for all universities to become research-intensive institutions brought with it ‘managerialism’ as the new governance framework to run higher education institutions. The interface of managerial approach to government and corporate university subject education and knowledge for ‘commodification and marketization’.

With the culture of managerialism, higher education, particularly universities, operate simulating the corporations with decision-making powers centralized at Senate and management, grounded on decentralization of administrative duties under appointed school and faculty managers [55]. Higher education is currently dominated by the managerialism as the leadership and governance model. In this context, managerialism denotes a set of organizational and social technologies for the efficient management of organizational matters based on managing clients/taxpayers as consumers operating in a turbulent marketplace [56]. Managerialism, according to Maake [57], is the new jargon of higher education, which mirrors the private sector unleashing and entrenching some oppressive culture. The dominance of managerialism leadership in higher education mirrors the bureaucratic university as espoused by [58]. The university as a bureaucracy is often associated with the corporate nature of a university. Through a bureaucratic university, institutions of higher learning are run resembling businesses with bureaucratic procedures and processes imposed on academic life. Some of these procedures entail student admissions, the appointment of staff, and the balance of academic activities, examinations, research applications, curriculum structures, recording of research activities and publications, teaching hours, and meeting with research students [58, 59, 60, 61].

In higher education, bureaucratic procedures are enforced by regulation of academic activities by non-academic staff who happened to be administrators and managers constructing such procedures. Declining state funding, changing student demographics, new technological developments, and increased market pressures are among the challenges cited for universities to be subdued to the practices of managerialism [50]. This situation renders the management of universities in particular to be complex and having to adopt public sector management styles, numerous hierarchical layers, and costly administrative burdens, Chaharbaghi [62] and bureaucratic systems. University management and governance structures are bureaucratized with the Vice-Chancellors as the institutional heads with senates and councils as policy directive structures. Below the Vice-Chancellors are the Deans heading faculties with professional techno-savvy managers as administrators. Administratively, higher education institutions are headed by Vice-Chancellors who in turn are accountable to the Councils and Senates as the highest policymakers. In essence, Vice-Chancellors provide strategic direction and pragmatic implementation of goals and programs. Through the help of designated professional personnel and units, Vice Chancellors provide an oversight role on issues relating to finances, health, transformation, external relations, and ceremonial functions as well as social welfare of both students and staff. Thus, a collaborative approach by all higher education stakeholders is fundamental in finding sustainable solutions to challenges facing the sector and the African continent at large [19]. This multiple-layered structure does not only apply to African higher education but also to the entire academic world.

This chapter questions the efficacy of managerialist-centered leadership when it comes to the advancement of African scholarship for public good. Similar to any other public organizations, leadership in higher education utilizes positional and personal powers to accomplish organizational goals [63]. In the underdeveloped regions, neo-managerialism has reinvented itself through education and by engendering a capitalist and Western depended society. Rodney [64] remarked that:

Equally important has been the role of education in producing Africans to service the capitalist system and to subscribe to its values. Recently, the imperialists have been using new universities in Africa to keep themselves entrenched at the highest academic level.

This implies that leadership in the academia is caught in the vortex of serving two masters, one being the capitalist system and the other one of education for public good. Higher education especially the universities are subdued to serve the neoliberal agenda. Operating under the neo-managerialist approach to leadership, higher education is designed to prepare students to be competitive global labor market economy [65]. Despite the newly paraded managerial-leadership role imposed on higher education, African students in particular continue to suffer from “epistemic deprivation,” Morrow ([66], p. 23), due to educational injustices perpetuated by hegemonic education system with denied epistemological access to quality and decolonized higher education [65]. For higher education to confront challenges of “cost, the value of degrees, perceptions of elitism, access, and the imperative to educate a more diverse student body” Connolly et al. [67, 68] urge educational institutions to adopt a multipronged approach aimed at increasing opportunities for improving and growing the higher education sector with an agile focus on public service and social responsibility. Dancing to the tune of New Managerialism, higher education sector is not only a “politicised and fragmented system,” Bass ([53], p. 16), but its leadership is also at the crossroads in terms of balancing the conflictual aspirations and ambitions with institutional recognition and performance. Somehow these complex and bureaucratic challenges demand Afro-transformational leadership with intellectual stamina to transform the sector into developmental and student-centered institutions. This transformative agenda demands skilled, emotionally intelligent, influential, committed, and networked leadership capable of sustaining scholarship in all fields. In such regard, higher-education-based Afrocentrism could be instrumental in building the capacity and culture of evidence-based research and publications.

Against the adversaries of the new managerialism tide, the application of Afrocentric leadership could emerge to foster values-based leadership inspired by commitment to transform higher education [69]. Operating in a resource-dependency environment has forced higher education institutions to convert their intellectual property into consultancy endeavors and think tanks only focused on research for policy recommendations [70]. The authors argue that such trend has made knowledge institutions to succumb to “academic capitalism,” Marginson and Considine ([71], p. 49), where universities are willing to sacrifice their principles on the altar of resource accumulation and institutional prestige. Such emerging trajectory has deviated universities from problematizing societal issues and intellectual debates as the basis for theorization and intellectual development.

5. Eurocentric vs. afrocentric knowledge systems

This section deliberates on the two streams of knowledge systems and worldviews as espoused by various scholars. There are ongoing and raging debates by African scholars over the relevance of these knowledge systems and their relevance for development. The dominance of Eurocentric knowledge systems over Afrocentric systems has renewed the academic and epistemological search for indigenous knowledge systems for African development. At the center of knowledge society, economy, and information age, production, management, and dissemination of scientific knowledge are what differentiate developed and developing nations. The Eurocentric Systems and their stories of control and oppression have always dominated Afrocentric Knowledge Systems between Africa and the rest of the world [72]. The systems’ two main effects are: (1) the first is that they deliberately degraded African thought, disparaged African culture, and fabricated African history [73]. The concept of Africans as “savages, inferior, uncivilized, backward, lacking knowledge and culture and possessing bad qualities and desire” was created and spread by the proponents of Eurocentric narratives [74]. The conceptual framework of the narratives was oppressive, and it maintained the relation of domination and subjugation. Unfortunately, Eurocentric Knowledge Systems led Africans to search outside of themselves for self-actualization and sustainable growth. They began to think less highly of themselves and their place in the grand scheme of things. The second is that the stories distorted Westerners’ anthropological and philosophical analyses of African Knowledge System and kept future generations from having a true understanding of African existential and cultural reality [75]. It somewhat constrained their field of comprehension and warped their idea of the subjective other.

On the other hand, Afrocentricity or Afrocentric Knowledge Systems offer a philosophical, esthetic, and rational vision of reality from an African perspective [23, 76]. It is a theoretical foundation for comprehending African people, ideas, and values provided by Afrocentric thought. It is fruitful to be preoccupied with and try to define African identity, metaphysics, and knowledge [72]. In order to achieve social reconstruction in Africa, Afrocentric system is a keen awareness of African cultural orientations and an empathic evaluation of its fundamental values, beliefs, and ideas [73]. Afrocentric systems advocate using a logical grasp of African cultural concepts to address difficulties relating to human life [77]. It also involves giving our cultural differences and potentials thoughtful, sympathetic evaluation. It has the ability to respect cultural differences and function within African culture.

6. Advancing African scholarship through Afrocentric leadership in higher education

In this chapter, we argue that African scholarship could be advanced through Afrocentric leadership in higher education. In this case, the epistemological discourse of African scholarship is centered on the Afrocentric framing of knowledge production for ontological use for Africa development. An African university is envisaged upon its cardinal mandate of liberating African people from Western knowledge enclavism and dominance [78]. Asante [79] defines the Afrocentricity theory as “a manner of thought and action in which the centrality of African interests, values, and perspectives predominate.” He further states that “Afrocentricity is an exercise in knowledge and a new historical perspective” ([79], p. 150). Afrocentricity is a historical evolution, an intellectual movement, and/or a political outlook that stresses the achievements and culture of Africans. Afrocentricity implies “African centeredness,” in which Africans are able to claim their intellectual egotism as originators of their own civilization [80]. Tshishonga [81] reckons that:

Commitment to learning and personal development is a fundamental principle of any university which makes these institutions to have a competitive advantage. Highly rated and performing universities are those designed to attract well-rounded scholars, academics and researchers of great integrity especially in research production. There is a huge investment in higher education not only to attract solid academics but also to develop and nurture a new crop of young academics eager to integrate all core business of a university for African scholarship.

However, for higher education to be efficient, effective, and productive, leadership and collegial environment are imperative for all educational stakeholders (academics, support staff, students, and governments) to advance intellectual scholarship. Leadership based on Afrocentricity theory is mindful of creating an environment conducive to inspire African scholarship capable of liberating students and academics for Africa development and renewal. The application of Afrocentric leadership has to do with the transformation of Higher Education and the quest to foreground universities in planning and thinking strategically along the five phases of decolonization rediscovery and recovery, mourning, dreaming, commitment, and action. Thus, the theory of Afrocentricity, as Kumalo [82] argues that “privileges the experiences of the African people.” This narrative intensifies the radical departure from the linear Eurocentric pathway of acquiring knowledge influenced by Western educational values and principles. Afrocentricity has potential to enhance the feeling of self-identity, reaffirm African intellectualism and capabilities, and eliminate prejudice and discrimination of the African philosophies.

Whereas scholars have tried to characterize managers and leaders as two different concepts, during the actual conduct in the office, the two are not separable. While managers employ company-set standards and follow prescribed procedures to perform tasks, leaders depend on informal personal attributes to influence organizational change [50]. Both the leader and the manager are part of the company leadership, that is, they have people reporting to them. Scholars acknowledge that the concept of leadership is highly contested because of its fluid nature. In the case of Afrocentric leadership in higher education, leaders, such as the DVCs, Deans, or Directors, are to use their influence to carry forth the university mission to transform higher education toward the development of the African continent. As observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, university leadership employed situational discretional decisions to save the academic year [83]. Contextual decisions were taken to ensure that no student is left behind. The African principle of Ubuntu prevailed to accommodate students from diverse conditions through blended learning and not full online teaching. Afrocentric leadership demands that university leaders maintain a balance on both the corporate, academic, and social responsibility in driving the university’s mission. As cited in Imoka [31], leaders who seek to advance Afrocentric ideology in higher education would take the responsibility to ensure that teaching, research, and community engagement are directed toward reclaiming the African values. This is when education seeks to explore innovative means to develop available human and material resources such as minerals to enrich Africans.

Considering that higher education is still operational along colonial policies and model, development of African scholarship could be instrumental in grounding academic activism for transformed African university [84]. Most universities particularly are envisioned along the advancement of African scholarship; however, without concrete plans in place, the vision of building African universities based on African scholarship and values will remain a dream deferred or undermined. That is despite the fact that African universities are central to Africa development and her progress [85]. The African university is based on African scholarship, and such universities should help the African people to liberate themselves through the acquisition of knowledge that is useful for their own development [86].

Despite the hardships faced by most African universities, Business Insider Africa [87] ranked some of the 10 top best African universities in the world. Universities shining in academic excellence are: a) University of Cape Town, b) University of Witwatersrand, c) Stellenbosch University, d) University of KwaZulu-Natal, e) Cairo University, f) University of Johannesburg, g) the University of Ibadan, h) University of Pretoria, i) Mansoura University, and j) North-West University. Accordingly, these institutions of higher education are led by leaders who thrived to constantly transform their institutions for expansion, modernization, and incorporation of technology as strategies toward rendering knowledge to be locally relevant and globally competitive. For Makhanya [11], leaders of such research intense institutions reposition their transformation agenda in eradicating colonial, apartheid, and imperial legacies while at the same time building the institutional capacity for multidisciplinary scholarship in research, teaching, and community engagement. However, in order for African learning institutions to achieve world-class good education, which is competitive, improvement of infrastructure (including digital), increasing of research capabilities, seeking multiple sources of funding and reforming curricula is imperative [22]. Importantly, the radical intensification of developing curriculum based on indigenous knowledge system (IKS) is key in reforming higher education in Africa. Evidently, Masoga [88] argues that research and application of indigenous knowledge systems could bring change in sectors (such mining, medicine, education, agriculture, etc) and through the use of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th IR) embedded innovations and technologies, IKS could be used to solve challenges besetting the African continent.

7. Toward a decolonized African University

Throughout Africa, the ontological and epistemological chorus is gaining momentum toward decolonizing education by African scholars and those in diaspora. These scholars are emerging not only critical to the dominance of Western education system but also calling upon the Western epistemological paradigms to be decentered [89]. The hegemonic dominance of Western knowledge systems is partly to be blamed on African academia, which measure its academic meritocracy based in Eurocentric educational models, values, and principles. Imoka [31] puts brutally when wrestling that:

The greatest irony of Africa is that even those people who fought heroically against imperialism and colonialism tend to develop a very complacent view towards the imperialism of knowledge, which is more dangerous than physical political domination. The imperialism of knowledge works on the mid of African people whereas religious colonialism works on the soul.

To add salt on an open wound, African scholars take pride in prescribing and utilizing knowledge produced offshore. With poor research output, African universities have turn to become “centres of knowledge consumption rather than knowledge production” ([72], p. 82). The influence of Western knowledge and its philosophies is adduced to be the preparatory school for African students to be Western knowledge consumers as opposed to being producers and inventors of technologies and knowledge systems relevant to address African development [90]. The mere fact that higher education in Africa is still reflective of colonial education systems makes it an unfinished transformation business, which warrants institutional overhaul and decolonization. This sentiment was succinctly captured by Sayed, de Kock and Motala [91], who said:

Higher education institutions still reflect the colonial and apartheid legacy with inequalities in relations to funding, research productivity, student experiences and graduate employability

Compared to their counterparts, African academics lag behind in terms of research and innovation. Introspectively, African higher education was transformed and restructured in order to respond to the demands of the global neoliberal orthodoxy and the knowledge economy [92]. In Africa, untransformed higher education has become the greatest trigger of inequality, exclusion, and marginalization among the youth with unemployed graduates swelling the ranks of unemployed sector [93]. Decolonized theorists are known to argue for decolonized university as the precursor for decolonized knowledge and its epistemologies, a radical pathway of thinking and knowing informed by people’s experiences and cultures [94]. A call for a decolonized African higher education is a call to transform the sector toward its relevance to deal with African problems. In this chapter, the authors designate a decolonized African university as the symbol of power, institutions and African worldview that depart from both the colonization and neo-colonization legacies. Such a university should be indispensable in discharging the intellectual capabilities of scholars and society at large for African transformation and development. For a decolonized African university to geminate its epistemological roots, repurposing higher education for nurturing creativity, encouraging critical thinking, and fostering democratic citizenship are imperative [37].

Globally, it could be argued that higher education (universities included) is under siege to conform to the reforms brought by the “New Managerialism” governance frameworks. The question remains as to how a decolonized African university would go about resolving some of the long-standing challenges faced by academia and Africa as a whole. In an attempt to share an ontological answer to this perplexing question, the authors delved into understanding the notion of the decolonized university and how it could a pragmatic panacea to Africa’s problems. The debates surrounding decolonized higher education or university stem from the assertion that the African university, according to Ndlovu-Gatsheni [94], is in principle Eurocentric in most respects. Only a committed Afrocentric leadership to transformation of higher education could disrupt the imposed logic of Eurocentrism in knowledge production by decolonized African university. Depending on leadership, such envisaged university stands at the crossroads of either liberating an African mind or further domesticating the African society. A decolonized university is tasked beyond challenging dominance of Eurocentric and its obsession of parading knowledge as a monolithic production and transmission. For African higher education to be decolonized, Afrocentric leading is needed. Such leadership, according to Mahlangu [95], requires the application of Afrocentric philosophy, indigenous wisdoms, and embracing cultural traditions and perspectives of the faculty members and student bodies in decision-making and their agile implementation. Afrocentric leadership has comparative advantage backed by African values and principles of Ubuntu as the foundation upon which African humanity could be constructed in Africa. The rebirth of African university should be an opportunity for higher education sector especially the African universities to transform themselves into knowledge institutions based on African-based education philosophy [96]. Indeed, the quest for a decolonized university brought through African leadership should be about “liberating humanity” from all forms of ignorance including social, economic, and political oppression [2]. Thus, African context should take the center stage in knowledge discourses and epistemology, knowledge production, and knowledge application or utilization aimed at averting development crisis and impasse in Africa.

8. Conclusion and recommendations

Conclusively, the chapter wrestled with the issues pertaining to reclaiming and defending Afro-centered knowledge through the application of Afrocentric leadership in higher education. Afrocentric leadership was used as a framework to champion African scholarship based on intersectionality of knowledge systems for the development of the African continent and its people. Discourses on African scholarship and decolonized African university were infused into the debate to repurpose knowledge and knowledge production for the development of Africa. Considering that African higher education lacks behind on issues of integrative transformation with issues of access, leadership, equality, equity, and staffing, collaborative leadership with other progressively universities within the continent and abroad is necessary.

Internationalization of higher education cannot be repudiated, hence African universities to advance African and decolonized knowledge, leaders in higher education should thrive to develop exchange academic programmes with their counterparts across the globe. Given the throes of Africa socioeconomic underdevelopment, higher education leadership, universities included owes to be developmental. The application of Afrocentric leadership as deliberated in this chapter could revitalize higher education based on African values, principles, and philosophies for the development of the African continent. In conclusion, Africa development should be centered on African scholarship and intellectuals radically pursuing Afrocentric culture, history, and leadership.

For African higher education to reclaim rigor in developing competitive scholarship and to be counted as agents of knowledge producers, academic leaders should build a strategic foundation based on open dialog pertaining to both challenges and alternative solution to challenges facing higher education sector. Such leadership should avoid the rebellious rhetoric of transformation, decolonized knowledge, and university without robust engagement with stakeholders. Prevailing socioeconomic and cultural and political in Africa should serve as a springboard and catalyst for questioning the relevance of the adopted current education systems. Commitment and introspection by Afrocentric leadership are imperative bearing in mind that knowledge produced should be relevant and useful toward Africa development and development of humanity at large. In order to rescue African higher education from drowning in the sea of Eurocentric knowledge systems, higher education leadership should heed the call.