Afrocentric epistemic systems and higher education curriculum. The Case of a university in Zimbabwe

  • S. Murwira Belvedere Technical Teachers College, Harare
  • P. Higgs University of South Africa, Pretoria
Keywords: epistemic, Eurocentric, Afrocentric, higher education, curriculum

Abstract

African Afrocentric epistemic systems have impacted upon the existence and practices of African communities throughout the ages. These epistemic systems have influenced the enactment of how Africans have lived in their communities and how they have sustained and used their resources. However, these epistemic systems encountered an existential problem in the promulgation of Eurocentric epistemic systems which marginalized the significance and centrality of Afrocentric epistemic systems in Zimbabwe’s higher education curriculum. This article concerns itself specifically with the higher education curriculum in Zimbabwe in terms of an Afrocentric perspective and investigates ways in which lecturers’ and students’ perceptions towards Afrocentric epistemic systems can be changed considering the problem of the colonization of the Zimbabwe’s higher education curriculum by Eurocentric epistemic systems. This article, therefore, argues for the incorporation of Afrocentric epistemic systems in bringing about a distinctly Afrocentric perspective in the curriculum, the case of a University in Zimbabwe.

Author Biographies

S. Murwira, Belvedere Technical Teachers College, Harare

Belvedere Technical Teachers College

Department of Higher  and Tertiary Education

Lecturer

P. Higgs, University of South Africa, Pretoria

Department of Educational Foundations

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Published
2023-05-20
How to Cite
Murwira, S., and P. Higgs. 2023. “Afrocentric Epistemic Systems and Higher Education Curriculum. The Case of a University in Zimbabwe”. South African Journal of Higher Education 37 (2), 283-97. https://doi.org/10.20853/37-2-5334.
Section
General Articles