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Knowledge, Power, and the Search for Epistemic Liberation in Africa
Social Epistemology ( IF 1.625 ) Pub Date : 2021-02-09 , DOI: 10.1080/02691728.2021.1882607
Dennis Masaka 1, 2
Affiliation  

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I show that the strong relations of knowledge, power and liberation are worth reassessing and clarifying in light of the indigenous people of Africa’s quest for epistemic liberation. I argue that knowledge confers power to its producers that might be inappropriately deployed to impose an inferior status to those contentiously considered incapable of producing it. This has often been the character of relations of cultures where those considered as bereft of knowledge are put at the service of those who claim expertise and exclusive title to the production of the same. Yet, as much as it has been employed as an instrument to conquer and to subjugate, knowledge can also be an instrument of liberation. I argue that if ‘knowledge is power’, then the acceptance of the epistemic contribution of those who have been historically marked as without any knowledge is necessary if their agency is to be awakened and their liberation realised. This discursive move may be a necessary corrective for the indigenous people of Africa who are yet to emerge fully from the condition of physical and epistemic conquest.



中文翻译:

知识,权力与非洲对知识解放的追求

摘要

在本文中,我表明,鉴于非洲人民追求知识解放的需要,知识,权力和解放之间的牢固关系值得重新评估和澄清。我认为,知识将权力赋予了生产者,而生产者可能会被不恰当地部署,从而对那些被认为无法生产知识的人施加劣等地位。这通常是文化关系的特征,在这种文化关系中,被认为是知识丧失的人被服务于要求拥有知识和专有权的人。然而,尽管知识已被用来征服和征服,但知识也可以是解放的工具。我认为如果“知识就是力量”,如果要唤醒他们的代理人并实现其解放,则必须接受那些在历史上被标记为没有任何知识的人的认知贡献。对于尚未完全摆脱身体和认知征服状况的非洲土著人民而言,这种话语举动可能是必要的纠正措施。

更新日期:2021-03-27
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