The Epistemology of African Sociological Knowledge Practices

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the epistemology of African sociological knowledge. It emphasizes the legitimacy of alternative sociological knowledge practices and discusses the possibility of their global character. African sociological knowledge deals with the epistemic import of the relationship between individuals and social practices in African cultures, the ideas that are generated, and how these ideas inform the beliefs and understanding of reality among Africans. As an aspect of African communitarian epistemology, African sociological knowledge is understood as the product of socially situated activities and practices, community social organization, and social institutions. In light of the universalization of Western epistemic practices as evaluative paradigms for knowledge and truth, the chapter discusses the epistemicide of African indigenous knowledge systems. It argues that the pluralistic nature of our world allows for fluid authenticity in knowledge inquiry and advocates a knowledge democracy that involves a polycentric epistemology.