Toward an African Critical Orientation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21633377
AutoresKundai Chirindo (0000-0002-7161-3176, Lewis & Clark College, autor correspondente), Eddah M Mutua (0009-0004-4215-5315, Judy C. Pearson Department of Communication Studies, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA)
Ano2024
Volume75
Fascículo4
Páginas390-406
Data de publicação2024-07-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCommunication Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1051-0974 • E-ISSN: 1745-1035
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10510974.2024.2345517
OpenAlexW4395956394
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas45

This essay proposes an African orientation to critical work. We begin by locating the need for postcolonial indigenous African bases for critical interventions in the idea of epistemic freedom articulated by African decolonial thinkers along with the postcolonial critique of Frankfurt School and Chicago circle critical theory. Next, we develop a basis for critical interventions in Bantu cosmology by drawing on Omedi Ochieng’s groundwork thesis and applied sociolinguistics. That basis, we argue, prioritizes relatedness and community wellbeing, and is therefore broader and distinct from the narrow focus on power and domination as they relate to individual subject envisioned in liberalism. We illustrate the heuristic potential of the African critical orientation for critical intercultural and critical rhetorical work by discussing the African Medical and Research Foundation’s (AMREF) Mukogodo community organizational development initiative and the #Rhodesmustfall protests of 2015–2016

Bantu languages · Critical theory · Epistemology · Indigenous · Linguistics · Rhetorical question · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Critical Race Theory in Education · Philosophy · South African History and Culture