**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 [7–10]. 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]. Postindependence, 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

#### *Toward Advancing African Scholarship through Afrocentric Leadership in Higher Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108459*

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.
