**7. Toward a decolonized African University**

Throughout Africa, the ontological and epistemological chorus is gaining momentum toward decolonizing education by African scholars and those in diaspora. These scholars are emerging not only critical to the dominance of Western education system but also calling upon the Western epistemological paradigms to be decentered [89]. The hegemonic dominance of Western knowledge systems is partly to be blamed on African academia, which measure its academic meritocracy based in Eurocentric educational models, values, and principles. Imoka [31] puts brutally when wrestling that:

*The greatest irony of Africa is that even those people who fought heroically against imperialism and colonialism tend to develop a very complacent view towards the imperialism of knowledge, which is more dangerous than physical political domination. The imperialism of knowledge works on the mid of African people whereas religious colonialism works on the soul.*

To add salt on an open wound, African scholars take pride in prescribing and utilizing knowledge produced offshore. With poor research output, African universities have turn to become "centres of knowledge consumption rather than knowledge production" ([72], p. 82). The influence of Western knowledge and its philosophies is adduced to be the preparatory school for African students to be Western knowledge consumers as opposed to being producers and inventors of technologies and knowledge systems relevant to address African development [90]. The mere fact that higher education in Africa is still reflective of colonial education systems makes it an unfinished transformation business, which warrants institutional overhaul and decolonization. This sentiment was succinctly captured by Sayed, de Kock and Motala [91], who said:

*Higher education institutions still reflect the colonial and apartheid legacy with inequalities in relations to funding, research productivity, student experiences and graduate employability*

Compared to their counterparts, African academics lag behind in terms of research and innovation. Introspectively, African higher education was transformed and restructured in order to respond to the demands of the global neoliberal orthodoxy and the knowledge economy [92]. In Africa, untransformed higher education has become the greatest trigger of inequality, exclusion, and marginalization among the youth with unemployed graduates swelling the ranks of unemployed sector [93]. Decolonized theorists are known to argue for decolonized university as the precursor for decolonized knowledge and its epistemologies, a radical pathway of thinking and knowing informed by people's experiences and cultures [94]. A call for a decolonized African higher education is a call to transform the sector toward its relevance to deal with African problems. In this chapter, the authors designate a decolonized African university as the symbol of power, institutions and African worldview that depart from both the colonization and neo-colonization legacies. Such a university should be indispensable in discharging the intellectual capabilities of scholars and society at large for African transformation and development. For a decolonized African university to geminate its epistemological roots, repurposing higher education for nurturing creativity, encouraging critical thinking, and fostering democratic citizenship are imperative [37].

Globally, it could be argued that higher education (universities included) is under siege to conform to the reforms brought by the "New Managerialism" governance frameworks. The question remains as to how a decolonized African university would go about resolving some of the long-standing challenges faced by academia and Africa as a whole. In an attempt to share an ontological answer to this perplexing question, the authors delved into understanding the notion of the decolonized university and how it could a pragmatic panacea to Africa's problems. The debates surrounding decolonized higher education or university stem from the assertion that the African university, according to Ndlovu-Gatsheni [94], is in principle Eurocentric in most respects. Only a committed Afrocentric leadership to transformation of higher

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

education could disrupt the imposed logic of Eurocentrism in knowledge production by decolonized African university. Depending on leadership, such envisaged university stands at the crossroads of either liberating an African mind or further domesticating the African society. A decolonized university is tasked beyond challenging dominance of Eurocentric and its obsession of parading knowledge as a monolithic production and transmission. For African higher education to be decolonized, Afrocentric leading is needed. Such leadership, according to Mahlangu [95], requires the application of Afrocentric philosophy, indigenous wisdoms, and embracing cultural traditions and perspectives of the faculty members and student bodies in decision-making and their agile implementation. Afrocentric leadership has comparative advantage backed by African values and principles of Ubuntu as the foundation upon which African humanity could be constructed in Africa. The rebirth of African university should be an opportunity for higher education sector especially the African universities to transform themselves into knowledge institutions based on African-based education philosophy [96]. Indeed, the quest for a decolonized university brought through African leadership should be about "liberating humanity" from all forms of ignorance including social, economic, and political oppression [2]. Thus, African context should take the center stage in knowledge discourses and epistemology, knowledge production, and knowledge application or utilization aimed at averting development crisis and impasse in Africa.
