This inaugural keynote lecture honours the legacy of Brian O'Connell by centring his push for universities, higher education research, institutions and their associated global partnerships as transformative. Aligned to his vision of education as agents of change, it tackles the societal and social justice imperative of the knowledge endeavor, by examining critically examining the knowledge project in a rapidly shifting world geopolitical disorder galvanized by tenacious and destructively polarizing monochrome logics. What role can universities, research and global partnerships play in resolve the current polarisations? How can decoloniality advance global partnerships? Can Africa offer new theory for more ethical and respectful relationships? Building on the new Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations, the talk will first set out what it sees as key challenges facing the global economy and priorities for the future, before moving on to introduce decoloniality as a paradigm shift and catalyst for more respectful, dignified and transformative global knowledge partnerships. Advancing the idea of Africa as Theory, the talk will engage the ways in which Africa and African epistemologies can reset global relationships, indexing the world to new modalities of respect; re-energising the public imperative of universities, rediscovering the transformative necessity of the knowledge endeavour.
Taah Abongnelaa, Divine Fuh, from Mankanikong in Bafut, Cameroon, is the Director of HUMA – Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town where he is associate professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology. He is trained in Cameroon, Botswana and Switzerland. His research focuses on the politics of suffering and smiling, particularly on how people seek ways of smiling in the midst of their suffering. He has done work in Cameroon, Botswana, Senegal and South Africa. His currently interested in the life of ideas, the political economy of African knowledge production, and centring African epistemologies.
Divine Fuh
HUMA - Institute for Humanities in Africa
4th Level, Humanities Building
University Avenue South, Upper Campus
University of Cape Town
Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701
Cape Town, South Africa
Email: divine.fuh@uct.ac.za
