Durban — Vice-chancellor of the University of Zululand Professor Xoliswa Mtose said the university’s vision has allowed them to develop alternative ontological and epistemological orientations anchored on African thoughts.
Mtose was speaking at a conference held at Unizulu, in Richards Bay, to outline their vision 27.
Mtose said they have taken the bold decision to move beyond creating a discursive space designed to ignite new imaginations about the trajectory of the university.
She said their knowledge as a social project at Unizulu is informed by their own African history and identity.
“We consciously embrace epistemologies of the global sum as part and parcel of the geo-politics of knowledge and the problematic epistemologies of the global norm.
“We embrace African epistemologies in affirmation for our identity as an African university rather than a Westernised university in Africa,” Mtose said.
In the same way we embrace our semi-rural setting in KwaZulu-Natal in post-apartheid South Africa and we take seriously the indigenous and epistemologies and socio-economic realities of our immediate communities.
“She comments on how the university is ideally located as it can use the knowledge within its surroundings and this differs from other universities that are surrounded by ‘Western modernity’.
“We seek to promote the systematic branding of decolonial, post-colonial, Afrocentric and Afrosense grammars and vocabularies of change.
“In doing so, we consciously avoid taking a neversist fundamentalist approach while also refusing to follow the crowd with empty sloganeering and/or greenstanding.
“Given that African thought is inherently polyvocal, reflexive, responsive, and dynamic; our mission as a node of African thought is informed by an ecology of plural ideas and diverse ontologies.” she said.
“As our contribution to the broader struggle for the total emancipation of African people in particular – and oppressed people in general – we seek to recontract with our local, provincial, national, continental and planetary public.
“We seek a paradigm shift from the colonial ideation and institutional model through which many universities in Africa and elsewhere have been co-opted into hegemonic knowledge systems that alienates them from their respective communities and societies,” she said.
Daily News