Decolonial Perspectives in African Media Studies
Summary
Decolonial perspectives in African media studies seek to unsettle entrenched Euro-American paradigms and reassert indigenous knowledges, histories and practices in the analysis of media systems across the continent. This research agenda foregrounds the legacies of colonial power in shaping media infrastructures, content and epistemologies, while advocating for methodologies that centre African voices and worldviews. Core concerns include challenging universalist theories imported from Western academe, recovering oral and visual traditions as legitimate modes of communication, and examining how state and corporate broadcasting continue to reproduce colonial hierarchies. Scholars draw on concepts such as decoloniality to interrogate the colonial matrix of power, alongside postcolonial and feminist frameworks that attend to gender, class and race within African media contexts. Emerging work highlights South-to-South dialogues, digital platform economies and the role of artivism in mobilising grassroots counter-narratives. By bridging theoretical innovation with ethnographic and discourse-analytic approaches, this field not only enriches global media theory but also informs policy debates on public service broadcasting, media literacy and cultural sovereignty. The practical applications of this scholarship extend to community radio initiatives, indigenous language programming and digital platforms designed to amplify marginalised voices.
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Decolonial Perspectives in African Media Studies publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in decolonial perspectives in african media studies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Decoloniality: A theoretical stance aimed at dismantling colonial power structures in knowledge production and representation.
Afrokology: An African-centred decolonial framework emphasising indigenous epistemologies and narratives in media analysis.
Orientalism: A critical concept describing how Western discourse constructs and dominates representations of non-Western societies.
Provincialisation: The process of decentring Western norms by acknowledging and integrating diverse global perspectives.
Pluriversality: The advocacy of multiple coexisting worldviews and knowledge systems beyond Western universalism.
References
- Traces of orientalism in media studies. Media Culture & Society (2021).
- Global perspectives on platforms and cultural production. International Journal of Cultural Studies (2024).
- Rebuilding old empire: BBC and indigenous language broadcasting in Nigeria. Cogent Arts and Humanities (2023).
- South-to-South dialogues between Brazilian and Kenyan artivists: decolonial and intersectional feminist perspectives. Tapuya Latin American Science Technology and Society (2022).
- COVID-19 and the constructions of Africa in African news media. Journal of African Media Studies (2023).
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