The political economy of land governance in Africa: The role of universities in decolonising curricula and promoting critical scholarship

Abstract

Decolonising the land requires decolonising our universities. In South Africa there is a live conversation about the need to decolonise our universities—an idea that expands beyond transforming our curricula, to drawing on the work of African scholars, to changing the character of our institutions, linking them more closely with communities and with policy audiences. As we think about decolonising our universities, we need to think about how, as African institutions, we pull together to strengthen land governance across the continent. As sites of knowledge production and training, universities are central to advancing and realising the African Union’s agenda on land. The key documents here are the African Union’s Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy (2009) and the Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa (2010) adopted by the Heads of State.