Open research questions in African cultural and philosophical studies

What the literature leaves open

• Universities should integrate African Heritage and Indigenous Knowledge Systems across all disciplines, developing systematic processes for identifying and incorporating African knowledge traditions, including engagement with heritage sites and institutions of memory (Makokotlela and Gumbo, 2025; Ramose, 1999; Phunguza, 2025).

  The politics of curriculum transformation in South African higher education · 2026 · DOI

• The need for further research on the phytochemistry, safety, efficacy, and mechanisms of action of the recorded traditional medicinal plants.

  Traditional medicinal plants used for gastrointestinal disorders by the Nyamwezi traditional health practitioners of Tabora region, Tanzania · 2024 · DOI

• Looking ahead, future research should explore regionally specific expressions of AIKSs and how these can inform theological curricula and ministerial formation across various African contexts.

  Integrating African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKSs) into Public Theology: Towards Contextualized Theological Engagement in Southern Africa · 2025 · DOI

• The present paper suggests, however, that an expanded descriptive model alone is insufficient.

  The Colonisation of the Sacred Self: African Spirituality, Colonial Christianity, and the Moral Psychology of Lived Experience · 2026 · DOI

• The interviews corroborated and extended these findings: participants identified respect, honesty, tolerance and hospitality as core Ghanaian values, but many reported limited knowledge of them and acknowledged the competing influence of global media and Western cultural norms.

  Honouring Heritage, Empowering Educators: Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers’ Perspectives on Indigenous Cultural Values · 2026 · DOI

• Yet, little is known about how far pre-service Social Studies teachers appreciate the indigenous cultural values they are expected to teach.

  Honouring Heritage, Empowering Educators: Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers’ Perspectives on Indigenous Cultural Values · 2026 · DOI

• Particularly, future studies are required to deeply explore how context can influence individuals’ experience of internal exclusion.

  The Experience of Internal Exclusion Within the Context of Education in Africa: A Scoping Review of the Views of Philosophers of Education and Educationists · 2025 · DOI

• Future research could involve cross-national partnerships to examine how the framework travels across related but distinct postcolonial settings. Replication or adaptation partnerships could be developed with universities in different African countries.

  Reconstructing the Moral University: Critical Idealism as a Framework for Moral Formation in African Higher Education · 2026 · DOI

• The gap is the lack of an institution-level account of how moral purpose is translated into governance, pedagogy, assessment, and digital infrastructure. The gap is also the lack of a framework for moral formation in African higher education.

  Reconstructing the Moral University: Critical Idealism as a Framework for Moral Formation in African Higher Education · 2026 · DOI

• Second, while the results demonstrate a contrast between the questionnaire results and those from the interviews concerning participants’ perceptions of their and other teachers’ preparedness, further research is needed to expand on what this preparedness entails in practice and how such practice evolves across different school contexts.

  Decolonisation of Education in Public Primary Schools in South Africa: Challenges of Integration and Adaptation for the Way Forward · 2026 · DOI

• Mbiti's concept of time has been criticised for lacking a sense of the future. The study identifies a gap in the understanding of African time and its relationship to four-dimensionalism. The researcher argues that prior studies have not adequately addressed the complexities of Mbiti's concept of time.

  Time to get a watch: Grounding John Mbiti’s Sasa and Zamani in Four-Dimensionalism · 2026 · DOI

• The section below proposes strategic levers to strengthen community engagement in higher education, focusing on the need for greater institutionalisation, collaboration and methodological innovation. Furthermore, it points to major study limitations and recalls future research lines that can reinforce how community engagement contributes to positively changing academic and social systems.

  Community engagement ecosystems in South African higher education: A bibliometric analysis of scholarship advancing social justice, inclusion, and institutional strategy · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need to integrate Afrocentric discourses with contemporary social work with group education and practice in the South African and African context. This integration could ensure that the practice of social work with groups in the African context is culturally and contextually relevant.

  Groupwork and Afrocentric perspectives in social work education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal: A transformative autoethnographic journey · 2026 · DOI

• The TVET sector is framed by technocratic discourses of labour-market responsiveness and skills delivery. The sector is characterised by a lack of student voice in shaping vocational education.

  Decolonising from below: Africanisation, student voice, and epistemic justice in South African technical and vocational education and training · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of understanding of post-independence African citizenship.

  Post-Independence African Citizenship: · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of understanding of post-independence African citizenship. The need for a form of citizenship that accommodates both rights-based and ethnic identities.

  Post-Independence African Citizenship: · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need for a more nuanced understanding of culture and education. The paper identifies a gap in the existing literature, highlighting the need for a more inclusive approach to education.

  Rethinking the Complexity and Tensions of Culture and Education Beyond National Frames: A Culture Responsive South African Perspective · 2026 · DOI

• The paper suggests the need for further research on the precarity of postdocs in neoliberal universities. The paper argues for a decolonization of oppressive forms of postdoctoral research fellowships.

  Postdocs and Their Lived Precarity in Neoliberal South African Universities · 2026 · DOI

• Teachers have difficulty incorporating evolution into their teaching. Teachers lack effective teaching strategies to teach evolution.

  Teachers’ Acceptance and Understanding of Evolution: A Mixed-Methods Study of Life Sciences Educators in Tshwane North, South Africa · 2026 · DOI

• Several of these approaches, notably instructional and distributed leadership, are valued for their perceived potential to contribute to school improvement, but with mixed evidence of their efficacy.

  Revisiting School Leadership: Indigenous Challenges to Global North Models · 2026 · DOI

• The general belief today is that, traditionally, the African woman has not been described positively and that in African cultures, women have hardly been talked about; they have been invisible.

  An Africana womanist reading of Queen Mother ( Indlovukati ) Ntombi LaTfwala’s praises · 2026 · DOI

• The study showed that CTCA and Afrocyberlibrary improved student achievement in cybersecurity compared to the regular lecture method; its effects on gender were inconclusive.

  Improving African students’ understanding of cybersecurity using African Indigenous pedagogy and technology · 2026 · DOI

• The article notes that the interplay among theology, science, and ubuntu is grounded in humanity, but this relationship is often conflicted.

  The meaning of being human and the future of humanity in the world of artificial intelligence · 2026 · DOI

• The paper argues that the intellectual and academic communities have largely ignored the conditions of precarity, homelessness, and facultylessness experienced by postdocs.

  Postdocs and Their Lived Precarity in Neoliberal South African Universities · 2026 · DOI

• Despite gains in access and representation, marginalised groups remain excluded.

  The South African Higher Education Transformation Journey: Thirty Years after Democracy, edited by Grace Khunou and Nompumelelo Radebe · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in African cultural and philosophical studies

• Twilight Institutions: Public Authority and Local Politics in Africa · Development and Change · 2006 · 542 citations
• Beyond Settler and Native as Political Identities: Overcoming the Political Legacy of Colonialism · Comparative Studies in Society and History · 2001 · 465 citations
• Rethinking Colonial Categories: European Communities and the Boundaries of Rule · Comparative Studies in Society and History · 1989 · 399 citations
• Decolonisation of higher education: Dismantling epistemic violence and Eurocentrism in South Africa · Transformation in Higher Education · 2016 · 397 citations
• What is the Concept of Globalization Good for? An African Historian's Perspective · African Affairs · 2001 · 338 citations
• Nego‐Feminism: Theorizing, Practicing, and Pruning Africa’s Way · Signs · 2004 · 315 citations
• Wealth in People as Wealth in Knowledge: Accumulation and Composition in Equatorial Africa · The Journal of African History · 1995 · 301 citations
• ETHNICITY, PATRONAGE AND THE AFRICAN STATE: THE POLITICS OF UNCIVIL NATIONALISM · African Affairs · 1998 · 299 citations
• The decolonial bandwagon and the dangers of intellectual decolonisation · International Review of Sociology · 2020 · 297 citations
• Denaturalizing Dispossession: Critical Ethnography in the Age of Resurgent Imperialism · Antipode · 2006 · 292 citations

Most recent work

• Introduction: roaming and rooted – migration, religion, spirituality and the transnational lives of African youth · Ethnic and Racial Studies · 2026
• From Access to Epistemology: A Critical Review of Decolonising STEM Education Through Equity and Inclusion Practices · Education Sciences · 2026
• Reframing the lens: transnational youth, lived religion and rethinking mobility and transnationalism · Ethnic and Racial Studies · 2026
• Communal Knowing in Nursing: A Novel Pattern of Knowing From the African Philosophical Lens · Nursing Philosophy · 2026
• Decolonising the mainstream education and preserving Indigenous knowledge systems: learning through African Indigenous games · AlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples · 2026
• Decolonising Environmental Education Pedagogy: A Participatory Action Research Approach · Education Sciences · 2026
• Revisiting School Leadership: Indigenous Challenges to Global North Models · Education Sciences · 2026
• African Spirituality 101: A Foundational Introduction to Core Beliefs, Practices and Worldviews · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• Ubuntu-Ukama Epistemologies: Towards a Shift from a Colonial Grammar of Possession and Exploitation to Ecological Kinship and Community in Environmental Communication · Environmental Communication · 2026
• Ifa Prosperity Teachings: Ire, Iwa Pele, and the Yoruba Discipline of Building Lasting Wealth · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026

Related topics in Social Sciences