“You Can’t Solve a Problem Until You Ask the Right Question”: Positioning Afrocentric Learning Communities in the Post #FeesMustFall Context

Abstract

Higher education in South Africa is in an era that demands a new lens and theoretical clarity to inform how we grow the collective identity of 21st century African students with a framework that is grounded in the following two questions, “Who am I/are we in this context and how can I/we contribute to the knowledge base in higher education?” Through this paper, we would like to position the conversation by addressing theoretical aspects of a humanising pedagogy, Afrocentricity and Ubuntu, within South African higher education learning communities. We argue in this positional paper that a Relational Centred Framework for Afrocentric Learning Communities will add to the complexity of the search for our African identity, also referred to as African ways of being, in higher education, especially for South African students in the post #FeesMustFall context.