African communication studies: a provocation and invitation

ABSTRACT In this introductory essay to the first of two themed issues, “(Re)Theorizing Communication Studies from African Perspectives,” we explore the decolonial potential of African perspectives in communication studies. African knowledge systems have something to teach, regardless of whether the West is listening. And yet, in the discipline of communication studies, the vast continent and its knowledge systems barely hold a presence. African knowledge systems are easily denied because of the ways that neocolonialism, coloniality, and global anti-Blackness structure Western ontologies and epistemologies. Therefore, we ask: What kind of epistemological decolonization is required in communication studies for the discipline to take African knowledge systems seriously? This Introduction creates a groundwork for interventions by examining the array of work that has already been done in service of the decolonial African communication studies project and the future possibilities of African communication studies.