The Inkanyiso journal 2026 Special Collection: We invite you to submit

AOSIS calls on all authors to participate in the Inkanyiso journal’s 2026 special collection, African Cosmologies, Identities, and the Re-centring of African Knowledge in Higher Education, that will be published in the open-access scholarly journal, Inkanyiso. Submit your latest research for consideration, contribute to the open-access content available to everyone, and share your expertise with a wider audience.

Timeline:

• Online full manuscript submission open: 01 November 2025
• Online full manuscript submission closes: 16 March 2026
• Expected publication date: 15 September 2026

Inkanyiso 2026 special collection. African Cosmologies, Identities, and the Re-centring of African Knowledge in Higher Education

This special collection, African Cosmologies, Identities, and the Re-centering of Knowledge in Higher Education, seeks to foreground African epistemologies, ontologies, and pedagogies as legitimate and generative frameworks for reimagining higher education in Africa and beyond. The collection invites interdisciplinary contributions that challenge the dominance of Eurocentric epistemic traditions and advance the pursuit of decoloniality through Afrocentric scholarship, practices, and value co-creation between academics, practitioners, and communities.

The collection is inspired by the recognition that African cosmologies and indigenous knowledge systems hold profound intellectual, ethical, and ecological insights that can transform not only what is taught in universities, but also how knowledge is produced, shared, and applied. By engaging African worldviews as living, dynamic, and contextually grounded, this initiative calls for an epistemic shift, from the margins to the centre, where African modes of thought, spirituality, and community are affirmed as foundational to sustainable higher education systems.

Across the African continent, there is growing momentum toward re-centering local knowledge within academic institutions. This aligns with South Africa’s legislative and policy frameworks, such as the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Act 6 of 2019, which recognises indigenous knowledge as a national asset and promotes its integration into formal education, research, and innovation. Within this policy environment, the collection offers an academic space to theorise, reflect, and share empirical evidence on how higher education can become more inclusive, transformative, and epistemically just.

The special collection examines how African knowledge traditions, across ontological, epistemological, and pedagogical dimensions, can re-centre and transform the intellectual foundations of higher education. Contributors are invited to explore curriculum transformation, indigenous ethics and sustainability, healing and life-transition practices, decolonial methodologies, and the relational ontologies grounding African humanism, Ubuntu, and Identities. Submissions that illustrate how African cosmologies influence pedagogy, social development, environmental stewardship, and policy innovation are especially welcome.

A distinctive feature of this special collection is its emphasis on value co-creation, the collaborative generation of knowledge between academics, indigenous practitioners, policymakers, and communities. This approach positions knowledge not as a product owned by a few, but as a shared process of discovery, dialogue, and mutual enrichment. Through this lens, Afrocentricity is treated not merely as a theoretical stance but as a living epistemic practice that affirms relationality, spirituality, and community agency as integral to academic work.

This collection aims to deepen scholarly conversations about the legitimacy, depth, and contemporary relevance of African cosmologies and indigenous knowledge systems. It seeks to illuminate pathways through which universities can contribute to social and ecological renewal, nurture epistemic diversity, and advance decolonial futures. By fostering dialogue across disciplines, generations, and geographies, African Cosmologies, Identities, and the Re-centering of Knowledge in Higher Education envisions higher education as a site of transformation, a space where African thought leads not from the periphery, but from the centre of global knowledge production.

Recommended topics:

1. Ontological and Epistemological Re-centering
   • African cosmologies and ontologies as frameworks for knowledge production.
   • Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing in higher education.
   • Afrocentricity as a legitimate epistemological stance in the pursuit of decoloniality.
   • Plural ontologies and relational understandings of personhood and community.
2. Pedagogical Transformation
   • Decolonial pedagogies and the reconstitution of teaching and learning spaces.
   • Indigenous knowledge and curriculum transformation in universities.
   • Learning through oral traditions, storytelling, art, and ritual.
   • Ubuntu as pedagogy: community, compassion, and collective learning.
3. Research Methodologies and Knowledge Justice
   • Indigenous and participatory research methodologies in African contexts.
   • Methodological pluralism and ethics of co-production in community research.
   • Epistemic justice and the politics of research representation.
   • Reclaiming African intellectual genealogies in contemporary scholarship.
4. Policy, Governance, and Institutional Transformation
   • Implementation of the Indigenous Knowledge Act (Act 6 of 2019) in higher education and research.
   • Institutionalising indigenous knowledge systems in universities.
   • Policy frameworks supporting the integration of African epistemologies.
   • Governance models informed by African ethics and relational accountability.
5. Spirituality, Ecology, and Sustainability
   • African spirituality and ecological consciousness as intertwined worldviews.
   • Indigenous environmental ethics and planetary sustainability.
   • Cosmological perspectives on land, water, and ancestral stewardship.
   • Decolonising climate and environmental education.
6. Identity, Language, and Cultural Memory
   • The politics of language in decolonising knowledge.
   • Identity formation through African cosmologies and cultural heritage.
   • Oral archives, indigenous literatures, and intergenerational knowledge transmission.
   • Healing, memory, and resilience in indigenous knowledge practices.
7. Value Co-Creation and Community Engagement
   • Partnerships between universities, communities, and indigenous knowledge holders.
   • Value co-creation as praxis for decolonial transformation.
   • Collaborative models of teaching, research, and innovation.
   • Community-based knowledge economies and indigenous innovation.
8. Future Directions
   • Digital humanities and indigenous knowledge archiving.
   • Youth, technology, and the digital indigenisation of learning.
   • Global South solidarities in knowledge production.
   • Envisioning decolonial futures for African higher education.

Manuscript information:

The author guidelines include information about the types of articles received for publication and preparing a manuscript for submission. Read the full submission guidelines.

Submission procedure:

When submitting your manuscript to the journal, choose ‘African Cosmologies, Identities, and the Re-centring of African Knowledge in Higher Education’ as the article type. You can access the submission portal on the journal’s website after logging in with your personal credentials. For further information on the submission process, visit the journal procedure page.

All submissions will undergo an anonymous review process to guarantee high scientific quality and relevance to the subject. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision on acceptance, revision, or rejection based on the feedback from the reviewers.

We will be happy to provide you with any assistance during the submission and application process. Kindly enquire at submissions@inkanyisojournal.org.

All submissions and inquiries should be directed to the attention of the guest editors:

• Ass/Prof Ntombozuko Duku, University of Fort Hare, nduku@ufh.ac.za
• Mrs Busisiwe Madikizela-Theu, Nelson Mandela University, Busisiwemt@mandela.ac.za
• Prof Willie  Chinyamurindi, University of Fort Hare, WChinyamurindi@ufh.ac.za

We would be honoured to receive a positive reply from you and look forward to receiving your manuscript.