School of International Relations & Diplomacy

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Futuring an ‘Inclusive Knowledge Futures’ framework beyond IR theories
(Futures, 2022-09) Francis Onditi
This article proposes an ‘inclusive knowledge futures’ (IKF) analytical framework as an alternative for integrating African home-grown knowledge architecture (henceforth ‘Afric-rhektology’) into the west-dominated international relations (IR) thought and practice. On the basis of this Afric-rhektological knowledge mantra, I argue that to remain complacent to the current IR studies order, altogether, and to insist on resting in the moment of simple difference, is only to recoil into the obverse of a colonial universalism. It is in fact a purely deconstructive project that cannot offer an alternative to concrete forms of knowledge hegemony. The article factors in ‘disruption’ and brings new tools of analysis based on philosophies rooted in the African socio-cultural context. Disrupting the existing west-dominated fabric of IR theories allows borderless diffusion of knowledge, a reciprocal sharing of resources, cultures and technologies. By so doing, it renders hierarchies and knowledge hegemony utterly useless. Within this knowledge disruption thinking, I evoke the Afric-rhektology tools to mainstream some of the profound Africa based philosophies (Ujamaa and Ubaraza), as a way of accepting multiplicity, hybridity and inclusivity of IR and Futures Studies.