Mickias MUSIYIWA

Chikwamboism: Theorising Oppression from an African Indigenous Epistemological Perspective

This study seeks to develop an African indigenous knowledge based theory for conceptualising the complex and ubiquitous phenomenon of oppression. 

Termed chikwamboism or the chikwamboist theory, it proffers an epistemic framework for the comprehension of human oppression some of which has, inter alia, been historically institutionalised variously as slavery, feudalism, capitalism, colonialism, apartheid, imperialism and other localised forms of exploitation that could be gender, race, religion, age or culture based. (Human) oppression is understood as the (usually overtly and/or covertly systemic and relentless) subjection of an individual or a group to forms of domination by another individual or group or organisation which results in the oppressed’s deprivation in very sphere of life. Oppression’s tenacity and unabated harm to humanity is the study’s research problem calling for the interrogation of its nature in quest of conceptual ideas to understand it. Oppression fuels human injustice. It hinders humanity’s pursuit of its existential meaning. Because oppression mutates, it is therefore incumbent upon researchers to theorise and discover new insights in order to (re)strategise anew in combating it. The theory’s significance is its construction from Afro-centred epistemologies, often marginalised due to the global epistemic dominance of western intellectualism.