Abstract

African feminist epistemology emerges as a decolonial response to the historical marginalisation of women's knowledge on the continent. Colonial legacies and Western epistemological traditions, centred on the autonomous, abstract subject, have systematically erased indigenous knowledge systems and imposed individualistic frameworks that distort African women's relational ontologies. Through philosophical hermeneutics and conceptual analysis of African feminist and decolonial scholarship, the paper investigates how relational knowing can be reclaimed as a decolonial epistemological alternative. This article argues that knowledge in African contexts is fundamentally situated, relational, and ethically accountable. It is produced through communal ethics, dialogical identities, and lived experiences rather than detached certainty or universal reason. African feminist epistemology resists essentialism and standpoint homogenisation while reclaiming marginalised voices through plurality, testimonial justice, and the integration of indigenous practices such as griot storytelling and oral traditions. The article contributes to African epistemology and demonstrates that relational knowing empowers African women and advances a more inclusive, decolonised model of knowledge production that integrates diverse perspectives, ethical responsibility, and collaborative inquiry into broader epistemological discourse.

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