ABSTRACT
The urgency to examine the epistemic, ontological, and methodological practices that generate knowledge in the communication field persists, despite increasing efforts to question the discipline’s inherent Whiteness. This chapter proposes an Africa-centred model to rethink communication research and practice. First, the article engages with a scholarship to demonstrate how historical and institutional colonialism continues suppressing marginalised ontologies and ways of knowing in favour of Whiteness. A decolonial framework is used to critically highlight the epistemic violence inherent in communication scholarship, proposing a reconstruction of communication theory, research, and practice using the African (Oroko) concept of Ekoaɗo. Ultimately, the article shows how Ekoaɗo can articulate a more liberating aspiration towards communication as a collective knowledge and a value-laden practice. Additionally, it highlights how Ekoaɗo offers a powerful way to decentre Whiteness in pedagogical efforts to generate and disseminate knowledge in communication and related fields while engaging in dialogue with non-African epistemes and ontologies.
