Mission and Purpose
Research is about the creation of human knowledge and understanding; how this knowledge is advanced, expanded, and extrapolated or spawned into multifarious and variegated ways and strategies directed towards mitigation and solution of the problems humanity faces in its existence. In this regard, therefore, research may be regarded as particularistic. On the one hand, research may be focused on matters of social and contemporary concern to a particular group of people, or it may be deemed as irrelevant or of peripheral importance to the same group. Yet on another hand, research may be couched in paradigms and practices that are removed from the knowledge and system of development of a group; in this case, research may be confusing, confounding, and of no practical applicability to those it is meant to educate and benefit.
Research in Africa and about Africa has always suffered this bifurcation of (ir)-relevance. This is because African society encountered alien influence in its intellectual and social transformation; this encounter with the west has had its ‘ghosts,’ as well as its ‘graces’. African intellectuals and philosophers must seek to cut out an authentic African niche in scholarship, so that our knowledge and ways of knowing be identified and respected for what they truly are.
RUWAZA is derived from Kiswahili Language and cultural discourse to mean ‘vision and direction’ for Africa. The Journal is targeted at the development of research in Humanities and Social Sciences in Africa, about Africa and for Africa; it is hoped that by an incessant engagement of African scholars in academic discourse new ideas, ways and means will emerge through which to address Africa’s myriad issues and problems.
Editorial Board
