African Journal of Advanced Arts and Humanities

Navigating Marginalisation: A French Lecturer's Journey in Kenyan Higher Education

Zalo Kenneth — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This chapter presents a personal reflection on my trajectory as a French lecturer in Kenya, examining how marginalisation shapes lived experiences within Intercultural Communication Education and Research (ICER). Drawing on Dervin (2023), Holliday (2011), and R'boul (2023), I investigate the intersection of power imbalances, epistemic hierarchies, and linguistic dominance in academic spaces. Using Riordan's (2024) cultural capital theory alongside critical interculturality frameworks, I explore how geographical location, linguistic identity, and professional positioning interact within systems dominated by Western knowledge production. Through auto-ethnographic reflection combined with critical discourse analysis of institutional policies and peer review practices, I examine tensions between resistance and conformity in navigating exclusionary structures. Central to this inquiry is the "intercultural maverick" – do marginalised scholars actively challenge dominant systems, or do they strategically conform to survive within them? This study argues that ICER must broaden its multilingual scope to challenge English dominance, creating space for genuine linguistic and epistemic plurality. Employing Dervin's (2022) principle of "criticality of criticality", I resist framing marginalised scholars' resilience as triumph over obstacles. Instead, I interrogate the structural barriers that persist despite reform rhetoric, acknowledging that meaningful change requires institutional dismantling, not symbolic gestures. Ultimately, this chapter advocates for fundamental shifts in how ICER approaches knowledge production, urging movement toward authentic inclusivity that values historically sidelined voices not as supplementary contributions but as central to reshaping the field.

Educating for Agency: African Philosophies of Personhood and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Education

Patrick Mwania — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The global diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) in education presents a profound anthropological and ethical challenge: how to preserve human agency and moral responsibility within increasingly automated learning systems. In African educational contexts, this challenge intersects with long-standing debates about personhood, community, and the moral purpose of education. This paper argues that African philosophies of personhood—especially the communitarian ethic of Ubuntu—offer vital resources for reimagining education in the AI era. Drawing on African philosophical anthropology, Christian theological reflections on the imago Dei, and contemporary educational ethics, the study develops a conceptual framework for “educating for agency.” This framework emphasizes the formative, relational, and moral dimensions of learning that cannot be replicated by algorithmic systems. Through a critical dialogue between technology and tradition, the paper demonstrates that AI must serve, not substitute, the humanizing goals of education. By integrating African wisdom traditions and ethical reasoning, it concludes that preserving human agency in AI-driven education is not merely a technological adjustment but a moral and cultural imperative for the future of learning in Africa.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, African philosophy, personhood, Ubuntu, human agency, education ethics, imago Dei

NIGERIA’S NATIONAL LANGUAGE QUESTION: A CASE FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Nuhu Isaac Obins, Andrew Onoja, Mary Daniel Nimram — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the national language question in Nigeria. The paper establishes that language is the vehicle with which the cultural ethos of a society are transmitted while in return, society nurtures language through its socio-political, economic and cultural groups. Language is a means of communication by means of which human beings share and impart information to one another. The bottomline is that the English Language in Nigeria, more than any other other indegenous language, has for decades being a mobilizer of linguistic, political, technological, economic, cultural and religious potentials toward the creation of wealth, freedom, responsibility and common togetherness for the individual and for the nation. It is this function of the English Language that makes it a veritable tool for national development in Nigeria. The paper found out that some Nigerians are pushing for the adoption of an indigenous Nigerian language as against the continued use of the English Language as national language. The paper concludes that in the present situation in Nigeria, it is difficult to see how a local lingua franca can be adopted except by a process of gradualism. It is suggested that state governments should give serious thought to the inclusion of a major Nigerian language (other than the major language of the state) as compulsory subjects in the secondary school curriculum and by so doing continue to encourage our local languages, continue to research into them and make them as virile as possible while Nigeria for the time being concentrates more on matters of national development and the wellbeing of her citizenry.

Review of “The 21st Century Skills in Curriculum and Instruction.”

Asrat Kelkay — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this review is to explore the book titled “The 21st Century Skills: Evidence of issues in definition, demand & delivery for development contexts” authored by Joynes, Rossignoli, and Amonoo-Kuofi, highlighting its emphasis on 21 century skills and challenges, critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. The book offers a comprehensive overview of 21 century skills from various disciplines, making it valuable for scholars, graduate students, educators, and practitioners in the field. It also guides decision-making and includes suggestions for future research, making it beneficial for researchers. By examining how such a tool can be used for teacher feedback, reflective practice, and continuous improvement, the hope is to pave the way toward enhanced 21st-century teacher skills and, in turn, 21st-century learners.

Liberation and Lament: A Public Theology for the Victims of Human Trafficking in the African Context

Patrick Mwania — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract:

Description:
This paper examines human trafficking in Africa through a theological lens, integrating Catholic social teaching, African theology, and public theology to develop a comprehensive response. It explores human trafficking as both a social and spiritual crisis, analyzing its historical, structural, and cultural dimensions, with particular attention to gendered vulnerabilities, poverty, and displacement. The study situates victims’ experiences as loci theologici, offering a theological reflection that combines lament and liberation as complementary modes of engagement.

Rationale:
Human trafficking represents one of the most urgent human rights crises in Africa, with devastating social, moral, and spiritual consequences. The Church’s response has often been limited to pastoral care or moral exhortation, without sufficient integration of structural analysis and public advocacy. This study addresses this gap by proposing a theology that is both reflective and actionable, enabling the Church to respond prophetically and practically to the suffering of trafficked persons.

Theoretical Framework:
The paper employs a liberation-theological framework, grounded in the principles of solidarity, preferential option for the vulnerable, and structural sin as articulated by Gustavo Gutiérrez (1973) and John Paul II (1987). African theological concepts of ubuntu and communal moral responsibility inform the framework, emphasizing relational personhood, communal healing, and moral accountability. Lament is theorized as a theological and epistemological tool for naming injustice, while liberation constitutes the praxis-oriented response that integrates pastoral care, advocacy, and systemic reform.

Methodology:
The study adopts a qualitative theological methodology, combining contextual analysis, biblical exegesis, and doctrinal reflection. It draws on African theological writings, Catholic social teaching, ecclesial documents, and international reports on human trafficking. The methodology emphasizes theological discernment from below, privileging the experiences of trafficked persons as sources of knowledge and ethical insight. Analytical tools include historical contextualization, critical reflection on ecclesial and social structures, and hermeneutical interpretation of scripture and African moral traditions.

Findings:
The study identifies human trafficking as both a structural injustice and a violation of the divine image, necessitating responses that integrate lament, liberation, and public witness. Lament is shown to function as a theological act of resistance, amplifying victims’ voices and revealing systemic complicity, while liberation provides the praxis framework for action through advocacy, pastoral care, education, and policy engagement. The paper proposes a set of pastoral and theological strategies, including theology-from-below formation, interreligious and ecumenical collaboration, digital advocacy, and community-based reintegration programs, as effective ways for the Church to confront trafficking prophetically and practically.

Keywords: Human trafficking, African theology, Catholic social teaching, liberation theology, lament, public theology, pastoral praxis, Ubuntu

English Medium Instruction, an Impediment to Educational Achievement and Social Justice Education in Primary Schools: A Sociological Perspective

Dr. Mashuro, Leonie G Higgs — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

This article is poised to explore English Medium Instruction (EMI) and its potential to impede social justice education in primary schools in Chivi District (Zimbabwe). The article specifically discusses the impact that English as the medium of instruction has on primary Grade 3 learners in Chivi District and the implications it has on fostering social justice education in the education sector in general. This is because Grade 3 learners in Zimbabwe are introduced to EMI for the first time at Grade 3 level, a situation that reveals social injustice in education. In this article, learners exhibited a number of vices as a result of EMI, for instance, early immersion and poor academic performance among others. The article falls within the qualitative approach, where interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis were used as data generation methods. A total of 46 participants were purposely selected and were the data sources for this article. The collected data was useful to find out to what degree EMI champions educational achievement and fostering equity and equality in the primary schools. Some of the findings of the article are slowness in thinking, experiencing two second languages, low self-esteem, language attrition and English as the language of unity in the classroom, among many others. In light of the findings, the article suggests that the use of ILs as the medium of instruction at primary school level needs immediate attention for social justice education to be a reality.

Meaning Shifts in the English Subtitle Translation of Verbal Humor: A Case Study of Agak Laen (2024)

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates meaning shifts in English subtitle translation in verbal humor in an Indonesian film, Agak Laen, in 2024. Using a qualitative descriptive content analysis methodology, a total of forty samples of verbal humor were identified and coded in accordance with Shade’s typology in 1996. The study used a framework based on equivalence concepts in translation by Nida and Taber in 1969/1982 to include categories such as loss, gain, change, and neutral meaning. The results indicate that wit is the most prevalent humor style, which represents the embedded culture of Indonesian speaking behavior. Based on translation solutions, meaning shifts in both change of meaning and neutral meaning share a common index of 32.5%, which shows how semantic shifts are prevalent in ensuring ease of access by a cross-cultural audience. Even if some cultural specifics in humor are lessened, a global sense of humor remains intact. Meaning shifts represent adaptive solutions facilitating cross-cultural humor translation in audiovisual translation.