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A critical analysis of western environmental knowledge as a neocolonial strategy: The case of Uganda
(Agricultural and Environmental Education, 2025-06-28) Tina Aciro; Agatha Alidri; Expedito Nuwategeka; Wilfred Lajul,
To curb environmental challenges effectively, Western environmental knowledge has been adopted besides indigenous environmental knowledge system in Africa. However, the dualistic nature of knowledge integration, this paper notes, is tinted by unfair powerrelations where indigenous knowledge is masked by neo-colonialtenets of the West. Neo-colonialism, as argued in this paper, is the attempt of the Western societies to impose their knowledge system to micro-manage the environmental and other affairs in Africa, taking a case study of Uganda. Our central inquiry is why Africa is gradually deviating from indigenous knowledge systems in preference of Western environmental knowledge. Using a critical analytical survey method, this paper argues that there is environmental knowledge neo-colonialism in Africa today characterized by Western identity construction, language dominance, cross-cultural cloning, undermining of indigenous education patterns, academic division of labor, education as an investment, top-down distribution of knowledge, and improper contextualization of knowledge construction and application. This appeals for Africanized production of knowledge to suit the continent’s environmental needs and achieve African epistemic autonomy.