Decolonising Citation: Epistemic Injustice, Metrics, and Building Infrastructures for African Scholarship

The paper investigates how global citation systems and academic assessment methods continue to sustain colonial legacies. This study uses a decolonial theoretical framework which includes the concept of epistemic injustice to study how citation metrics create knowledge distribution imbalances. Our criticism originates from our position as African scholars who study Western academic journals and Western theoretical frameworks to fight against the Western systems which we aim to destroy. Our analysis process is guided by reflexive awareness. The bibliometric analysis of Scopus publication data between 2019 and 2023 shows how African journals and scholarship face marginalisation through their lower citation rates and the overwhelming dominance of English-language publications. The paper shows that current academic practices commit testimonial and hermeneutical injustice against African knowers. The solution we propose requires an approach to citation which accepts all knowledge forms that exist in oral and communal traditions and different languages. We argue that rather than avoiding the poison of existing colonial academic structures, scholars can strategically work within these systems to build immunity and create alternative infrastructures.