Dear German African Studies, what’s your role in knowledge-stereotypes reproduction?

Studies, advocacy groups, and movements have demonstrated that racist stereotypes have persisted in European African studies despite strides in postcolonial theory, Black studies and anti-racism and diversity legislation. Sadly, this persistence of racist stereotypes actually translates into marginalisation, denial of opportunity and oftentimes, violence against Africans, Black people and other people of colour. How does one (scientifically, objectively, market-responsively) curate a course or design a research project in the area of African Studies – in a European university or research institute – being mindful of possibilities of reproducing (colonial) racist stereotypes? Specifically, how does one select the canon for a course or the research topic for a project? How do the methodologies and disciplinary tools that dominate African studies help us think about horizons and claimed breakthroughs in non-Eurocentric European African Studies? Through interviews with scholars and students; close studies of courses at African Studies institutions, this paper contends that a Critical Race Theory approach, applied progressively enables rigorous and constant review of positionalities, reflexivity, claims of objectivity, market-driven choices, science, towards more racially-conscious horizons.