In Pursuit of Epistemic Autonomy

This book is a tribute to Sam Moyo, an exceptional intellectual and activist who strived towards liberating social sciences in the South from the hegemonic Western epistemic. In the introductory essay, the editors locate Sam’s intellectual and activist trajectory in pan-African tradition of political economy, and highlight his contributions to the evolving land, agrarian, and national question at the continental level and in his home country, Zimbabwe. They also trace his emergence as an intellectual force by bringing

to light Sam’s leading role in the frontlines of the struggle for epistemic sovereignty in Africa and the South at a time when neo-liberal restructuring sets its sights on autonomous knowledge production and when epistemological questions succumbed to a potent “cultural turn” ... In this, he defended an approach to political economy that was homegrown in Africa and fundamentally anti-imperialist, against Western intellectual trends, whether materialist or culturalist.