African Theoretical Frameworks for Communication and Social Change

Despite the extensive literature on communication for social change, African theoretical frameworks remain marginal in mainstream discourse. This chapter addresses this gap by examining three African philosophical traditions—Indaba, Sankofa, and Orality—as frameworks for rethinking communication and development. Rooted in African ontologies, ethics, and epistemologies, these traditions offer transformative alternatives to Western models that prioritise individualism and technocratic intervention. Through conceptual analysis and case studies from the continent, this chapter demonstrates how indaba encourages participatory deliberation and collective voice, aligning with Ascroft’s participatory communication. Orality sustains embodied, dialogic knowledge transmission that privileges lived voices and community agency. Drawing on Couldry’s concept of voice as the capacity to narrate one’s world and be acknowledged, this chapter argues that both Indaba and Orality enable communities to assert and value their voices as central to change. Sankofa complements them by fostering epistemic recovery through historical awareness. Together, these frameworks promote a culturally grounded paradigm of collective agency, ethical engagement, and epistemic justice. Incorporating African philosophical approaches into communication for social change is, therefore, a decolonial imperative and a strategic pathway towards more relevant, legitimate, and sustainable development, repositioning African communities as epistemic agents and co-authors of their futures.