In recent weeks, I have found myself increasingly preoccupied with the unfinished project of decolonization—a process perpetuated through racial segregation, knowledge control, and the enduring power imbalance between the West and the Global South. Global institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund remain under Western dominance, continuing to impose developmental paradigms on developing nations.
My concern centers on access to knowledge within our supposedly globalized world. How does restricted access ensure that colonial machinery remains well-oiled, perpetuating the Global South’s systemic disadvantage?
The mechanisms are neither subtle nor accidental. Take Nigeria, where English—the colonial language —remains the primary medium of instruction despite recent policy changes requiring primary education in mother tongues. With over 500 indigenous languages, many now facing extinction, this transition represents both opportunity and enormous challenge.
Academic publishing reveals deeper entrenchment. “Trusted” peer-reviewed journals remain monopolized by Northern scholars, while prohibitive subscription costs and exclusionary editorial practices lock out local academics. The gatekeeping extends to international internships: UN data shows that in 2019, 2020, and 2022, approximately 72%, 78%, and 70% respectively of UN internships went to applicants from Europe and North America.
The World Bank’s paid internship program fares better with 45% participation from the Global South, proving more equitable representation is achievable. Yet even there, funding constraints and visa restrictions limit developing nation candidates. This system functions as a privilege filter, ensuring only those with existing advantages access these influence pipelines.
Global South nations must collectively demand structural reforms: decentralized internships, streamlined visa processes, and comprehensive financial support covering full living costs, not just modest stipends. Yet integration alone is insufficient—the deeper challenge is epistemic liberation.
Current programs often reinforce Eurocentric frameworks rather than fostering critical alternatives. They provide limited avenues to challenge dominant development ideologies, instead serving to reproduce them. The African Union must lead in developing Afrocentric academic and professional development programs where emerging scholars can engage with indigenous knowledge systems and imagine development models rooted in Africa’s own realities.
Asia’s transformation—South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam—demonstrates alternatives are possible. These nations harnessed local ingenuity alongside selective global engagement, resisting intellectual dependency that has constrained the Global South.
Africa must follow suit: reviving precolonial wisdom, investing in homegrown research institutions, and refusing to outsource its intellectual future to colonial-influenced institutions. The Global South, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, must take ownership of its future by creating empowering narratives and knowledge systems that its rapidly growing youth population—the majority under 20—can build upon for transformation.
The question is not whether a level playing field in knowledge control is possible. The real question is whether the Global South has the collective will to demand it—and the creative imagination to build it.
Achieving epistemic justice requires more than critique: it demands building our own institutions, centering our own scholars, and trusting our own histories. Only then can we break free from the intellectual chains that bind us to our colonial past.
Dr. Bala Mohammed Liman can be reached at balamliman@gmail.com
