Dr Joel Onyango, reflects on the trip that aimed to enhance partnerships and staff exchanges within the Africa UniNet network of research institutions and universities in Austria and Africa.
By Dr Joel Onyango, Head of Climate Resilient Economies (CRE) programme, ACTS
The trip was to enhance partnerships and staff exchanges within the Africa UniNet network of research institutions and universities in Austria and Africa. Specifically, the exchange visit focused on developing sustainable partnerships in challenging the dominant narratives in knowledge and learning systems that are continuously characterized by knowledge hegemonies and elitism.
The visit involved BOKU university where the ACTS team (Nora Ndege and Joel Onyango) held a workshop and discussed with the BOKU Cluster for Development Research (CDR) team on the context of decoloniality within the knowledge and learning ecosystems. The workshop included reflections from the CDR team on what decoloniality means for them, and how the decolonial theory and lens can be applied in practice.
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Dr. Joel Onyango
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The ACTS team also visited the Austrian Foundation for Development Research (OFSE) where concepts on living libraries was discussed in detail after an extensive tour of the OFSE library with diverse literature on Africanacity. The visit included a tour to south of Austria with a walk by the Inn river, and over the Inn’s bridge to the mountain top, courtesy of the Institute for Sociology University of Innsbruck.
Through a series of workshop meetings, the ACTS team together with the University of Innsbruck discussed details on the upcoming decoloniality book volume, the 2023 seminar series (building into the seminar series in 2022), and the summer school scheduled for August 14th to 21st in Kwale County Kenya. The foresighted discussions also explored the potential for future partnerships and was crowned by delivering a well-attended public lecture on ‘hierarchies, hegemonies and elitism in decolonizing learning and knowledge systems.’
The exchange visit was not without fun! The ACTS team explored Austrian pastries and sweets including the Viennese apfelstrudel among other flavored strudels. Under the snow, the ACTS team explored the skating experiences in the Tyrol region, and shared cultural experiences and differences between Kenya and Austria.
