Postcolonial theory, indigenous knowledge systems, and epistemological sovereignty in East Africa: Theoretical frameworks, knowledge legitimacy, and the decolonial turn in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda

Background: Postcolonial theory has since its foundational articulations by Fanon, Said, and Spivak engaged with the question of what counts as legitimate knowledge. In East African contexts, the relationship between colonial epistemologies embedded in university curricula, state institutions, and research methodologies and the indigenous knowledge systems of Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Ugandan communities raises critical questions about epistemological sovereignty, the right of communities to define, validate, and transmit their own knowledge on their own terms.

Aim: This study examined how postcolonial and decolonial theoretical frameworks conceptualise epistemological sovereignty in East African contexts, and how contemporary movements for indigenous knowledge recognition are reshaping academic, policy, and governance discourses.

Methodology: The study employed an interpretive literature synthesis methodology drawing on postcolonial theory, decolonial scholarship, and empirical case studies of indigenous knowledge recognition programmes in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda published between 2022 and 2026. Theoretical frameworks were applied to analyse policy documents, constitutional provisions, and university curriculum reform initiatives.

Findings: Postcolonial theory provides productive but incomplete frameworks for understanding epistemological sovereignty, with decolonial approaches originating in African philosophical traditions offering more contextually grounded conceptualisations. Kenya's constitutional recognition of community rights, Tanzania's ujamaa legacy, and Uganda's traditional cultural institutions represent divergent institutional pathways toward epistemological sovereignty with varying degrees of substantive implementation.

Contributions: The study contributes to postcolonial and decolonial theory by developing an East African conceptualisation of epistemological sovereignty that integrates philosophical, institutional, and pedagogical dimensions, and by providing comparative evidence of knowledge sovereignty movements in three distinct national contexts