Decolonizing African Collections Through Open Access

Decolonizing African collections in libraries is essential to correct historical injustices, remove Western biases, and, in some cases, harmful representations of African history and culture. It involves actively diversifying collections, prioritizing authentic African voices, revising cataloging systems to remove colonial biases, and integrating indigenous knowledge systems. Production, distribution, and ownership of African intellectual capital are controlled by the Global North, which dictates what is published, who can afford to purchase it and how research impact is measured.

These experiences of the African continent have been repeated across the Global South. This Virtual Brown Bag presents the issues involved in decolonizing African collections, explores global collaborations to advance equitable knowledge ecosystems, and considers models and networks of Diamond Open Access that ensure that African scholarship is produced and distributed under the principle of global equity.