Charlie Cobbinah
Doctoral Researcher & WESAF Fellow
University of Edinburgh · University of the Witwatersrand · Accra, Ghana
I am a doctoral researcher exploring how decolonial discourse is reshaping African universities - their sense of purpose, their knowledge systems, and their role in advancing sustainable futures for the continent.
I grew up in Ghana, where an educational system that felt disconnected from my own world first planted the questions I now spend my life asking. My work sits at the intersection of decolonization theory, higher education studies, and African development.
Research
How are African universities reinventing their institutional identity through decolonial thought — and what does that mean for sustainable African futures?
My doctoral work, conducted through the WESAF programme at the University of Edinburgh and the University of the Witwatersrand, examines the ways decolonial discourses are transforming how African universities understand themselves. I am interested in how these institutions are rethinking their curricula, their knowledge production practices, and their responsibilities to the communities they serve.
The research contributes to broader conversations about knowledge sovereignty, post-colonial institution-building, and what an authentically African university might look like in the twenty-first century.
Recent Writing
Whose Story? Critical Analysis of Primary Sources for Decolonized Curricula
Reflections from the DeCoGLAM launch event on archives, curricular authority, and decolonial pedagogy.
Nkrumah's Vision and the Contemporary African University
A forthcoming essay reconsidering Nkrumah's thought in relation to contemporary higher education.
The Promise and the Risk: On Tokenism in Decolonisation Discourse
A developing essay on the gap between symbolic gestures and deeper institutional change.