Perpetuating the Third World? Evaluating Knowledge Production in the African Context

The talk critically examines the seemingly outdated concept of the Third World by tracing its historical origins with reference to the Three Worlds Theory and investigates the reasons for the persistent - implied or direct - usage of the term in public and scientific discourse about issues considered as underdeveloped. Of particular interest is the way in which knowledge production influenced by complex relations of wealth and power which straddle the divide between the so-called Western and the so-called African perspective functions in the African context. Finally the paper examines two academic journals in the field of German Studies that are published in West Africa and Southern Africa respectively by querying whether they participate in the postcolonial project of writing back or rewriting colonialism in order to develop a new understanding of their participation in knowledge production.