African Criminologies: Decolonization, Relativism, and Resistance

Abstract This chapter argues that the decolonization of criminology and criminal justice throughout Africa has enormous potential to reshape the static trajectory of the discipline. This is because the central role of criminology in sustaining inherently harmful justice institutions and practices is reflected clearly in lived African experiences that are obscured in knowledge-building practices throughout the Global North. The emphasis in this chapter is on two interconnected problems specific to the colonial and postcolonial conditions in Africa. The first is the gradual shift in the use of the criminal law to suppress political violence and translating these processes into the civilian sphere. The second is the highly selective use of international criminal law to address mass atrocities. For decolonization to be authentic to a wide body of critical African theories, a true epistemic break from knowledges embedded in legal, political, and humanitarian institutions formed in the Global North is required.