Paradoxically, academic partnerships between scholars of the North and the South can help epistemological decolonization. These partnerships can introduce African and can be instrumental in capacity building. Decolonization of knowledge does not mean abandoning Western knowledge. It means acquiring and generating knowledge with an African perspective and with African problems in mind. Knowledge cannot be pursued in a vacuum; it has to be built on the existing foundations. This is as true in humanities and social sciences as it is in hard sciences, where there can be no such thing as African physics or African mathematics. Previously studies looked at Africa from a Eurocentric perspective and if there were any African collaborators, their contribution was secondary, and this relationship between the partners was anything but equal. Currently a change in the nature of the collaborations is apparent. This is the result of the improved capacity of African academic institutions, globalization of knowledge and the explosion of the means of communication. Despite the fact that most funding still comes from the North, the African academics in these partnerships are now in a much better position to effect a balance in what is studies how it is studied and disseminated.

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