Abstract

Several transforming higher education institutions in the Global South continue posing relevant questions regarding the ownership of knowledge and scholarship. These institutions seek to address epistemic injustices in knowledge generation through what other researchers refer to as the search for ethics and humility. For decades the West-centric approaches of the Global North have marginalized the Africa-focused research practices of the Global South. This article explores the role of research field assistants in ethnographic study as well as the role of the decolonial turn, which address colonial approaches. Epistemic governance, the research assistants’ voices, epistemic freedom, and research assistants’ training are among the aspects examined. Additionally, the article explores ways in which research assistants are marginalized and disempowered by research leaders. The overbearing, marginalizing roles played by research leaders and academic supervisors steal the epistemic freedom of the assistants. The article’s conclusions demonstrate that relevant research should address the native researcher with respect as this serves the purpose of empowerment. The constant question that researchers should pose in the field is whose knowledge they are advancing. When research assistants answer this question, they will be able to redress social injustices and anomalies perpetuated over the years by traditional ethnographic research.