De-Neocolonizing Approaches to Development Communication Policy-Making and Sustainable Change in Africa

The digital revolution has made communication both a substructure and superstructure in the neoliberal and emerging global political-economic order which touches the world of sports (football) activities in Africa too. Development communication theorizing and policymaking must be repositioned to address these new realities. Using cultural-critical analyses, this research analyzes the role of development communication policymaking in promoting sustainable development in Africa, which would also impact on sports activities such as football in Africa. It adopts a decolonial approach to theorizing the relationship between development of communication policy and culture change in the age of digital media, glocalization, and multipolar global power systems. It critiques the impact of global trends such as Brexit, U.S.-China Trade Wars, global climate change, rise of illiberal democracies, globalist/anti-globalist movements, etc., on Saharan Africa’s economic, cultural, and political future and renaissance. It proposes pathways of development communication theorizing, to help realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of building strong political, social, cultural, and economic institutions in Africa and beyond.