Abstract:
South Africa has enjoyed post-apartheid democratic freedom for thirty years. However, three
decades after apartheid’s legal end, institutions of higher learning still grapple with a significant crisis of
student attrition. Approximately 25% of South African students drop out annually without completing their
degree or academic year. According to the current article, this high dropout rate is partly attributed to a
lack of a coherent theory of academic literacy, which could mitigate the feelings of alienation experienced
by African students. This article argues that the dependence of African universities on Global North
constructs of academic literacy limits students’ experiences of inclusion and belonging to specialized
disciplinary domains. To address the crisis of student attrition, as well as experiences of cultural alienation
in universities where African students are enrolled, this article proposes developing an African Theory of
Academic Literacy (ATAL). The objective of this theory is to empower academic literacy educators to ground
their teaching, learning, and assessment practices in an Afrocentric paradigm, thereby fostering a stronger
sense of inclusion among novice scholars within their disciplines.
