Demystifying and Decolonizing Climate Change Discourse in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Theoretical Review

This paper presents a theoretically informed critical review of climate change discourse in Sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on peer-reviewed scholarship and authoritative policy documents, it examines how climate knowledge is framed, communicated, authorized, and translated into public and policy use. Guided by decolonial theory and the Multiple Evidence Base approach, the review assesses climate discourse through four linked dimensions: epistemic authority, communicative accessibility, representational framing, and policy relevance. The review finds that recent scholarship and policy increasingly recognize Indigenous and local knowledge, public participation, climate education, and context-specific communication. However, significant gaps remain between formal recognition and operational integration. Climate literacy continues to vary across and within African countries; climate services become useful only when institutions align them with user needs and local decision-making contexts; and educational and policy discourse can still reproduce epistemic hierarchy even when it invokes inclusion. The paper contributes to sustainability scholarship by showing that demystification and decolonization are complementary requirements for inclusive climate governance and sustainable development. Demystification improves the intelligibility and usability of climate knowledge, whereas decolonization strengthens legitimacy by challenging hierarchies that privilege some knowledge systems while marginalizing others. A stronger climate discourse for Sub-Saharan Africa, therefore, requires institutional changes in how actors authorize knowledge, translate uncertainty, frame vulnerability and agency, and design climate communication, education, and services for public and policy use.