IDCPPA Research Seminar - 09 April 2026 - Sebastian Krafzik - Decolonising Financial Inclusion: African Epistemologies and Alternative Economic Imaginaries

IDCPPA Research Seminar on

Thursday, 9 April 2026, 14:00 – 15:30 SAST.

CSSR Seminar Room 4.29

Robert Leslie Social Sciences Building

University of Cape Town

Speaker

Dr Sebastian Krafzik

Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Cape Town, Department of Commercial Law

Decolonising Financial Inclusion: African Epistemologies and Alternative Economic Imaginaries 

Abstract

This paper challenges dominant Western-centric paradigms of financial inclusion by foregrounding African epistemologies and indigenous economic practices as legitimate alternatives to mainstream development finance models. While international financial institutions frame financial inclusion primarily through individual account ownership and formal banking access, this narrow conception overlooks rich traditions of collective economic organisation that have sustained African communities for generations. Drawing on ethnographic research and participatory methods across Southern African contexts, this study examines indigenous financial systems, including Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs), age-grade economic networks, kinship-based mutual aid, and community land trusts. These systems embody principles of Ubuntu, collective responsibility, and relational economics that fundamentally differ from individualistic, profit-maximising assumptions underlying conventional financial inclusion metrics. The analysis reveals how international development agendas often pathologise informal finance as "backward" or "inefficient," while simultaneously extracting knowledge from these systems to create "innovative" microfinance products that privatise collective benefits. This epistemic violence reinforces dependency on external financial institutions and erodes community-controlled economic solidarity. The paper proposes a decolonial framework for financial inclusion that: (1) centres African worldviews regarding wealth, reciprocity, and economic justice; (2) recognises informal financial systems as sophisticated rather than deficient; (3) challenges metrics privileging formal sector integration over community wellbeing; (4) supports hybrid models strengthening rather than displacing indigenous practices. By repositioning African economic imaginaries from periphery to centre, this research contributes to broader efforts to decolonise development discourse and assert epistemic sovereignty. Genuine financial inclusion must emerge from African-defined priorities rather than externally imposed templates serving foreign capital accumulation.

Bio

Dr Sebastian Krafzik is a postdoctoral research fellow in banking and financial law at the University of Cape Town. His research focuses on ethics, sustainability, and the regulation of global financial markets and institutions, with a particular emphasis on the law of international financial institutions. He studied law and economics at Goethe University Frankfurt and practised law, specialising in investor protection and proxy advising. Sebastian earned his doctorate (insigni cum laude) from the University of Basel, where he examined board accountability and corporate governance. He has taught widely and contributed to international research at institutions including Sorbonne, KU Leuven, Cambridge, University College London, the University of Kigali, and the Catholic University of Malawi. Currently, he is exploring the decolonisation process of financial inclusion, emphasising critical perspectives on the development discourse of international financial institutions. He is going to present his work at the 15th annual conference of the Cambridge International Law Journal.