Exploring Afrocentric Qualitative Inquiry: Getrouw's Mkeka Theoretical Framework
Updated: 5 days ago
RJ Squared’s decolonial approach is significantly influenced by Dr. Jasmine Getrouw’s work. By incorporating Hill Collins’ Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology (Black Feminist Thought) and drawing inspiration from Dillard’s Endarkened Feminist Research (EFR) as fundamental components of our theoretical framework, RJ Squared bases its practice on an Afrocentric [Feminist] Inquiry.
This post provides an introductory, albeit cursory exploration into the conceptual design of my 2025 research study, (Re)membering ourselves, remembering our ecologies: Being Black girls in school, which provides evidence that the stresses of and from school should be added to the various stresses that Black girls and women experience within and among their ecological circles, which cumulatively impact Black girls’ and Black women’s reproductive health. This exploratory journey focuses on a decolonized research design that I have named Getrouw’s Mkeka Theoretical Framework, which incorporates Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology, Endarkened Feminist Research, Critical Qualitative Inquiry, and Spencer’s Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Social Theory. In this post, I do not expound on the intricacies of the recruitment process, nor do I go into depth about the study's findings. You may find that information here. The point of this post is to introduce how qualitative research can be reciprocal, reduce harm and limit reductive, extractivism. I review each element of the Getrouw’s Mkeka Framework, and briefly overview how I imagine this Framework through the Yowa Bakongo Cosmogram. Furthermore, I engage the value of meaningful reciprocity, intergenerational directional guidance, and conclude with the criticality of decolonial research methods expressed through Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology, specifically Getrouw’s Mkeka Theoretical Framework.
The Hidden Toll of Schooling: (Re)membering Black Girls’ Ecologies
Education is frequently championed as a universal key to upward mobility and health. However, for Black girls, schooling can be an overwhelming space that carries a hidden toll, profoundly impacting their long-term well-being. Education is a critical social determinant of health, yet systemic oppressions—specifically the interlocking forces of capitalism, racism, and sexism—manifest as anti-Black girl socialization within educational environments.
Public health research warns us that chronic exposure to this racism leads to severe physiological effects. It increases allostatic load and susceptibility to chronic diseases, which can ultimately damage reproductive health and negatively affect future generations. Despite this reality, existing literature frequently overlooks the personal, nuanced narratives of Black girls in education and the life-long implications of their experiences. My 2025 research study, (Re)membering ourselves, remembering our ecologies: Being Black girls in school, seeks to change this. It argues that school-based stressors must be recognized alongside the various ecological stressors Black girls and women face, and it demands that we, as researchers, co-create modes for repair rather than perpetuating harm.
Building the Foundation: Getrouw’s Mkeka Theoretical Framework
To truly understand these experiences without resorting to reductive, extractive research practices, we must decolonize our research design. This inquiry relies on a foundational tapestry I have named Getrouw’s Mkeka Theoretical Framework. In Kiswahili, Mkeka translates to "mat"—a core symbol in Kwanzaa representing the foundation upon which we build. The Mkeka weaves together four distinct strands:
Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology (AFE): Rooted in the profound legacy of the Combahee River Collective and scholars like Patricia Hill Collins, AFE argues that Black women possess a distinctive consciousness shaped by their political and economic realities. It centers lived experiences as the ultimate criteria for meaning and relies on the ethics of caring and accountability to challenge what currently passes as "truth".
Endarkened Feminist Research (EFR): Coined by Cynthia Dillard, EFR deliberately moves away from the racist, white-supremacist underpinnings of "enlightenment" to honor African diasporic ways of knowing. It replaces the dynamic of the "researched subject" with the empowered storyteller, operating on the philosophy of Ubuntu ("I am because we are") to heal traumatic breaks from ancestral lineages.
Critical Qualitative Inquiry (CQI): This paradigm is fiercely committed to social justice, aiming to dismantle inequality by placing the voices of marginalized people at the center of inquiry. It challenges the researcher to use their work not just for observation, but as a tool for activism and actionable policy change.
Spencer's Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Social Theory (PVEST): This developmental approach examines the supports and barriers impacting Black women from the womb into old age, recognizing that self-worth, intelligence, and capabilities are deeply shaped by internalized ecological circumstances.
The Yowa Bakongo Cosmogram: A Blueprint for (Re)membering
To enact this framework is to participate in intentional, critically conscious communities that center (re)membering, recalling, and reconnecting with African ways of knowing prior to colonial contact. Indigenous scholars refer to this as decolonial knowledge systems—a deliberate decentering of European epistemes (thought), ontology (ways of being), and axiology (value) from our study.
I have been re-acquainted with African scholarship through through close readings of key scholars like Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. K. Bunseki Fu-Kiau, Dr. Walter Rodney, and Dr. Jacob Carruthers. Together, their scholarship illuminates a profound throughline: that African ancestral memory persists within and beyond Western Europe's exploitative system(s) of enslavement and colonization.
Of the many sites of historical inquiry, the African Burial Ground National Monument perfectly illustrates this particular preservation of memory. Located in New York City’s Wall Street, this historic preservation site pays homage to a 17th-century village where captive and free African descendants gathered, mourned their dead, and were themselves sold. Buried under the rubble of Manhattan’s early colonial period are the remains of these ancestors. But they did not just leave remains; they left their cosmology. Across the western Atlantic world, many sites where captive Africans were bought share a consistent carving: a cross in the middle of a circle, surrounded by counterclockwise rotating directional arrows. This is the Yowa Bakongo Cosmogram, or the "Continuity of Life."
The Bakongo Cosmogram Explained by The Witness (2024).
Originating from the Kikongo language of the Bakongo tribe, the Cosmogram represents the foundational cycle of existence. As Dr. K. Bunseki Fu-Kiau explains, the Cosmogram traces the sun’s movement—we wake up, are active, die, and return. The horizon acts as the kalunga line, dividing the physical and spiritual worlds, while the center holds the eternal flame. Fu-Kiau notes, “To stand on the cosmogram is to tie a social knot, bringing people together... If someone is suffering, they say ‘you are outside the circle, be closer to the fire.’”
Artists Sarah Ndele Matsuela and Nanou Longa further expand on this by feminizing the symbol, naming her Yowa: “Like this cosmogram, my name is Yowa, guardian of my environment, representative of the cycle of life and its forces, life-giving woman.” They trace how this symbol birthed the spiritual crossroads found in practices like Hoodoo, carrying African cosmology safely across the diaspora.
The presence of the Yowa Bakongo Cosmogram at the African Burial Ground tells us a vital story: our ancestors may have been stolen from their homeland, but they fought to maintain a memory of the past. Today, we are charged with (re)membering—putting ourselves back together following the abrupt, violent disruption to our ancestral consciousness. By retracing our steps through the Mkeka Theoretical Framework, envisioned entirely through the adaptation of the Yowa, we step back inside the circle, drawing closer to the fire.
Reciprocity and (Re)membering: A Healing Methodology
Decolonial research cannot remain purely theoretical; it must be an active practice of profound reciprocity, intimacy, and care. In this study, the methodology departs from problem-fixing and instead centers on community-building. Trusting Black girls and women as the valid authors of their own experiences requires a deeply layered, trauma-informed data collection process:
Reproductive Justice 101 Teach-In & Somatic Grounding: The inquiry begins with a Reproductive Justice Teach-In, designed to share knowledge reciprocally before asking participants to share their stories. Here, the Somatic Practitioner plays an immediate, essential role. Rather than treating reproductive justice as an abstract political theory, the practitioner helps ground the Teach-In within the physical body. Participants are guided to understand how structural oppressions and institutional educational stress lodge themselves somatically, establishing a safe, body-aware vocabulary before any personal narrative work begins.
Journey Mapping & 1:1 Interviews: After our shared somatic grounding and shared RJ 101 Teach-In, participants map their ecological and educational journeys across different life stages by drawing a picture of their lives from the age of 5 years old (kindergarten) to 18 (approximately their senior year of high school). This function supported Dillard’s EFR inquiry: "what was happening at this/that time" as the journey map became the technology for their (re)membering journey.
Intergenerational Directional Guidance (The Role of the Somatic Practitioner): Endarkened Feminist Epistemology expands the ethic of accountability by demanding that research engages the body, mind, and spirit. Recalling traumatic schooling experiences is not merely a cognitive exercise; the body keeps the score of systemic anti-Black girl socialization. The presence of a Black woman Somatic Practitioner alongside a mental health therapist acts as a non-negotiable safeguard.
Acting as an Othermother: Serving as an "Othermother" in the research space, the Somatic Practitioner ensures participants are not left unsupported to carry the physical weight of their narratives as they journey into (re)membering.
Providing Directional Guidance & Somatic Triage: The practitioner offers real-time somatic triage, helping participants regulate their nervous systems when painful memories surface during journey mapping.
"Pouring Into" Each Other: This connection shifts the Teach-In and subsequent interviews from potentially extractive data collection into a communal space of healing, where care is continuously poured back into the storytellers.
The Criticality of Decolonial Methods
Ultimately, decolonizing research methods requires a definitive departure from traditional, positivist logics. By centering Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology and the Mkeka Framework, research transforms into a human rights project—a sacred space where the personal is deeply political, and where we honor the ancestral meaning-making of the African diaspora. We are not merely extracting data; we are bearing witness to the fullness of Black womanhood and forging pathways toward intergenerational healing.
Note: this is blog post offers a cursory overview of Getrouw's Mkeka Theoretical Framework. For an in-depth read and practical, in-depth application, contact RJ Squared here. We look forward to working with you!
References
Getrouw, J. T. (2025). (Re)membering ourselves, remembering our ecologies: Being Black girls in school (Publication No. 32119338) [Doctoral dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
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