Editorial: Why The African Nexus Quarterly?

This founding editorial articulates the rationale, mission, and editorial philosophy of African Nexus Quarterly. Drawing on bibliometric, institutional, and epistemological evidence, it argues that the underrepresentation of Africa in globally indexed scholarship reflects structural inequalities in research funding, journal infrastructure, and skilled-labour mobility rather than a deficit of intellectual capacity. The editorial identifies three interconnected problems—chronic R&D underfunding, brain drain, and the coloniality of dominant knowledge frameworks—and positions the journal as an institutionally independent, open-access platform committed to Africa-centred, peer-reviewed scholarship that is simultaneously rigorous and policy-relevant.