One of the main purposes of any serious academic journal is that of fostering genuine debate about the key issues of our society. This is what we witness in the first article in this issue. In a study entitled, “Towards advancing African management scholarship”, Kevin Ibeh (Birkbeck, University of London), Joseph Eyong (De Montfort University, UK) and Kenneth Amaeshi, European University Institute, Florence) provide a vigorous reply to Grietjie Verhoef’s article, published in our final issue of 2021: “The management discourse: collective or strategic performance drive.”