During the “Beyond Academia" panel at the Participatory Design Conference 2022 – which has strong foundations in Nordic traditions - colleagues considered a range of questions regarding the practice of the Design community, and the academy more broadly. One point that stayed with me from the panel was this: to be in academia or not to be. This is perhaps the fundamental question of philosophy, a question that might be considered as forcing one to take sides, for or against a proposition. As an exhibition and performance of defiance, this critique presents a forceful case for revolting against the absurdities of zero-point epistemologies of Western sciences that happened to be a central tenant of HCI knowledge production and dissemination practices. In doing so, I reflect on the ‘perceived’ challenges and opportunities in the academy as an early career African HCI research er protesting for and against the instrument of epistemic power. As we grapple with the crisis of solidaristic imagination across disciplines, I write what I like and how I like to survive (as in within the veil of the academy), with the hope that problematizing some dimension of HCI’s regime of power and knowledge will inspire you to imagine and converse otherwise.