We take inspiration from the literature on the onto-epistemic and political dimensions of being-knowing and doing to outline an analytical approach to studying diverse and unequally connected ways of living in and with the world around us, including the underground. Ours is a search for futures fostered by decolonial ways of thinking and collaborating underpinned by relational ontologies and care ethics, giving room to a plurality of worlds and the emergence and reemergence of life itself. We intend to make visible visions and ways of living otherwise that imply improvement of standards of life to achieve “livable lives” as posited by Lewis Gordon without presupposing the primacy of humans, the domination and control of “nature”. In an attempt to question epistemic extractivism, people from and in Africa are our point of departure. We intend to create or reclaime existing concepts practices and connections that can foster rich, situated understandings of lived experiences and lives, conceptions of the cosmos, and worlding practices. This analytical approach seeks to lay the ground for researching and collaborating otherwise, where respect and acknowledgement of the knowledge and ideas of the people we are co-thinking with takes centre stage. We take the challenge of rethinking and unthinking seriously, whilst unsettling such binaries as nature/culture (Haraway 1989), subject/object (Harding 1987) rationality/emotion (Escobar 2016) in an attempt to capture ways of being-knowing and doing otherwise. Key Words: Epistemic Extractivism, relational ontologies, Africa