Theory generation represents the highest level of scholarly contribution because it provides systematic explanations that advance knowledge, guide research, and inform practice. Despite significant expansion in higher education and research following political independence, African universities have contributed relatively few globally recognized theories across academic disciplines. Although research productivity has increased considerably, much of African scholarship continues to rely on the application and validation of theories developed outside the continent. Consequently, Africa remains a major consumer rather than producer of theoretical knowledge, despite its rich indigenous knowledge systems and diverse socio-cultural and organizational contexts that provide fertile ground for conceptual innovation. This conceptual paper addresses this gap by proposing the African Theory Generation Model as a systematic framework for promoting indigenous theory development in African academia. Anchored on Grounded Theory and informed by the Blue Ocean Strategy, the study critically reviews literature on theory development, indigenous knowledge production, and epistemic decolonization to identify the institutional and scholarly factors limiting Africa's contribution to global theoretical development. The paper argues that while existing research has strengthened empirical knowledge, limited attention has been devoted to providing researchers with a structured pathway for transforming empirical findings into original theories. To address this challenge, the study develops the African Theory Generation Model, which simplifies the theory-building process into five guiding questions: What is happening? Why is it happening? What must change? What new theory emerges? and Does the theory work beyond the original context? These questions provide a practical framework for guiding scholars from empirical investigation to conceptual abstraction, theory formulation, validation, and refinement. The study illustrates the applicability of the model using the development of the Intent-Focused Management Theory, demonstrating how a contextually grounded African theory can emerge through systematic empirical inquiry and conceptual abstraction. This illustration confirms that theory generation is a deliberate and reproducible scholarly process rather than an accidental outcome of research. The paper concludes that the African Theory Generation Model provides a practical roadmap for repositioning African universities from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers by institutionalizing theory generation within research and postgraduate training. The study contributes to debates on epistemic decolonization by offering a structured framework for developing original, contextually grounded, and globally relevant theories. Future studies are encouraged to empirically validate and refine the model across different academic disciplines and institutional contexts within and beyond Africa.