Some Pitfalls of Decoloniality Theory (original) (raw)

Towards a Critical Decolonial Turn/Theory: Beyond the Binary of the West Versus Africa

Africa Spectrum, 2024

As writing on decolonisation in African Studies has surged, efforts to avoid the concept becoming a mere metaphor, bandwagon, ideological trope, or mantra have grown, with scholars emphasising decolonial theory's ongoing relevance to the emancipation of formerly colonised Africans. This essay argues that to achieve its emancipatory goals, decolonial theory and intended praxes must re-centre the everyday realities of African societies. Recentring Africans is needed to move beyond Global North versus Africa as the ontological site for decolonisation. Recentring African societies has important epistemological and methodological implications for recentring African agency to make the decolonial project less reactionary and more proactive. I propose "post-independence" as an approach to decolonisation that offers descriptive and prescriptive means to locate the (im)material responsibilities of Africans in recentring their history. Post-independence allows a reimagining of how to undo the effects of colonialism by presenting colonialism as an episodic moment in Africa's long history.

Do African postcolonial theories need an epistemic decolonial turn

Postcolonial Studies , 2022

The growing influence of Latin American decolonial thought has animated several African scholars in Africa, especially South Africa. As a result of this influence, numerous articles have been published calling for the decolonization, through the decolonial turn, not only of university curricula but also of the processes of knowledge production. But there has been silence on the impact of decolonial theory on African postcolonial theory. With the decolonial call for the decolonization of postcolonial theory and its influence on African scholarship, what is the position of African postcolonial theory in these decolonial interventions? With a focus on African postcolonial theory, this article interrogates Ramón Grosfoguel's call to decolonize postcolonial theory, thereby establishing a critical epistemological dialogue between decolonial theory and African postcolonial theory.

Decolonisation: African Political thought

International Journal of Teaching, Learning and Education

African political thought is fundamentally rooted in African heritage and culture. It is a frontal assault against the imperial powers of Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and the Union of South Africa, which denied the diverse African peoples of their right to self-government. Thus, the political concepts of African leaders at various times and places were intended to be last attacks against the denial of the basic human rights of the people. At the period, political thinking centred on two major threats to African states and the continent: colonialism and racism. In African Political Thought, the notion of Decolonization is best investigated and analysed in the context of its processes. Any attention that was paid to the African past highlighted the savage character of intergroup interactions. As colonial education was influenced by the need to explain the ills of colonialism, African history was filled with European discoveries of Africa. In order to rectify this a...

Theory and Politics of African Decolonization

Prior to Ghana’s independence in 1957, Africa—the world’s second largest, and second most populous, continent—was nearly completely divided into colonial possessions owned by European imperial powers. By 1968, a short decade later, forty African countries had become independent nations through violent and non-violent struggle, leaving only fascist Portugal—and a handful of settler states—with substantial African possessions. At the forefront of this political moment was a group of African leaders and thinkers whose work helped shape not only the trajectory of individual African countries but the world as a whole. It is my contention that one cannot fully understand contemporary world politics without appreciating the processes of African decolonization. Unfortunately, most of the brilliant poets, intellectuals, and movement leaders at the heart of this world-historic transformation are not widely read today, especially in the American academy. This semester we will addresses this absence by reading their work as an entrée into thinking about present-day issues of economic inequality, political violence, and human emancipation in Africa, and around the world. The course starts with an examination of colonialism’s political, economic, cultural, and epistemic legacies. We then turn to specific debates concerning how various thinkers understood the problems facing the forging of African nation-states, the creation of a postcolonial African identity, and the establishment of an independent economy.

Reflections on the Future and Past of Decolonisation: Africa and Latin America

2021

In March 2021 Arjun Appadurai published an article, ‘Beyond Domination: The future and past of decolonization’,1 commenting on the launch of two recently published books: On Decoloniality, by Walter Mignolo and Catherine Walsh,2 and Out of the Dark Night by Achille Mbembe.3 The latter is actually the English translation, updated with recent reflections, of a book first published in French in 2001.

Is Decolonization More Than a Buzzword

The 4th African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) biennial conference was all about being human and (re)imagining the human from Africa. About 600 people participated, in person in Cape Town and/or virtually. The theme of decolonization was discussed in many of the 160 sessions over five days in April 2022. This article explores some of the themes that emerged in the presentations and discussions regarding decolonization, which some called merely a buzzword. Is decolonization more than a buzzword? And if so, is it even possible to achieve decolonization? To begin the reflection, how is the concept defined? Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed, drawing on other scholars, writes that “Decolonization is rooted in dismantling colonial and imperialist systems that are built into the social, economic, political, cultural, and religious realities of colonized peoples” and “requires tremendous work and effort in addressing these injustices.” People and organizations in communities around the world are trying to understand colonial hierarchies and legacies and how to dismantle them and refashion ways of relating and organizing in society that account for mutual respect and reciprocity for one and all. However, if decolonisation is more than just talk, is it sufficient as a concept and a strategy to attain that end? Another question to keep in mind. This article is organized in nine sections: 1) Doing Africa, 2) Speaking out through kangas, writing and publishing, 3) Values, history, language, education, and culture matter, 4) Epistemic journeys, 5) Umoja, 6) Exercising real power in parliament, 7) Leveraging digital spaces, 8) Hope for Africa as a forever incomplete project, 9) Positionality. The non-comprehensive nature of this “coverage” of the decolonization debate at the ASAA conference makes this reflection incomplete and open to dialogue. The intergenerational conversations and queries and affirmations of Global Africa’s next generation at ASAA2022 suggest that the project of Africa, building on ancestral foundations in a spirit of conviviality and incompleteness, is very much on the move. Consult the submitted version with footnotes at https://www.kathryntoure.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/K.-Toure-for-The-Elephant-5.pdf.

Discourses of Decolonization/Decoloniality

2019

The decolonization/decoloniality of the twenty-first century should not be confused with postmodernism and postcolonialism, which cascaded from the powerful Euro-North American academies as well as from the influence of South Asian Subaltern Studies collective.1 In Politics and Post-Colonial Theory: African Inflections and Out of Africa: Post-Structuralism’s Colonial Roots, in fact, Pal Ahluwalia highlights the African roots (Maghreb region) of postcolonialism as he grappled with the writings of Jacques Derrida and Helene Cixous (born in French-colonial Algeria) as well as Michel Foucault (who spent time in Tunisia). What is poignant is that while postcolonialism and postmodernism have multiple valences, the former is used mainly with reference to the “non-Western” world and the later to “Western/white world” (Adesanmi 74). Because of their ubiquity with North American scholarship, Pius Adesanmi depicted postcolonialism and postmodernism as products of “the suffocating influence of ...

Decolonization, Development, and Denial

Florida A. & M. University Law Review, 2010

I. INTRODUCTION [I ask you] to make today ... a date whose meaning you will proudly teach your children.. .. We are proud of having struggled amid tears, fire, and blood [for it was] an indispensable struggle if we were to put an end to the humiliating slavery that had been forced upon us.. .. We are going to begin another struggle together, my @ 2010. Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law. I am indebted to the many legal scholars who have critiqued the decolonization process, including Antony Anghie, Ibrahim Gassama, James Thuo Gathii, Ruth Gordon, Tayyab Mahmud, and Henry J. Richardson III, and grateful to the Georgia State University College of Law for its research support. The arguments presented in this essay are addressed in more detail in