An Exercise of Power as Epistemic Racism and Privilege: The Subversion of Tswana Identity

Abstract

In this article I will reflect on the book: The Words of Batswana 1883–1896. I will argue that the missionaries used epistemic racism as an exercise of power, thus subverted the Tswana language, customs, spirituality, and social structure to construct a new identity of Batswana people. This process asserted colonialism on the basis of language, religiosity, race, region, and knowledge. I will further maintain that one cannot divorce these issues from the process of the standardization of the Tswana language. The article will use decoloniality and Intersectionality theories as bedrock to engage the power structure, an epochal condition, and epistemological design used by the missionaries in the translation of the Bible into Setswana language. The strategies used by Batswana intellectuals as a form of resistance point to one of the methods that indicate signs of decoloniality. The article will suggest that decoloniality and Intersectionality as theories are vital in reclaiming the distorted traditions of Batswana people.