Colonial Epistemologies Research Articles

“It Began with Naming Things”: Mzungus and Other European Colonizers in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives

ABSTRACT To trouble internalist narratives of Europe, it is necessary to consider the “external” vectors that went into its making. This paper reads Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives (2020) as representing a telling instance of such decentering, which warrants particular attention due to the mass mainstream visibility guaranteed by the author’s being awarded the Nobel Prize in 2021. It takes the novel’s tracing of German colonialism as particularly instructive, because German colonial ventures have long remained in the peripheral vision of examinations of European colonialism more broadly, in anglophone postcolonial studies and literary representation. This prompts the article’s intervention in making this other European colonialism its focus. Via an examination of two facets of the novel’s engagement of knowledge-making – naming and recording – I argue that it enacts subversive interruptions of colonial epistemologies. The narrative’s delineating of the journeys of two characters from the colonial “periphery” of East Africa to the colonial “centre” of Germany sees these external Others becoming internal Others on European soil, and requires readers to think German colonialism with what came after. I propose, finally, that in (re)naming and (re)reading archives against the grain, the novel configures ambivalent alternatives to eurocentric knowledge-making, delineating the contours of what colonial archives excise, and gesturing toward what literary fiction can do to sketch flickering presences into some of those absences.

The critical terrorism researcher: identity, positionality, and (de)coloniality

ABSTRACT Over the last two decades, Critical Terrorism Studies (CTS) has been crucial in contributing to critical research on terrorism that challenges the troublesome assumptions about “terrorism” developed in the field of Terrorism Studies, and which investigates the complexities that shape (counter-)terrorism in various socio-political contexts, especially so in the “post-9/11 era”. This has, however, also enabled the production of the identity of a uniquely critical terrorism researcher which, I argue in this article, is acutely underwritten by colonial epistemologies and assumptions that underpin “terrorism”. By drawing upon relevant insights from decolonial scholarship on the link between identity and knowledge production, especially through my engagement with Sylvia Wynter’s discourse on “Man and the coloniality of being”, this article aims to problematise the CTS researcher as a specific idea of Man (usually Western/white/bourgeoise/heterosexual) shaped by various descriptive statements including those about emancipation and inclusion that seeks to legitimise researchers in this sub-field as progenitors of genuine discourses about “terrorism”. By de-centring the CTS researcher through reflecting on my own research practices, choices and priorities, the article contributes to CTS debates on methodology as well as to the debate on “terrorism expertise”. It concludes by offering some reflections on the future of CTS.

Non-Indigenous teachers’ understandings of relationally responsive curriculum through an Indigenous standpoint

AbstractAustralian schools routinely fail to deliver culturally responsive educational experiences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Educational structures, including the curriculum, are organised according to neoliberal, settler colonial epistemologies, which fracture and neglect Aboriginal and Torres Strait worldviews. In this study, research yarns were conducted with four non-Indigenous teachers working in an urban Sydney school, focusing on their experiences of responding to the curriculum’s cultural neglect through the enactment of relationality. Findings reveal that while teachers face major structural constraints when attempting to incorporate culturally responsive practices, they enacted relationality in their curriculum and pedagogies through the elements of relationships, place and curriculum concepts. A Relationally Responsive Curriculum Framework is proposed as a possible way for teachers to craft a coherent and holistic Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum narrative. There is also scope for this framework to be further revised to centre Aboriginal voices and to be applied to the written curriculum to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander worldviews in the very structure and values of education systems.

Emerging Epistemologies: The Changing Fabric of Knowledge in Postnormal Times

Ziauddin Sardar, ed. Emerging Epistemologies: The Changing Fabric of Knowledge in Postnormal Times. London. IIIT and The Centre for Postnormal Policy and Future Studies, London, 2022. 184 pp. ISBN: 978-1-64205-659-4 (hardback); 978-1-56564-602-5 (paperback); 978-1-56564-012-2 (ebook). Ziauddin Sardar’s recently edited book is a collection of articles by several authors on the interesting theme of emerging epistemologies brought about by what he terms “the changing fabric of knowledge in postnormal times.” Apparently driven by an intellectual desire to convey to the whole world the important message that humanity is now living in “postnormal times,” and yet it is still stubbornly clinging to the colonial epistemology, Sardar aptly titled his Introduction “Beyond the Epistemologies of Conquest and Desire.” It is a title that is loaded with messages about the past, at least in the realm of knowledge, beyond which the human mind should now attempt to focus its attention on the understanding of the emerging present.

Decolonizing “Decolonization” and Knowledge Production beyond Eurocentrism

Abstract I historicize decolonial theories within the context of epistemic contestations and knowledge production in Africa. I offer a critical appraisal of decolonization as simulated within Western academic institutions and argue that the current tempo of decolonization movements is by no means an accident of history; it is, in fact, a residual narrative of colonial epistemology. I offer internal critique and discuss the limitations of decolonization as an intellectual strategy, before addressing how Western academics have appropriated the discourse in a manner fitting an intellectual crusade. The decolonial scholar is, at the same time, perpetuating the mandate of colonial epistemology by substituting coloniality with subjective displacement. Finally, I suggest a modest proposal for adopting a new framework that admits the epistemic virtues of decolonization while eschewing its limitations and internal contradictions. My argument is that decolonization studies, as understood in contemporary African philosophy, has remained afflicted with the same disease it seeks to cure by (i) uncritical affiliation with historical generalizations, (ii) failure to recognize that history is no location of innocence and (iii) recolonization of non-Western ontologies through epistemic imperialism and network legitimation.

The island, the prison, and the colony: Sardinian carceral and colonial geographies

AbstractAcross research on incarceration and insularity, recent trajectories have challenged conventional understandings of islands and prisons as isolated, autonomous units. Instead, they have directed attention toward their capacity to establish relations, circuits and routes. Beyond the focus on mobility and exchanges, this literature criticised the association between insularity, incarceration and confinement as the outcome of specific colonial epistemologies. This article builds on these literatures to investigate the case of Sardinia, a large Mediterranean island that plays a key role in the Italian carceral regime by providing a destination for thousands of Italian convicts. Despite being an Italian and European region, Sardinia's past and present exhibit distinct colonial qualities, which are visible in the structure of its carceral estate. The case study exemplifies how islands can hardly be interpreted as isolated units, given that their histories and geographies have implications that extend far beyond their coasts. In the case of Sardinia, the island combines modern penitentiaries with dynamics reminiscent of previous periods in the history of punishment, specifically penal colonies and convict transportation. This case study illustrates the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach that is willing to question the conceptual categories adopted, particularly those of island, prison and colony.

From liberation to freedom: Governing the “ghetto” in post-war Hungary

This article investigates the relationship between race and property in Hungary by examining the shifting discourse of the “ghetto” in post-war Hungary. I unpack the relationship between norms of propriety, or logics of use, associated with colonial epistemologies of land and the various racial projects deployed by the Hungarian state between socialist and liberal-capitalist governments. To operationalize this project, I put into conversation Brenna Bhandar’s racial regimes of ownership with David Theo Goldberg’s racial governmentality to understand the shifting logics and tactics of racial management toward Roma in Hungary. I show that the concept of the ghetto was crucial in the deployment of the racial project “The Elimination of Settlements with Unacceptable Social Conditions,” where the project was understood by officials as a palliative to the damage done by capitalist social relations. On the heels of this project, a group of liberal dissidents led by sociologist and demographer Istvan Kemeny forged a new problematic that centered state interventions on the Roma family. I show how this problematic was used to deny Roma tenure claims in the majority Roma Eighth District during the transition to liberal capitalism.

Palestine Studies, Knowledge Production, and the Struggle for Decolonisation

This article traces the evolution of Palestine Studies from its nascent stages in the 1960s to its current status as a recognized and integral part of global academic discourse. It highlights the field’s vital role in dissecting the multifaceted structures and functions of Israeli settler colonialism, and standing firm amidst well-funded and systematic counter-efforts to delegitimize it. The ensuing discussion foregrounds Palestinian scholarly achievements in advancing their narrative and countering marginalization, particularly within the academic institutions of the Global North. By examining the political dynamics shaping research methodologies in Palestine Studies, this article elucidates how the field has emerged as a legitimate academic discipline, offering new pathways in graduate education. In asserting that Palestine Studies is inherently linked to activism, aiming for transformative change, decolonization, and liberation, this article underlines the contribution of the field to challenging dominant colonial epistemologies and methodologies and reshaping power dynamics. Thus, Palestine Studies not only elucidates the realities faced by indigenous Palestinian populations but also vocalizes their struggles and aspirations, positioning itself as a critical lens to understand, and engage with, Palestinian scholarship and its broader anti-colonial implications.

Deconstructing gender stereotypes in standardized English language school textbooks in Algeria: Implications for equitable instructional materials

The pressing need to promote gender equality in today’s globalized society is underscored in Sustainable Development Goals and juxtaposed with the goal of cultivating global citizenship. Despite these efforts, mainstream post-colonial discourse on Maghrebi women categorizes them as less citizens neglecting ‘the complexity’ of their lives and experiences. The scarcity of research that depicts Algerian women’s experiences along with the treatment of the topic of gender as ‘taboo’ restricted opportunities on researching this important category of society. While there are numerous studies conducted in the Algerian context on female’s stereotypical depiction and invisibility in school textbooks, the discussion of the topic remains ahistorical. It relegates the status of women as ‘the oppressed’ which runs the risk of reproducing colonial epistemologies. Guided by Goffman’s gender stereotype theory and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis conceptual framework, the paper draws on data collected from four standardized English language school textbooks that are currently used in Algeria. The textbooks content affirms the ‘subaltern’ categorization of Algerian women through emphasizing their deagentialization, dependence, and disempowerment. These findings have implications for gender equity in Algeria, the Maghreb, and the broader North Africa contexts.

Britain’s Imperial Past and Contemporary Borders in Adichie’s Americanah and Zadie Smith’s ‘Fences’

Recent literary works draw attention to the multifaceted legacy of Britain’s imperial past, not only but including its impact on current UK border practices. The works of postcolonial and Black British authors illustrate especially strongly that the spatial epistemologies of empire are still prevalent in twenty-first century border debates. This article engages with Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Zadie Smith’s essay “Fences” (2016) as literary works that negotiate UK border practices both before and after Brexit. They draw attention to the intersections of empire, race, gender, and class in the recent resurgence of British bordering practices and emphasize the necessity to make visible both contemporary and historical borders in the UK in order to come to terms with the underlying colonial epistemologies of many border practices.

“You have served me well:" The Shakespeare Empire in Central Europe

Shakespeare has often served as an instrument of cultural colonialism. In this essay I argue that the current practice of Shakespeare studies in many ways replicates this pattern. By priming the discourse through Shakespeare, it perpetuates logocentric regimes of knowledge that tend to impose reductive perspectives—such as the binaries of Shakespeare’s original–adaptation and that of the author–adapter, but also scripture–exegesis, London–province or London–Continent, centre–periphery and empire–colonial subjects. Drawing on case studies from five centuries—of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century travelling performers, through eighteenth-century German theatre, to twentieth- and twenty-first-century writing and performance, I argue for a need to revisit the logocentric and colonial epistemology. I call for breaking away from the critical heritage of the “Shakespeare Empire,” for reconceptualising how we use Shakespeare, and for refocusing our critical attentions to the thick descriptions of cultures and crafts that make and host Shakespeare.

The Drover’s Wife, the Legend of Molly Johnson: Leah Purcell’s Reclaiming of a Colonial Fetish

Henry Lawson’s short story, “The Drover’s Wife,” has animated Australian nationalism since its publication in 1892. The story is much-loved, and has been perceived as representing a voice from the margins, the enduring archetype of the Australian frontier bush woman, a figure who is simultaneously vulnerable and stoic. This archetype organises other tropes in Lawson’s story, symptomatic of the national imaginary of the internal frontier–the unrelenting harshness of the Australian land, the resilience of the white frontier individual, and the civilising effects of those individuals’ labor on the landscape, as well as on First Nations people, who are coded as part of “nature,” requiring “civilisation.” It is against this context of white colonial fetishism of both the story and of Lawson himself that Leah Purcell’s version/s–a play (2016), and now a film (2022)–are set. Leah Purcell is a proud Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman from Queensland, and one of Australia’s leading writers, directors and actors. In this article, I examine Purcell’s radical reimagining of this foundational Australian text. In the original story, Lawson imagines the key antagonists of the frontier as belonging to the “natural world,” including a bull, a poisonous snake, the isolation and harshness of the environment, and the presence of an “uncivilised” Indigenous man who appears as a stranger in the unnamed drover’s wife’s home. In Purcell’s reworking, she upturns this narrative and its fetishistic tropes, giving a name to the drover’s wife–Molly Johnson–and also truthfully naming the true antagonists the drover’s wife must face on the Australian frontier: the imminent threat of violence and sexual violence against all women, and the violence of the frontier wars against First Nations communities, which was followed by government policies of assimilation and intervention (Watson, 2009). Purcell’s work reveals truths about the violence of the frontier, about forms of state and outlaw violence that not only led to the massacre of First Nations people, but also created a false epistemology: that the land which Indigenous people have inhabited with peace and ease for thousands of years is “harsh,” that First Nations labor is “idleness,” and that the colonist’s work at the frontier is noble, rather than an act of ugly, violent theft. Purcell thereby critiques the role of particular Australian literary works in the creation of national mythology and in the papering-over of violent historical truths. Purcell’s work both reveals and subverts the colonial epistemology of violence, gender, sexuality, and state law’s complicity in these processes, from its foundational refusal to acknowledge First Nations law, to the imposition of a thieving land law and then to the “lawful” removal of First Nations children. This paper will explore the radical implications of this work to both legal and cultural imaginaries.

Collapse and Reversed Extinction:Beyond Inherited Epistemologies of Species Loss in Louise Erdrich’s "Future Home of the Living God"

This article argues for the importance of a critical examination of the frameworks and epistemologies through which species extinction is conceptualized. As global biodiversity loss rates accelerate, the legacy of nineteenth-century colonial science continues to inform understandings of species extinctions, whereby the discourse around species loss is profoundly intertwined with notions of taxonomies, race, and hierarchies. My article demonstrates how Louise Erdrich’s post-apocalyptic novel Future Home of the Living God (2017) exposes and destabilizes these inherited Western epistemologies of extinction. Erdrich’s narrative centres around a bizarre extinction event where evolution begins to spin out of control, perhaps running backwards, and where biological categories and species boundaries lose their meanings. As an Indigenous Futurist text, the novel is told from the perspective of a pregnant woman of Ojibwe ancestry who becomes imprisoned when a white authoritarian government, in an attempt to maintain the status quo, detain all women of child-bearing age. The reverse extinction scenario, as my discussion shows, produces an ontological uncertainty within the diegesis, with characters left in a state of unknowability about the nature of the world – a situation that provides Indigenous communities with opportunities for land reclamation and empowerment. The novel reads as a counter-narrative to Western notions about scientific progress also on the level of form, as the text presents an introspective and cyclical unfolding of events. In this way, rather than to provide post-apocalyptic resolution, Erdrich’s novel mobilizes uncertainty and subverts the mainstream post-apocalyptic genre template in order to gesture towards the possibility of alternative futures liberated from colonial epistemologies.

Decolonisation, knowledge construction, and legitimation at African universities in the 21st century: Relevance of François Lyotard

The Fallist movement in South Africa, among other points, called into question the relevance of maintaining aspects of colonial heritage, especially as they relate to knowledge construction at South African higher education institutions. The issues of transformation and knowledge decolonisation also came into the limelight with some students calling for the decolonisation/Africanisation of science as a system of knowledge, hence #ScienceMustFall. These issues can be placed in the wider context of the argument that African centres of learning are founded on colonial epistemologies and forms of education. It is notably a reality that impedes the project of proper transformation and decolonisation at African centres of learning. Utilising desktop methods, this article engages the debate on knowledge decolonisation at African universities in the 21st century. Based on Francois Lyotard's postmodern views, the article theorises a possible philosophical grounding for knowledge decolonisation. It argues for openness to subjectivity in the enterprise of knowledge construction, and for the integration and mainstreaming of African knowledge systems at African universities.

Decolonizing a discipline in distress

AbstractIndia‐based anthropologists must contend with the legacies of colonial epistemologies and postcolonial imperatives in an increasingly neoliberal academy and Hindu‐supremacist nation‐state. For these scholars, anthropology's values of critical humanism are more vital than ever. The challenge is to uphold them in ways that both include and reach beyond the academy. Over the decades, Indian anthropologists’ position has shifted with regard to their discipline, to academic institutions, the nation, and the wider world since Independence. Today, they face challenges to the vision of democratizing anthropology in terms of institutional autonomy and public accountability. The Indian experience may provide insights to colleagues in the North.

Decolonizing the Tropics: Part One

This special issue is a collection of papers that addresses and enacts the theme of decolonizing the tropics. Each article provides a sense of how we can untangle ourselves from entrenched colonial epistemologies and ontologies through detailed articulations of research practice. Drawing together humanities and social sciences, the papers collectively address questions of whose voices are heard or silenced, what positions we write from, how we are allowed to articulate our ideas, and through which mediums we present our research. In doing so, the contributions foreground the critical importance of these and other questions in any move towards decolonizing the tropics.

Curriculum as invader: Normalising white place in the Australian curriculum

AbstractCurriculum, as a policy and way of moving through educational experience, is entwined with an ongoing history of invasion in Australia and similar invader‐colonial contexts. As a result of this, the conceptual foundations of curriculum in Australia reproduce colonial epistemologies as normative modes of knowing and consideration. One way of seeing how this is possible and easily reproduced is through a consideration of how renderings and representations of “place” – the complex entanglements of lands, histories, and identit(y/ies) – mediate both how (a) invasion can be normalised as a historical, geographic, and political “placial” reality, and (b) students and teachers might experience education in and of place. Indeed, “place” is a central guiding concept in official curriculum policy just as much as place is an experienced curriculum both within the school and in the broader world. In this respect, this paper looks to unpack how the concept of place is represented in curriculum policy and the attendant assumptions and implicit discourses that this (re)produces about the experiences of people in/of invaded place. Through a look at the coming revision to the Humanities and Social Science's learning area of the Australian Curriculum, I look to how the curriculum as policy frames place as synonymous with invader place epistemically and how this mediates what students can know and themselves feel about the embodied experience of learning about/in/of place.

Epistemic (dis)belief and (dis)obedience: Zakes Mda s The Heart of Redness and the decolonial ecological turn

The Heart of Redness (2000) by Zakes Mda deals with an epistemological conflict and exposes the hideousness of colonial epistemology in dismantling indigenous belief systems and commodifying South African land and ecology. The novel revisits the decisive event of cattle killing in 1856–57, following Nongqawuse’s prophecy, and juxtaposes it with the cultural and epistemic clash of two factions, Believers and Unbelievers, in the post-apartheid era. The present article analyses the unresolved breach between the Believers and the Unbelievers and notes how the latter’s appropriation of Western modernity’s notion of progress and civilization perpetuates the interventions of capitalist forces, aggravating serious threats to land protection and indigenous ecology. The article focuses on Mda’s critique of the South Africans’ compliance with the colonial models of civilization and probes how the novel emphasizes delinking and repudiating the patterns and perceptions of development normalized by Western modernity. In so doing, Mda’s novel foregrounds the necessity of indulging in what Mignolo (2009) terms “epistemic disobedience” and endorses critical decolonial thinking and praxis to counter covert forms of colonial oppression and capitalist objectification. The article extends the notion of “decolonial turn” (Maldonado-Torres, 2008; Grosfoguel, 2007) by arguing that the novel elucidates a “decolonial ecological turn” to combat extractivist agendas and exploitative policies, preserve indigenous ecology, and foster alternative ways of sustainable collective living.

Policing and justice in island communities

Research focusing on policing and the justice systems from an island perspective is available, but extremely rare. Additionally, available research on policing and justice systems in island contexts is usually conducted by non-island scholars using a limited frame of reference on ‘islandness’. Instructively, conventional wisdom suggest that it is academically imprecise and improper to universalise scholarship from countries with large land masses onto islands with unique topographies and challenges. This thematic section, highlights the inherent qualities of policing and justice systems in island communities by way of engagement with the existing body of island and ocean studies literature as well as by way of theoretically informed and methodologically appropriate research conducted by a judicial mix of early, mid- and established career scholars. The authors of the article in this thematic section present their scholarly efforts from diverse perspectives and contributes to decolonization efforts in island studies. Ultimately, the articles advance the call for a move away from colonial epistemology and hegemony in knowledge production and transference to situating island scholars and scholarship within island studies. In sum, this thematic section contributes to the emergent body of literature on both policing and the justice systems and studies on island communities.

Policing and Justice in Island Communities

Research focusing on policing and the justice systems from an island perspective is available, but extremely rare. Additionally, available research on policing and justice systems in island contexts is usually conducted by non-island scholars using a limited frame of reference on ‘islandness’. It is, however, academically imprecise and improper to universalise scholarship from countries with large land masses onto islands with unique topographies and challenges. This thematic section highlights the inherent qualities of policing and justice systems in island communities by engaging with the existing body of island studies literature and through theoretically informed and methodologically appropriate research conducted by scholars at a mix of career levels. The authors in this thematic section present their scholarly efforts from diverse perspectives and contribute to decolonization efforts in island studies. Ultimately, the articles call for a move away from colonial epistemology and hegemony in knowledge production. In sum, this thematic section contributes to the emergent body of literature on both policing and the justice systems and studies on island communities.