Process Of Decolonization Research Articles

C onstituting the norm: Interrogating the anthropocene through food geographies in the more‐than‐human worlds of western Avadh, India

By tracing specific moments in the history of the more-than-human landscape constituting the food geography of western Avadh, a long settled agricultural heartland in the Indo-Gangetic plains, this paper challenges the neat formulations of the Anthropocene laying out decisive global impacts of humans on the environment. Building upon the concept of the ‘patchy Anthropocene’, we show how outcomes are shaped by an imbrication of humans and non-humans—where powerful human actors seek to coerce people and corral the environment into their projects of remaking the landscape, but also where recalcitrant ecologies and resistant people thwart these intentions, especially during the colonial encounter. Contestations across power hierarchies and unintended outcomes litter the wake of the Anthropocene — as we show, efforts to save the non-human cow in the last decade have intensified processes associated with the Great Acceleration. Instead of treating the trajectory of food geographies like western Avadh as outliers and marginal to the normative process of defining change, we argue for treating it as constitutive of the norm. Only through such a process of decolonisation, by ‘provincialising the Anthropocene’, can we hope to push for epistemic justice, ecological sustainability and a more equitable world.

Incorporating Indigenous Content Into K-12 Curriculum: Supports for Teachers in Provincial and Territorial Policy and Post-Secondary Education Spaces

In an era of learning truth and working towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, education institutions across Canada are in the midst of decolonizing their education spaces. Fundamental to this process are the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action to educate settler teacher candidates to develop culturally appropriate curricula and incorporate Indigenous content into their teaching practices. Little research has reviewed institutional responses to these recommendations. To fill this gap, this study compiles recent efforts to inform Ministries of Education and post-secondary education institutions of effective and culturally safe methods to incorporate Indigenous content in curricula, based on current interventions and the lived experiences of teachers navigating the decolonization process. Two rapid reviews of grey and academic literature are completed. The findings shed light onto course-, professional workshop-, and policy-based interventions to support teachers in teaching Indigenous content. Interventions often prioritize cultural safety to underline teaching practices and focus on addressing settler biases, racism, and harmful stereotypes. Many Bachelor of Education programs offer mandatory courses on how to infuse Indigenous worldviews into curriculum, and emphasize building relationships, challenging positionalities, and establishing safe spaces to ask questions. Many teachers benefit from cultural safety training and resources, however, some continue to face challenges in confronting their roles and responsibilities as settlers within education spaces. As decolonizing education is an ongoing process, this research aims to provide key information to advance its progress. To that end, future research needs to investigate the long-term impacts of existing interventions on teaching practices and curriculum development.

Seeds of Resistance: The Pijao Group, a Youth Process of Decolonization and the Unity of the Pijao People

Youth indigenous activism, territorial struggles, decoloniality, Colombia April 9th 2012 was the day that, in the Sociology Department of the National University of Colombia in Bogotá, the thoughts and feelings of five young people started to grow into something bigger. As sons and daughters of the large Natagaimas and Coyaimas territories we came together to name our nascent group as Grupo Pijao. This group is a seed that we continue to sow and harvest today in our territories through different strategies.

‘9th May 2017 is OUR DAY’: The Homeland Study Group Foundation and contested national imaginaries in postindependence Ghana

AbstractGhana has been held up as an oasis of stability in a highly volatile region of Africa due to its peaceful decolonisation process, absence of serious civil conflict and successful change of governments. However, in Ghana as in parts of postindependence Africa, there are lingering secessionist movements that are a legacy of colonialism. The latest comes from the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) which declared the former British Togoland, a former United Nations trust territory administered by the United Kingdom, as an independent state called Western Togoland. Through the prism of competing or alternative national imaginaries rather than the weak and dysfunctional state paradigm, this article seeks to explain the roots of a form of Togoland nationalism in Ghana in events of 1956 that remains relevant today. The paper argues that an apparently successful integration can stimulate/give sustenance to alternative nationalist imaginaries.

7 - Decolonization and Popular Contestation in Sierra Leone: The Peasant War of 1955-1956

Between 1955 and 1956, peasants in the northern region of Sierra Leone, following the steps of workers in Freetown, launched an insurrection to protest colonial taxation and the exploitative practices of their paramount chiefs and local ruling elite. The insurrection, which started as a protest against the paramount chief of Port Loko, Alkali Modu, soon engulfed all of the districts in the northern region and parts of the southern region. Through their violent actions, the peasants indicated that the oppressive practices and the excessive financial demands by the paramount chiefs and the state were neither tenable nor acceptable during the decolonization era. Their actions also illustrated the inadequacy of ‘traditional’ and ‘paternalistic’ forms of governance that had been the linchpin of British colonialism in Sierra Leone, and which still underpinned the chieftaincy and new local institutions that had been created by the departing British. The peasant insurrection interrupted the tranquil process of decolonization being executed between the Sierra Leonean elite and the British, and it took a heavy toll on the national and local security forces. However, the subsequent public investigation and acknowledgement of the peasant grievances by the Cox Commission of Inquiry as well as the restitutive actions by the SLPP government affirmed the legitimacy of many of the peasant claims. With the 1955-56 insurrection, it could be argued that the peasants in northern Sierra Leone had not only rudely interrupted the process of decolonization, they had forcib y renegotiated the terms of a ‘new’ Sierra Leone political order in their favour.

On theological aesthetics, decolonisation, and doing theology through the arts

Throughout history, works of art have often served as a prominent mode of theological expression – also, importantly, here in South Africa. In, thus, revisiting the history of theological inquiry in South Africa as part of a larger process of decolonisation, it is important and necessary to also look to the arts, which is what this article will attempt to do. It will begin with an exploration of the relationship between theology and the arts, before looking at the emergence of the field of theological aesthetics. This will be followed by some comments on the relevance of this field for South African theology, especially when it comes to questions of decoloniality. The article will then conclude with a brief discussion of the South Africa sculptor Jackson Hlungwani as an example of someone who did theology through the arts.

Fatal misconceptions: colonial durabilities, violence and epistemicide in Africa’s Great Lakes Region

The contributions of this special issue explore the concept of colonial durabilities in a bid to unearth both the concrete and invisible sites through which coloniality continues to circulate and materialise in the African Great Lakes Region (GLR). Colonial durabilities, we argue, are non-linear dynamic processes that suffuse the realities and structures of international and national politics, as well as the conduct of daily life. These become particularly evident in the knowledge economy of the GLR, in endeavours as broad as state building and everyday practices, within international development and peacebuilding interventions, and in academic theorising, methodologies and writing formats. We introduce the papers in this special issue that urge us to address an important question: Can we truly decolonise if we do not fully understand the coloniality of the present and its effects? We argue a careful investigation of the structural conditions that enable coloniality to actively form and re-form is essential to accurately understand real-world ramifications of asymmetrical power relations, a crucial aspect of the process of decolonisation. Lastly, we reflect on avenues for re-thinking the effects of colonial durabilities and to work towards generating anti-/de-colonial knowledges to perhaps achieve ‘epistemic freedom’.

Decolonizing Public Healthcare Systems: Designing with Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous peoples around the world are being failed by current public health systems. This is directly linked to the ongoing issue of colonialism. We need to decolonize health systems if we want to improve healthcare provision for indigenous peoples. In this article, I explore how the confluence of increasingly expansive thinking in the fields of health and design may be used to provide a space for the process of decolonization to occur. I use postcolonial theory to make visible ways in which Indigenous peoples have been ignored in current approaches to healthcare provision. In this article I use two case studies of work undertaken with Indigenous communities. I present some initial evidence from these sites to demonstrate how we engaged a design process that served to decolonize the relevant health systems. Using the spaces created in these processes has helped change systems of healthcare, in these two regions, to become more responsive to the actual needs and lifeworlds of these two Indigenous groups as they see themselves rather than as they may be seen by others. This is a process of decolonization. In this article, I have put forward some general ideas and frames of reference about decolonizing our healthcare systems through design that may be able to be expanded on and utilized by others working with Indigenous peoples or other groups impacted by the colonial process.

“A Stranger in a Strange Land”: Nadine Gordimer and Her Journey Through Egypt

The aim of the article is to describe Nadine Gordimerʼs political development in the late 1950s by analysing her travel essay “Egypt Revisited” (1959) and her short story “A Thing of the Past” (1959). In the first part of the article, Gordimerʼs political stance is explained in reference to her non-fictional texts. It is argued that in the late 1950s Gordimer was torn between her liberal humanist belief in multiracialism and the awareness that this stance was becoming increasingly untenable in the changing historical circumstances. Her journey to Egypt in 1959 gave her a valuable opportunity to consider her political convictions in the wider context of the decolonization processes happening on the African continent. What is clear both in “Egypt Revisited” and “A Thing of the Past”—a short story inspired by her visit to Egypt—is her desire to transcend the colonial perspective by distancing herself from her racial and social origins. These texts also convey her belief that the decolonization processes in African countries force the white inhabitants of the continent to redefine themselves so that they can remain politically relevant in the new reality. This belief would become the basis of the political and artistic theories that she developed in the decades to follow.

Specific Features of the Process of Decolonisation of Modern Textbooks on the History of Ukraine

The relevance of the subject matter was conditioned by the need to develop a programme for the process of decolonisation of modern Ukrainian history textbooks, the construction of a historical narrative and its consolidation in the public consciousness, and the great importance of practical application and implementation of decolonisation under modern requirements of the time. The purpose of this study was to conduct a detailed analysis of the process of decolonisation of modern textbooks on the history of Ukraine, separate the available information in textbooks from unreliable facts, and develop recommendations for improvement. The basis of the methodological approach in this study was a qualitative combination of methods of system analysis, theoretical research, and to a certain extent, empirical research, which allowed highlighting and generalising the direct data of observations, and the combination of these methods created the dynamics of scientific knowledge as an integral organised system. The main results obtained in the framework of this study should be considered the definition of the main features of the decolonisation process, their implementation and further improvement. The results also include the formulation of the main goals and objectives of decolonisation. The results of this study and the conclusions formulated on their basis are of significant importance primarily for students, students and teachers who will repeatedly apply and operate information from textbooks, for historians, subjects whose professional activity is related to the reliability of facts about the historical past and present, which is essential from the standpoint of spreading false information and subjectivism of authors in history textbooks, and for all citizens of Ukraine

Linguistic Decolonization in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Decolonizing the Mind

Decolonizing the Mind by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is a seminal work that highlights the importance of language in the process of decolonization. Thiong’o argues that colonization is not just a political and economic phenomenon but also a linguistic one. He asserts that colonizers imposed their languages on the colonized peoples, which led to the loss of cultural identity and self-esteem for the colonized. He refers to this as linguistic imperialism. He believes that decolonization must involve a rejection of the imposed languages and a return to native languages to reclaim cultural autonomy. He emphasizes the importance of linguistic decolonization as a necessary step in the broader process of decolonization. He asserts that language is the most potent vehicle of culture, and any attack on language is an attack on culture. Therefore, decolonization must involve the reassertion of the linguistic heritage of the colonized people. He argues that education plays a crucial role in promoting linguistic decolonization. Education should be restructured to reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity of the colonized people. The imposition of the colonizers’ languages in the education system is detrimental to the cultural identity of the colonized. This paper highlights Thiong’o strong rejection of European languages from Africa’s educational, cultural and political sphere to decolonize the very thought process.

Construções e desconstruções epistemetodológicas de/em uma pesquisa participante - um fazer coletivo com o povo Laklãnõ/Xokleng

ABSTRACT This article presents records of (de)construction, in different times/spaces/places, as experienced in a participatory research study developed with the Laklãnõ/Xokleng people residing in the Indigenous Territory Ibirama, in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The objective is to disclose some traces of the paths, mishaps and theoretical-practical results identified in the study, highlighting the role of indigenous subjects. Along the way, we try to keep the research in the perspective of critical interculturality, recognizing the potential to promote processes of decolonization, as the subjects who participate in the process acquire knowledge about their context and reinterpret it in interactive practices. The experience with participatory research has shown that the commitment to work with populations historically placed in vulnerable conditions by colonial processes should not be limited to the timespan of an academic work in order not to become an instrument of exploitation.

Decolonising South African Agriculture – Bringing Dignity Back to Small-Scale Farming

Decolonisation should include not only political independence, but also the return of factors of production to the formerly colonised people so that they can use them to participate meaningfully in the economy, facilitating their economic emancipation from former colonial rulers. This not only involves putting the factors of production back into the hands of the colonised but also empowering them to generate wealth. Hence, the re-balancing of the agricultural landscape to actively include small-scale agriculture is part of the decolonisation process. Returning viability and dignity to small-scale farming entails reconnecting people to the land. Therefore, African investments in agriculture need to be focused on small-scale farming so that income inequality and poverty can be alleviated. The paper proposes that the promotion of small-scale agriculture change achieves both the objectives of reversing the impact of colonialism and restoring dignity to Black farming, as well as providing quality employment within local communities. The paper does not suggest that every farm must be small-scale, but that every small-scale farm be given an equal opportunity to produce and contribute to the economy as these farms can provide business opportunities for marginalised groups, namely the youth and women. Hence, the question remains - Where does one acquire the resources and expertise to kick-start the recalibrating of agricultural production on a small-scale? The answer lies in a mixture of finance and business skills from firms through Corporate Social Investment that creates partnerships, both public and private, that sow the seeds of small-scale success.

N.R.C. C.A.A. and the Changing Concept of Identity in Indian Perspective

Migrations of tribe, people, race from one place to another for socio-economic-political reasons are as old as evolution of human race. According to archeologists, the first hominid species originated from Africa had been migrated to all over the globe. However in modern era, migrants from one country to another withoutproper documents and legal process are characterized as “Illegal immigrants.” In 1947 A.D. the Indian Sub-continent had been broken in-to two separate Nation State of India and Pakistan as part of decolonization process from almost two century old British colonial regime. Very huge quantities of people had to migrate from both these two lands. The Indian Constitution had made provisions to provide Indian citizenship to the migrants through legal process. To determine who genuine Indian citizens were, the N.R.C. was first prepared in 1951. It was decided that migrants from Pakistan will be given Indian citizenship till the first January, 1966. However during the 1970s, Liberation war had been fought between Pakistan army and Bengali speaking resident of East Pakistan supported by Indian Govt. In this period, large amount of migrants from East Pakistan had been entered in different Indian provinces for economic-political stability. According to the book “Bangladesh Ke swatantra Sangram Mein Bharat Ka Yugdaan” authored by salaam Azad, the migrant no was 9899 305. After establishment of Bangladesh in 1971, Mujib Treaty was signed between India and the new Country. Indian Govt agreed to provide citizenship to all Bangladeshi migrant residing in Assam till 24.3.1971. The Assam accord signed by the Indian Govt. and Assam’s ethnic associations cemented the agreement. However during the last three decades illegal migration from Bangladesh to Assam had been increased rapidly. Out of 33 districts of Assam, 9 have been over crowded with these Bangladeshi illegal immigrants. This changed demography of these districts and native ethnic –religious groups became minorities in their forefathers’ land. In 2012 a clash occurred between Bodo and Bangladeshi Muslims in the Bodoland territories in which more than 70 people had died. In this background, Assam Samhita Maha Sangh applied to Supreme Court for determining illegal migrants. In response, Indian Supreme Court ordered to update the N.R.C list in 2014.The process began in 2015. Out of 3.29 Corer applicants, 2.89 Cores have made to included themselves into the updated list. In 2016, the Indian govt. introduced Citizenship Ammendment Bill in house Of the People with the aim of providing Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh,Parsi, Christian, Jain and Buddhist illegal immigrants from Afganistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. However this acts this facing criticism and protest from both opposition Indian political parties besides common masses. Several opposing party spoke person labeled this act and process as communal and anti-Muslim in nature. Besides, political parties, common people created mass protests against amendment of Indian citizenship through offline and online platform. In Sheen Bag, Delhi Muslim womenfolk actively protested. They set up community kitchen, political discourse arena, public library etc. This model was followed by other regional centers of protest through all over India. It is my aim in this essay to analyze changing concept of Indian people’s legal and political identity on the background of N.R.C, C.A.A. I will use both primary and secondary sources

An Overview of Health Policy in India

The nation-states across the world endeavor to maintain health of their citizens for better development. The last few decades witnessed decolonization process, making many countries independent. The political parties that came to power in these newly formed countries announced their commitment to social sectors goals especially in achieving “Education for all” and “Health for all”, which as yet appears to be a mirage. India made appreciable progress in industry, self-sufficiency in agriculture, and evolving policies on safety nets. However, it seems to have a long way to go in the health sector. This article attempts to analyze the major health policies in India. It also focuses on the status of health policies and the new challenges in the wake of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an international policy agenda.

Across the conceptual divide? Chinese migration policies seen through historical and comparative lenses

This article analyses Chinese migration policies through historical and comparative lenses in an attempt to cross conceptual divides in existing literature on migration policies. The first part of the article offers an empirically grounded overview of developments in Chinese migration policies in the two decades after the regime changes of 1949 and 1978. A second analytical section brings together literature on the Global North, Global South, and Asian and Chinese migrations and migration policies. The article posits the following three main points. First, literature on the Global South is valuable for theorising Chinese migration policies in that it highlights emigration and development rather than immigration as in Hollifield’s ‘migration state’. However, in prioritising economic objectives, it fails to consider Chinese migration policies in relation to identity formation and nation-building under the influence of wars and decolonisation processes – what Adamson and Tsourapas have called ‘nationalising’ policies. Second, the article notes the significance of ethnic return migration in Chinese policies, which is overlooked in literature on the Global South, but examined in literature on Asian migrations. Finally, the article posits that the nexus between internal and external migration in a Chinese context offers critical insights for theorising migration policies.

The Moral Wrong of Colonialism: A Non-Instrumentalist Approach

Whether colonialism involves an intrinsic moral wrong or not happens to be an important question in contemporary political and legal philosophy. If colonialism is understood as a system that necessitates some form of intrinsic moral wrong then the process of epistemic decolonization can freely repeat the patterns of political relations prevailing in colonial regimes. However, understanding colonialism from a non-instrumentalist approach guides us to take a different path in the process of decolonization. This approach mandates for discontinuation of the wrongful political relation that was prevalent in colonial world. This article stands for a non-instrumentalist approach towards colonialism and regards the system of colonialism as intrinsic wrong. To that end, it challenges the predominant discourses that portray the wrong of colonialism from an instrumentalist approach. Moreover, it introduces new arguments to support Lea Ypi’s non-instrumentalist approach to the wrong of colonialism.

Reflections on the Yoruba Past: Toyin Falola on Isaac Delano

Toyin Falola remains one of the most illuminating voices with remarkable efforts to reposition the continent of Africa on the appropriate place on the global map. He has provided sufficient evidence that he deserves the accolades he attracts from contemporaries and admirers. More than many of his contemporaries, Toyin Falola continues to demonstrate that knowledge production from Africa is sustainable if past events are interrogated accordingly. In very many ways, he displays quality content that gives him the sort of image he has built for Africans generally, and himself particularly in the world of intellectualism. The debate about the essentialism of African knowledge economy, especially the Yoruba culture, is centuries old, and frozen in its condition. It became prominently popular from the beginning of African’s contact with Europeans and Arabs, and this, ever since then, has attracted deepened engagement by African scholars whose primary intention was to defend their cultural legacy.
 Understanding that the proliferation of such desecrating rhetoric that Africans are a people without history by Eurocentric scholars like Trevor Roper and David Hume was a consummate attempt to undermine their existence, and then justify their expansionist agenda, makes African scholars of various disciplines to stand in defense of their history, hence decolonization process in pre- and post-independence era. Apparently, it was Edward Said who asserts that, “domination and inequities of power and wealth are perennial facts of human society. But in today’s global setting they are also interpretable as having something to do with imperialism, its history, its new forms.”1 It thus seems that the generations that witnessed such unmistakable assault on their cultural heritage were not ready to accept it in good faith, and this provoked 1 Edward Said. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1993, p.19. 270 Wale Oyedeji corresponding resistance from them. They however reacted intellectually. It was in the spirit of reacting defensively that the first, second and third generations of historians emerged. Their sudden increase in the production of intelligent materials sent such a strong signal to the West so much that the world was compelled to change their erroneous misconception about Africa and Africans. As such, scholars like Samuel Johnson, Isaac Delano, Kenneth Dike, Bala Usman, Obaro Ikime, Bolanle Awe and a host of others took up the challenge of setting the record straight.
 The trend continues in that fashion even in postcolonial environment. For one thing, it birthed the Ibadan School of History, an intellectual society that achieved beautiful and daunting results in their quest for African cultural redemption. Many contemporary scholars consider the efforts of these pioneer intellectuals purposely because their works provide sufficient background to understanding African cultures and values, its steady evolution and travails. As such, in this writing, I intend to consider the greatness of Yoruba culture, a people in West Africa, visa-a-vie their precolonial undertaking and their colonial experience. Leaning on the works of Isaac Delano, this work will look into the Yoruba past to reflect on the culture, philosophy, ideology, epistemology and ontology of the people, with a view to educating the general public on the inexhaustible items of their knowledge economy and productions. Falola has done exponentially well to relate to us the seemingly beautiful body of works produced by Isaac Delano in journals, newspapers, periodicals, personal records among many other things. All these are indications that ingenuity cannot be covered by the web of power because while power is transient, ingenuity that persists is not.

Looting the archive

Since African nation-states began to gain their independence in the mid-twentieth century, they have fought for the repatriation of cultural artifacts and human remains as an integral part of continental processes of decolonization. Using the concept of the “afterlife of genocide” as a method for understanding transformed but still ongoing processes of genocidal dispossession, this paper engages the relationship between the organizing colonial logics of the 1904-1908 German genocide of Ovaherero and Nama people in South West Africa and the continued presence of Ovaherero and Nama skulls in Euroamerican museum institutions.

Gilbert-Charles Picard (1913-1998) and the Religions de l’Afrique Antique

This article analyses, from a historiographic perspective, the most important aspects of Charles-Gilbert Picard’s work on the religious world of the populations inhabiting the Maghreb during the Punic and Roman periods, with special emphasis on his magnum opus on the subject, Les religions de l’Afrique Antique. In doing so, I have attempted to explain the evolution in thought of an author who was one of the most prominent scholars of the ancient religions in North Africa between the end of the Second World War and the process of decolonisation of the Maghreb.