Project Of Decolonization Research Articles

The unfinished project of decolonisation: a revisionist reading of Pakistan at 75

ABSTRACT For much of its history, Pakistan has been analysed through binaries that suggest an existential conflict between liberal democrats and illiberal theocrats. In fact, ideological polarisation has always existed within Pakistan’s militarised structure of power. This article proposes a revisionist reading of Pakistan’s history prefacing foundational logics of class, ethnic-national and state power. It is only by explicating such underlying structural logics that one can make sense of persistent palace intrigues as well as the dialectic of local political economies and regional/global geo-politics. Rehabilitating the normative horizon of decolonisation can animate a meaningful transformative politics in our time.

‘Being Invisible, They Seemed Dead Already’: Afterlives of the Dead Wife in A Passage to India

Abstract Gail Minault has argued that the absence of Muslim women from colonial narratives on India is typically attributed to the women’s veiling practices. The colonizers contended that they couldn’t possibly write about that which they could not see. We find resonances of that outlook in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, which, as this article will argue, is constructed upon and around the narrative invisibilization of Muslim women in general, and Dr Aziz’s dead wife in particular. Through a close reading of the dead wife’s photographic and mnemonic trace in the novel, the article shall observe how her character (or the lack thereof) emerges as the grounds upon which Aziz’s relationship is defined with the English characters. It shall then take cognisance of the dead wife’s invisibilization beyond Forster, and examine how and why her story has hitherto escaped serious critical enquiry among postcolonial (and) feminist scholars who have worked extensively on Forster’s novel. Even though Indian feminist (and) post-colonial theory has presented to us a nuanced understanding of women’s subalternity at the hands of the white and the brown man, there appears to be a widespread essentialization at play, which absorbs the lived realities of non-Hindu and non-upper caste women. With sole focus on the figure of the Indian Muslim woman in the project of decolonization, this article will examine how the principles and structures of invisibilization are perpetuated from the logic of colonial bondage to the myth of post-colonial freedom(s).

Law's Indigenous Ethics by John Borrows (review)

Reviewed by: Law's Indigenous Ethics by John Borrows Keith Richotte Jr. (bio) Law's Indigenous Ethics by John Borrows University of Toronto Press, 2020 THERE IS MUCH (very understandable) rhetoric in Indigenous studies about decolonizing various institutions and structures. Yet guidance on how to go about decolonizing is far less abundant than the calls to do so. The very ambitiousness of such a project is matched only by its daunting nature. How does one go about the work of decolonization? Obviously many have sought to accomplish such ends in many contexts and have done so long before we had the language that we presently use in the academy. Nonetheless, chronicles of acts of resistance and calls for change far outnumber models for how to effectuate the type of change that would benefit the Indigenous world. Consequently, we are fortunate to have a scholar such as John Borrows to offer guidance as we continue to collectively try to figure it out. The prolific Borrows's new book, Law's Indigenous Ethics, should be read by anyone who is interested in how to think about the decolonization project in a practical, actionable way. Admittedly, to those only looking at the cover and a blurb it might seem to have a limited audience: it is a work about Canadian law and Aboriginal peoples, particularly the Anishinaabe. Yet this critical text can speak to a broad audience because it takes seriously the question of how we might strategize decolonizing efforts in the future. The legal cases and doctrine as well as the Canadian context are central to Borrows's argument, but they are not barriers to those whose work and region of study do not overlap. Borrows is an exceptionally skillful and gentle writer, and his wisdom will be obvious to anyone who is not intimidated by his framing devices. On the topic of framing devices, Borrows divides his text into seven chapters, each one thematically consistent with what the author describes as the "Seven Grandmother/Grandfather Teachings of the Anishinaabe" (14): Zaagi'idiwin (love), Debwewin (truth), Zoongide'ewin (bravery), Dabaadendizowin (humility), Nibwaakaawin (wisdom), Gwayakwaadiziwin (honesty), and Manaaji'idiwin (respect). By examining a legal question that is concerned with land through these lenses, Borrows demonstrates how and where it is possible to invert the colonially imposed structures of law and [End Page 146] legal reasoning to offer Indigenous legal reasoning that can lead to a more just, coherent, and integrated body of law for everyone involved. This is not to suggest that Borrows naively asserts that the Seven Grandmother/Grandfather Teachings will cure the Indigenous world or the colonial state of their own accord. Rather, he makes a more sophisticated and reasonable argument that the Seven Teachings offer another mode of legal reasoning to solve modern problems. Each chapter demonstrates how this can be accomplished. Nor is Borrows unaware that the Seven Teachings are criticized in some parts of the Indigenous world as modern inventions that are insufficiently connected to past practices or philosophical conceptions. As is his way, Borrows converts this alleged weakness into a strength. He forcefully demonstrates both that the decolonization effort must first begin at home and the possibilities that are available by asserting an active Indigenous legal philosophy. "Indigenous law can be a living and dynamic force if not tethered to what is regarded as being integral to aboriginal communities prior to European contact or sovereignty. The Seven Grandmother/Grandfather Teachings could broaden our legal imagination if they are regarded as current expressions of Indigenous authority in the modern world, regardless of whether their origin is old or new" (15). Law's Indigenous Ethics is an excellent book that has many uses. A terrific text for courses in Canadian law, comparative law, and comparative Indigenous problem solving, it perhaps most usefully offers a proactive vision for anyone interested in decolonization efforts throughout the Indigenous world. [End Page 147] Keith Richotte KEITH RICHOTTE JR., Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, is associate justice of the Turtle Mountain Court of Appeals and associate professor of American studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Copyright © 2022 Regents of the University of Minnesota

Decolonizing-Recolonizing Curriculum in Management and Accounting with Southern Praxis

The study emerged from collective everyday struggles for decolonization in Brazil, particularly against the myth of racial democracy we embody, aiming to understand how a local scholarly community engaged with decolonial perspective from Latin America or other origins enact the northern project of curriculum decolonization in management and accounting. We start with the assumption that the predominantly white Westernized university and its business school system we reproduce and refute in the south embody the longue durée of dynamics of decolonization-recolonization that decolonize without decolonizing. In this first phase of a broader rehumanizing project, we reflexively engage scholars with a semi-structured online questionnaire searching for post-abyssal interknowledge and inter-intelligibility. Through a praxistical perspective, we recognize ourselves as part of conditions of (im)possibility for doing decolonization from the perspective of the wretched of the earth in both South and North. Results reveal tensions in everyday individual practices, which reproduce and refute the pattern of curriculum decolonization that does not decolonize and hopes for recuperation-renewal of collective praxistical projects from within and outside the westernized plantation academy. We hope our southern praxis contributes to paving the way for collective everyday rehumanization of management and accounting for the dehumanizing agendas we embody in both South and North.

Institutionalizing Afro-Asianism: Lotus and the (Dis) Contents of Soviet-Third World Cultural Politics

ABSTRACT This article examines the Afro-Asian Writers’ Association’s (AAWA) magazine, Lotus, as an example of the cultural discourse of Afro-Asianism and the logistical and political challenges of institutionalizing a Third World literary canon within the broader context of Cold War alliances. The author's focus on the magazine’s conceptual vocabulary and its internal mechanisms reveals how anticolonial writers and cultural actors brought their own different (often, competing) versions of Marxism and varying degrees of alignment with Soviet-style socialism to the project of cultural decolonization and contributed to a global socialist order. Concerns of literary form, political liberation, and the context of noncommercial patronage shaped an all-encompassing cumulative aesthetic that was not always aligned with Moscow mandates. Her reading of the Lotus archive also draws out the frictions between various geopolitical pivots of the Afro-Asian—a focus on nation, civilization, race, and the larger socialist internationalism—to contribute to studies of the political entanglements between postcolonial and postsocialist studies that can offer insights into current geopolitical predicaments, especially for regions that continue to suffer from new and old forms of occupation and imperialism.

A New Scale for Global History

A New Scale for Global History

Challenging the lack of BAME Authors in a Psychology Curriculum

Decolonising psychology curricula faces substantial anti-racist inertia and a history of ‘using data limitations as an excuse not to push ahead’ (NUS & Universities UK, 2019; p.35). We report on a targeted curriculum decolonisation project at a British university. We quantitatively coded the identifiable ‘race’, gender and nationality of the authors set as reading at the beginning (in 2015–16) and three-years after the project began (in 2019–20). Our analysis revealed no significant change in the dominance of Globally Northern (95 per cent), white (95 per cent) and male (57 per cent) authors over time. Indeed, there were more White, male authors named John than BAME-female and male authors, of any name, collectively. We call on organisational bodies to promote decolonisation as part of course re-accreditation converging with staff’s interest.

Experimental shorts, film culture, and Third World Cinema in 1950s–1970s Hong Kong: An interview with Law Kar

Law Kar provides a comprehensive overview of his thoughts on the historical development of left-wing and progressive cinema in Hong Kong from the 1940s–1970s. Law Kar introduces the concept of ­“spontaneous” in relation to “third cinema” produced in Hong Kong, which allows space for the critical thinking of the creative personnel working on the films and the audiences watching them. Law’s insights complicate the political horizon of left-wing films and moves beyond simply repeating the line of the studios’ dominating the films within the Cold War context; instead, what emerges is a political spectrum that is much wider than the studio. This not only echoes the idea of spontaneity laid out by Fanon in the decolonization project but challenges understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of progressive films and media in Hong Kong. Law Kar is a veteran film critic in Hong Kong. Since the 1960s he has served as editor for publications such as The Chinese Student Weekly (Zhongguo xuesheng zhoubao), Intellectual Biweekly (Zhishi fenzi shuang zhou kan), and made several experimental films such as Beg for Life (Qi shi). He later worked for the Hong Kong International Film Festival and Hong Kong Film Archive. He recently received the Award for Professional Achievement at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Decolonization of Postcolonial Africa: A Structural Justice Project More Radical than Transitional Justice

ABSTRACT This article seeks to contribute to the debate as to whether the field of transitional justice can or should take on decolonization as one of its desired goals. I argue that efforts to incorporate decolonization within the normative and functional remit of the field are politically, practically and conceptually untenable. In addition to the high implausibility of the field undertaking self-radicalization within the existing (neo)liberal Euro-American order, transitional justice is based on principles of responsibility and accountability that are fundamentally different from decolonization construed as structural justice. In particular, whereas transitional justice is essentially an intervention to restore the integrity of the existing normative and social order, the decolonization project seeks to interrogate and dismantle some parts of the system being legitimated, if not the entire system. Therefore, framing such a project as transitional justice risks depoliticizing and minimizing its socially transformative essence which is long established in the history of political liberation movements of the postcolony. Although this is a case study of Sierra Leone’s almost 20-year experience of transitional justice, I aim to connect the field with the recent critical turn to the decolonization of postcolonial Africa.

Research avenues for amplifying Indigenous radio.

In this article,I discuss Indigenous radio's ongoing importance for tribal communities in the US from my perspective as a settler scholar, drawing on multifaceted research into Indigenous radio'sprogrammecontent and production practices before and during the pandemic.For this research, 'Indigenous radio' refers to radio produced, managed, presented and/ or owned by tribal communities. Other terms in use to describe Indigenous radio include Native American, Indian, or tribal radio, demonstrating that there is not a singleuniversalisingterm and reflecting a diversity in tribal cultures, languages and practices more generally. Building on this understanding of the inherent diversity of Indigenous radio, I describe the ways in which my overarching research project investigates Indigenous radio holistically, via critical outputs combining a literature review of Indigenous theoretical approaches, an online interactive map of tribal stations and in-depth case studies of tribal stations.Through these, I explorecommunity-building practices of Indigenous radioasproduced through whatIndigenous theorists Glen Coulthard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (2016) termgrounded normativity. Building on thisavenue ofexploration, I suggest the place-based values embedded in Indigenous radio production practices and content can function aseverydayacts of resurgence, following Jeff Corntassel's (2012)conceptualisationof ways in which Indigenous resurgence can reinforce a project ofdecolonisation. Toexemplify andsituate these arguments, Idraw on examples of radio production and practitioner insights from selected tribal stations embodying diversetribal production practices and content, before turning to focus on pandemic practices in Indigenous radio.When the pandemic emerged, myresearchfocusnecessarily widenedto includeand examine COVID-related practices and programming in tribal radio, enablingreflectionon these in the context of a paradigm shiftin which the value of tribal radio's community-building work has become acute.

The Man Who Lived with a Giant: Stories from Johnny Neyelle, Dene Elder ed. by Alana Fletcher and Morris Neyelle

Reviewed by: The Man Who Lived with a Giant: Stories from Johnny Neyelle, Dene Elder ed. by Alana Fletcher and Morris Neyelle Glen Sean Coulthard (bio) The Man Who Lived with a Giant: Stories from Johnny Neyelle, Dene Elder edited by Alana Fletcher and Morris Neyelle University of Alberta Press, 2019 THE MAN WHO LIVED WITH A GIANT is a classic example of master storytelling in the tradition of late Dene Elders George Blondin (When the World Was New, Yamoria the Lawmaker, and Trail of the Spirit) and John Tetso (Trapping Is My Life). Skillfully edited by researcher Alana Fletcher in collaboration with Johnny Neyelle's son, Morris Neyelle, the book represents a lifetime of stories shared with his family by an Elder who lived through the transition from a self-reliant "way of life" on the land to one that became increasingly influenced by colonial dependency, missionary belligerence, and white encroachment in the latter half of the twentieth century. Recognizing the historical, cultural, and philosophical significance of his father's teachings, Morris began to first record and then painstakingly transcribe and translate his dad's stories in the 1980s. While completing her fieldwork in the Sahtu Dene community of Deline in 2014, Dr. Fletcher was recruited by Morris to help compile the stories into publishable form. The Man Who Lived with a Giant is the result of the web of working relationships that ensued. "[Like] any oral history collection," the editors write, "[this book] is the product of many important relationships: the relationship of the stories to all Sahtu Dene people, past and present; that of the storyteller and his son; the relationship of the two editors; and those among the editors and the support network that help make this book a reality" (vii). The book itself is structured into two parts, "Sacred and Traditional Stories" followed by "Oral Histories from the Life of Johnny Neyelle," bookended by a preface and introduction on the front end and an epilogue, afterword, genealogy, and glossary of North Slavey words on the back end. The first section draws from oral histories that depict "distant time" stories—what some have called "floating time"—representing a period in Dene history and cosmology when spiritually powerful humans and other-than human animals lived and communicated with one another on the land, sometimes in conflict and sometimes in harmony, learning and laboring together to better enable the mutual well-being of all over time. A classic figure in these [End Page 172] stories is that of Yamoria, known in many Dene regions as the "lawmaker," who traveled the world dedicated to establishing the laws that would best facilitate the Dene and animals sustainably living together in peace and reciprocity. Yamoria, like many other characters in these stories, existed at a time when the "world was new," prior to the rapid transformations that would be brought on by colonial development and eventual settlement. The second part deals with stories of life on the land. These stories follow Johnny Neyelle himself—an incredibly knowledgeable and skilled hunter, fisherman, craftsman, and musician—through his important experiences living a fulfilled but challenging life of unalienated labor harvesting the renewable resources that Creation provided. To my mind, the significance of this collection of stories registers on two interrelated levels. First, as someone who regularly works with Dene Elders in educational programming that is substantively shaped by them (and based in large part on the knowledge they have of the land and all that it culturally signifies), storytelling is a critical medium for knowledge production and dissemination. The problem, however, is that Elders who carry these stories are getting older, are passing away, or are sometimes taught by the colonizing society that their knowledge is not legitimate compared to approaches that saturate the classrooms and learning spaces of the dominant society. In such a context, any community-based project that seeks to document and hold up these stories for future generations is a critical project of epistemic decolonization. Second, and relatedly, these histories are meant to teach us things—teach us about politics, law, political economy, and community; they are supposed to inform us how to conduct ourselves safely and ethically in...

Response to “Living Presence in Postcolonial Congo: A Comparison between the Narrative Evocations of Ancestral Spirits in Jacques Bergeyck’s Het stigma and Sony Labou Tansi’s La vie et demie” by Lieselot De Taeye

Response to “Living Presence in Postcolonial Congo: A Comparison between the Narrative Evocations of Ancestral Spirits in Jacques Bergeyck’s Het stigma and Sony Labou Tansi’s La vie et demie” by Lieselot De Taeye Pooja Sancheti, Respondent Lieselot De Taeye’s article compares two magical realist novels, written within the same decade, about Congolese society as it transited from a colonial state to a post-colonial one, the legacy of colonization (both political and material oppression as well as evangelism), the complex intersections of indigenous myths and beliefs with Christianity, a lopsided modernity brought in by the West in conflict with already existing systems, and internal political upheavals. What is striking, especially in the context of postcolonialism, is the article’s early framing of the “positionality” of the two writers. Sony Labou Tansi was a native Congolese author, while Jacques Bergeyck was a Belgian missionary and anthropologist who spent considerable time in the Congo before and after independence. This difference in affiliation-national, racial, communal, and even epistemological-is articulated in the ways indigenous belief systems, functions of cultures, notions of power, assimilation and hybridity, and even narrative access and focalization are deployed and presented. So, where Bergeyck’s protagonist, Leo, finds hybridity between Christian beliefs and rituals and indigenous beliefs as the way to transition into the future, Tansi’s narrative implodes upon itself, finding little, from within or without, to break the cycle of (political) violence. I feel that magical realism makes the author’s positionality an important basis for the kind of access the author has to a culture and history, and for their choice of instances, explanations, and their treatments of these instances. This positionality of the author vis-á-vis a culture has been a key argument in defining magical realism, starting from Alejandro Carpentier. As shown in the article, the author’s position is also pertinent to the project of decolonization, because colonization causes a fractured terrain and unique power struggles, as well as cultural and economic unevenness. Authorial voices are important interruptions that may not always speak for the margins or be subversive, but can create the space for these to be heard. They can also, as the article elaborates, imagine very different futures for a people and a nation. A case in point is how Bergeyck and Tansi work with the central motif of Congolese culture: ancestral spirits. The belief that ancestral spirits can and do influence the living world, with varying degrees of agency, is common to many (African) cultures, and is also a primary motif in magical realism more broadly. The intermingling of [End Page 229] the spirits and the living is one of the ways to challenge the notion of linear time, since there is a collapse of the apparently neat distinctions between present, past, and future. Additionally, the idea that lineages spill over is a close analogy to counter the argument that the moment of political independence cleaves a nation’s history into a (colonial) past and (postcolonial) present. Really, can neat compartments ever be set up within history and memory-personal or political? What is also striking about the spirits in the two novels is that they are not always kind or benign and, simply by virtue of having moved on, have not lost the personalities or political persuasions of their living selves. Martial especially, in Sony Labou Tansi’s La vie et demie, is violent and ill-tempered, and does not hesitate to rape his own daughter to ensure she (and future descendants) moves away and lives in a safer place. These spirits are, as De Taeye puts it, not “exemplary martyrs” but “adamant victims of an absurd system haunted by colonial oppression”. This desacralization of spirits humanizes them while also personifying history. The two novels present two different futures for the Congo among the many possible ones. Each future is based on the premise it began with, tied to the author’s own experiences and belief systems. One proposes a depoliticized hybrid of spiritual cultures, with less problematization of the many other intersections in this process, such as political and economic hegemony. The other fails to find any way out of the violence embedded deep...

The post-colonial novel and the re-construction of national identity in Morocco: conflicts and paradoxes

ABSTRACT Tainted by decades of direct colonial influence, Moroccan cultural identity in the postcolonial era became the battleground for conflicting discourses and competing voices grappling for recognition and dominance. The project of cultural decolonisation and national identity construction was avidly endorsed by Moroccan nationalist authors whose ‘engaged’ literature aimed at resurrecting Moroccanness on solid Islamic and nationalist foundations. Modernist writers, however, espoused a different vision that is based on modernisation, liberalism and secularism. Some other writers wrote ‘undesirable’ literature that is highly individualistic and unconcerned with the question of identity. The cultural scene in general and the novel genre in particular, being a new and a widely receptive genre, vehicled these postcolonial conflicting discourses and ideologies and reflected the discursive and ideological heterogeneity of postcolonial Morocco. This article sheds light on this heterogeneity as manifested in the works of prominent Moroccan post-colonial novelists. I, therefore, contend that there were several literatures at play subsequent to Morocco’s political independence; one is progressive, another reactionary, and the other is ahistorical; all representing the three major currents of post-colonial Moroccan literature.

Exploring the phenomenon of Afrofuturism in film in decolonizing the university curriculum: A case study of a South African university

When the #RhodesMustFall movement called for the decolonization of the university curriculum in South Africa in 2015, academics were soon under pressure to begin to explore various ways to go about beginning such a complex process. One possible approach to this would be to explore whether Afrofuturism could practically liberate the mind towards addressing any forms of cognitive injustice that students may experience as a result of a colonized curriculum, and in what ways it might do so. A literature review has found a paucity of empirical research exploring ways in which a film that employs Afrofuturism could be used to advance the decolonization project in teaching and learning practices in South African higher education. This article aims to contribute to this discourse through a case study which attempted to uncover the attitudes and emotions of a group of students who, after viewing the film Black Panther, which employs Afrofuturism, were or were not, able to make sense of and/or re-imagine their identities and relationships with others in the context of Afrofuturism, and to what extent. The article thus reports on a case study at a university of technology (UoT) in South Africa in which the film was used to attempt to advance the idea of Afrofuturism in the university curriculum and to uncover the lived experiences, social realities and ideas of self/identity of particular students from marginalized communities.

6 - Radical Regionalism: Feminism, Sovereignty and the Pan-African Project


 
 
 This article analyses how sovereignty in Africa’s immediate post-independence period was necessarily conceptualised as a regional pan-African and internationalist project of decolonisation, outlining lessons for the contemporary period. The capacity of newly independent states to shape their domestic policy and mobilise resources was constrained by their subordinate place in the global political and economic order, which made them dependent on foreign capital and tied them to the interests of their former colonisers. As such, they fostered radical regional and international solidarity that would facilitate the continent’s development. Looking at a series of feminist conferences in the immediate post-independence era, the article also traces the contributions of Southern feminists to the decolonisation project and African feminists to the conception of pan-Africanism, breaking with Western feminists to conceptualise national liberation as fundamental to gender justice.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sara Salem, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics / Post-Colonialisms Today researcher. Email: s.salem3@lse.ac.uk
 
 

A ‘decolonisation project’ that went awry A Missio-Ecclesiological interrogation of the Anglican Diocese of Harare during Bishop Nolbert Kunonga’s episcopacy: 2001–2007

A ‘decolonisation project’ that went awry A Missio-Ecclesiological interrogation of the Anglican Diocese of Harare during Bishop Nolbert Kunonga’s episcopacy: 2001–2007

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

Zulu Empire Decolonised: The Epic Story of the Zulu from Pre-Colonial Times to the 21st Century by Shalo Mbatha Johannesburg, South Africa: iZigi Publishing, 2021, p. 392. ISBN: 978-0-620-89782-2

The Zulu Empire is one of the well-known empires in Africa and the world. It is well-known for having resisted and militarily defeated the English army in the battle of Isandlwana. However, history writers who predominantly wrote from the outsider perspective distorted a lot of historical events. This article reviews a book written by Shalo Mbatha entitled “Zulu Empire Decolonised: The Epic Story of the Zulu from Pre-colonial Times to the 21st Century”. The article argues how the title remains true to the project of decolonisation. It further demonstrates how Shalo reverses the popular history created by colonisers by presenting events as known by those who lived through them. Her greatest success is in writing the history in the language of the colonised, thus restoring their dignity and having them rewrite their own history.

Acerca de descolonizar (y generizar) el currículum universitario

Nelson Maldonado-Torres (2007) argues that gender studies become key pieces within the project of decolonization and transformation of the humanities and social sciences of the 21st century. In this framework, this article puts the decolonial and gender perspective in dialogue with the history investigated and taught.We then ask ourselves: what knowledge and beings are hegemonic, what subjects gain a voice in the history that is investigated and taught, when and how they are embodies the gender perspective in the university curriculum. In this line, the work highlights the transformation processes within the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences, of the National University of La Plata (Argentina) and investigates the career of History from an analysis of programs and consultations with teachers.

Challenges and Paradoxes in Decolonising HCI: A Critical Discussion

The preponderance of Western methods, practices, standards, and classifications in the manner in which new technology-related knowledge is created and globalised has led to calls for more inclusive approaches to design. A decolonisation project is concerned with how researchers might contribute to dismantling and re-envisioning existing power relations, resisting past biases, and balancing Western heavy influences in technology design by foregrounding the authentic voices of the indigenous people in the entire design process. We examine how the establishment of local Global South HCI communities (AfriCHI and ArabHCI) has led to the enactment of decolonisation practices. Specifically, we seek to uncover how decolonisation is perceived in the AfriCHI and ArabHCI communities as well as the extent to which both communities are engaged with the idea of decolonisation without necessarily using the term. We drew from the relevant literature, our own outsider/insider lived experiences, and the communities’ responses to an online anonymised survey to highlight three problematic but interrelated practical paradoxes: a terminology, an ethical, and a micro-colonisation paradox. We argue that these paradoxes expose the dilemmas faced by local non-Western researchers as they pursue decolonisation thinking. This article offers a blended perspective on the decolonisation debate in HCI, CSCW, and the practice-based CSCW scholarly communities and invites researchers to examine their research work using a decolonisation lens.