Intellectual decolonisation and the danger of epistemic closure: the need for a critical decolonial theory

ABSTRACT

This paper draws from the paradigm of Critical Theory (CT) and Decolonial Theory to engage in an introductory discussion on the need for a new methodological paradigm, namely a Critical Decolonial Theory. This is put forward in order to both argue for the imperative of introducing multiple narratives to the philosophical practice of contemporary social critique in South Africa, as well as to provide a cautionary note relating to how the decolonisation narrative itself could become a determinative ideology if it engages in what Lewis Gordon terms “epistemic closure.” While operating from within the framework and ideals of traditional CT and Amy Allen’s subsequent contribution to decolonising CT, we draw specifically from black practitioners of this critical philosophical tradition, namely Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Frantz Fanon, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Paulin Hountondji, and Achille Mbembe, in order to localise and ground our discussion of the need to problematise (i.e., consider both vindicatory and subversive aspects of) the decolonisation project.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical decolonial theory
• epistemic closure
• decolonisation
• problematising genealogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This critical methodology will be expanded upon in subsequent works. This article serves primarily as an introductory discussion regarding what the authors consider is a necessary addition to the decolonisation debate.

2. This is what Adichie (2009) refers to as a “single story” or an overly-narrow epistemic engagement with Africanness – whether in an existential sense or in the attempt to demarcate what is “African” in “African Philosophy.”

3. It is in this regard that we draw from Bohman’s (2021) distinction between “Critical Theory” (CT) and “critical theory,” in which he indicates that CT has both a narrow and a broad meaning. Bohman (2021, n.p.) writes:

“In the narrow sense, CT designates several generations of German philosophers and social theorists associated with the Frankfurt School. Furthermore, a ‘critical’ theory may be distinguished from a ‘traditional’ theory in relation to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human ‘emancipation from slavery’, acts as a ‘liberating … influence’, and works ‘to create a world which satisfies the needs and powers’ of human beings (Horkheimer [1937] 1972, 246). As such, many ‘critical theories’ in the broader sense have subsequently been developed. In both the broad and the narrow senses, a critical theory aims to provide the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in all their forms. Thus, while CT is often thought of narrowly as referring to the Frankfurt School that begins with Horkheimer and Adorno, it can also be argued that any philosophical approach with similar practical aims could be called a ‘critical theory’.”

4. This point is clearly highlighted and reinforced by Horkheimer and Adorno [1944] 1997) in their seminal text entitled Dialectic of Enlightenment.

5. These views were articulated in a TED talk presentation in 2009 (Adichie 2009).

6. It is important for the reader to be mindful that, from the perspective of this study, there is significant conceptual overlap between Adichie’s description of the “single story,” which refers to the adoption and internalisation of a single narrative of the self or the Other, and that of epistemic closure, which, according to Hountondji (1996, x), threatens to “reinforce the illusory belief that some inexorable fate weighs him or her [in this case the African individual] down forever” (1996, x).

7. According to wa Thiong’o, mental domination and colonisation occurs through language domination (i.e., language as communication as well as language as discourse). Not unlike Fanon in Black Skins, White Masks, he argues that domination through language leads to an acute sense of disassociation within the indigenous child with respect to her natural and social environment (wa Thiong’o 2005, 17). This sense of disassociation – also referred to as a situation of “colonial alienation” – is then further enhanced and reinforced by the teaching of history, geography, music and other subjects from a predominantly Eurocentric perspective, wherein colonial ideals are viewed as constituting both the standard of achievement as well as the centre of the universe.

8. While this is a contested claim which will not be elaborated upon within this study, it is nevertheless important to notice how Fanon’s assertion resonates strongly with Adichie’s and wa Thiong’o’s statements about the significance of language and its relation to culture in the decolonisation debate.

9. See critiques of Hountondji as noted by Dübgen and Skupien (2019, 47–59), as well as some of the debates that have taken place regarding his views on ethnophilosophy in Hallen’s concise article “Ethnophilosophy” Redefined? (Hallen 2010).

10. This critique could be extended to offering a critical problematisation – from Hountondji’s approach – to some of the decolonial theories’ rather opaque concepts of modernity and colonialism. This is something Mbembe explicitly addressed in his Critique of Black Reason (Mbembe 2017).