Revisiting the true purpose of the discourse on decolonising

ABSTRACT

The human and social science communities have over a long time committed themselves to the pursuit of an ever-growing list of new conceptual frameworks, but often only to rob such theories of profundity in the end. Such habits and practices reduce into ‘slogan’ ideas that otherwise hold the promise for robust interrogation of how we came to be where we are. In this article, I extend scholarly conversations in cultural discourse studies (CDS) that trouble and unsettle Westcentrism as a global discursive practice that overlooks and eclipses non-Western intellectual legacies. In contributing to the project of CDS, I discuss four key points that draw attention to a deeper understanding of the history, genealogy, contours and foundational goals of decolonising in the search for strategies we can use to redeem the field from the pitfalls of ‘sloganisation’. I invite all of us to engage in reflexive thought-work about how best to advance decolonising in ways that are committed to the pursuit of the anti-colonial and counter-hegemonic agendas advanced in CDS scholarship. I posit that decolonising is not a universal concept that can be expressed in terms of a universal academic language because there are various loci of enunciation from which to do decolonisation in praxis.

KEYWORDS:

• Decolonising
• colonial matrix of power
• southern knowledge
• cultural discourse studies
• fuzzy logic
• indigenous knowings
• restorative and social justice

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 See Contour # 3 below for more on the student of society approach to decolonising.

2 See Contour # 4 below for a more detailed discussion on social and cognitive justice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Finex Ndhlovu

Finex Ndhlovu is an Associate Professor of Language in Society at the University of New England, Australia, and a distinguished visiting professor at two other institutions: the Graduate Centre, City University of New York and the University of South Africa. Finex’s research interests sit at the cutting edge of contemporary linguistic and socio-cultural theories around language, and sociality in relation to transnational migrant and diaspora communities. A key focus of his work is on how to operationalise ‘decolonising’ as a methodology and an approach in the search for solutions to language and communication problems in social policy.