Weapons of Theory On the Notions of ‘Origins’ and ‘Roots’ in Decolonial Thought

• Published in: Theoria (Pietermaritzburg) Vol. 71; no. 180; pp. 77 - 102
• Main Authors: Sunnemark, Ludvig, Sunnemark, Fredrik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Afrikaans; English
• Published: New York Berghahn Books, Inc 01-09-2024
• Subjects: Centralization; Colonialism; Conflict; Decolonization; Dissemination; Dominance; Knowledge; Recurrent; Universalism; Weapons
• ISSN: 0040-5817; 1558-5816
• DOI: 10.3167/th.2024.7118004

Abstract This article critically engages with central tenets of decolonial thought. While sympathetic to decolonial thought's anti-colonialism and critique of Eurocentric universalism, the article argues that decolonial thought's understanding(s) of knowledge relies on an essentialising centralisation of origins and roots. Against decolonial thought's assertion that a knowledge's relevance for anti-colonial struggle results from its position of exteriority vis-á-vis colonial systems of domination, the article suggests that we need to look at the dialectical and hybrid processes through which bodies of knowledge are made agentic in relation to concrete contexts of political conflict. To discern a body of knowledge's meaning and relevance for anti-colonial struggles, we need to understand that it is continually shaped and reshaped from recurrent practices of reading, dissemination and re-articulation, through which the theory or knowledge body becomes hybridised and reformulated in relation to incessantly evolving contexts.