TY - JOUR
T1 - Fatal misconceptions
T2 - colonial durabilities, violence and epistemicide in Africa’s Great Lakes Region
AU - Mertens, Charlotte
AU - Perazzone, Stéphanie
AU - Mwambari, David
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the editors of Critical African Studies, particularly Hazel Gray, for their generous and engaged readings of earlier versions of this article. We want to thank Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka and Eirini Sephton whose participation in this project has helped clarify and improve this Special Issue. We also thank our contributors for their insightful papers and the smooth collaboration. The usual disclaimers apply and all remaining gaps and weaknesses remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - 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’.
AB - 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’.
KW - coloniality
KW - decolonization
KW - epistemic violence
KW - Great Lakes Region
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129856978&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/21681392.2022.2059901
DO - 10.1080/21681392.2022.2059901
M3 - Editorial
AN - SCOPUS:85129856978
SN - 2168-1392
VL - 14
SP - 2
EP - 18
JO - Critical African Studies
JF - Critical African Studies
IS - 1
ER -