Thread by @heavencrawley

Good to finally get to the @IASUG for an evening of decolonising #talesbythefireside with Faisal M Garba and others. But first, the Ghana Dance Ensemble ti remind us that the inclusion of traditional music and dance is itself a form of decolonisation

Important opening questions from Faisal M Garba...’what does it mean to decolonise knowledge? what decides what constitutes ‘knowledge’? are African scholars in danger of becoming pawns in an new colonising agenda? #talesbythefireside

Decolonisation has different meaning and emphasis in different geo-political contexts. In South Africa much of focus has been on challenging hegemonic and Eurocentric pedagogy. In other contexts focus is more on range of institutions that produce knowledge #talesbythefireside

Colonisation created histories that erased existing knowledge in and about Africa eg the idea that Europe brought Africa into the global economy when in reality Africans had been trading with the rest of the world for centuries #talesfromthefireside

Concept of ethnicity harnessed as a key weapon by the colonisers to divide and rule. In so doing managed to reduce the rich cultural heritage that constituted the basis of social organisation across Africa #talesbythefireside

There are deep epistemological inequalities which are reproduced in educational and research contexts. Those who contest these inequalities are often reduced or dismissed as being ‘on the margins’ and therefore irrelevant. This is about power #talesbythefireside

Can’t decolonise in an abstract decontextualised way, need to go back to into the community in order to understand the way things are and what they mean. Not possible to change the way knowledge is produced and exchanged within the academy alone #talesbythefireside

Language as a mode of communication continues to be a huge issue. We are talking about decolonisation IN ENGLISH. No space for local languages and dialects. This is a contradiction and an irony if we are serious about decolonisation #talesbythefireside

By way of conclusion...we need to deeply historicise the contexts in which we are living and the definitions and categories we employ to make sense of the world otherwise we will simply reproduce the very colonial structures we are criticising #talesbythefireside