Short Abstract

Drawing on Aníbal Quijano’s coloniality of power and decolonial approaches to knowledge, this panel uses Western Sahara as a prism to examine how colonial power shapes knowledge, representation and silencing in Africa, and how epistemic practices reproduce, contest or transform those relations.

Long Abstract

As the last remaining colony in Africa, Western Sahara offers an analytical prism through which to examine the relationship between the coloniality of power and the coloniality of knowledge in contemporary Africa. Despite its unresolved decolonisation, the country remains marginalised within much public and academic discourse. This marginality raises questions not only about what is known, but also about who produces knowledge, whose accounts acquire authority, and how political power shapes the categories through which African societies are represented.

While terms such as “region”, “desert”, “sparsely populated territory” and “disputed territory” may appear neutral, they can detach Western Sahara from its people, history and political context, obscuring questions of decolonisation and self-determination. Such representations invite scrutiny of the reciprocal relationship between colonial power and knowledge, examining how dominant political, territorial and economic structures shape the production and circulation of knowledge, and how epistemic practices can legitimise, reproduce or challenge these structures.

Drawing on Aníbal Quijano’s concept of the coloniality of power and decolonial approaches to knowledge, the panel invites contributions on Western Sahara and other African contexts. It welcomes interdisciplinary analyses of academic scholarship, archives, cartography, institutional discourse, media representations and community-based knowledge. Particular attention will be given to the recognition or exclusion of African knowledge producers, and to practices that contest imposed categories and generate alternative accounts.

By bringing these perspectives into conversation, the panel will explore how colonial relations shape what can be known, represented or silenced, and how knowledge production can reproduce or transform relations of power.

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