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- Convenors:
-
Faisal Garba
(University of Cape Town)
Manuela Boatca (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)
Akosua Darkwah (University of Ghana)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- African Studies
- Location:
- Room 1224
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 8 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
This panel brings together researchers based in Africa and Europe who have been grappling with what it means to think and do decolonisation in the classroom, in framing research and through writing and public intellectualism.
Long Abstract:
Following years of work by scholars (working out of the South and the global North), recent student protests on the African Continent and mobilisation of people of colour in the United States and some parts of Western Europe, the call for decolonisation has assumed renewed importance. From a marginal and often ignored discourse, universities, professional associations and individual scholars have had to engage decolonisation or partake in decolonisation talk. Prior to the renewed prominence of decolonisation, there were initiatives on the African Continent, the African Diaspora and among critical scholars in the North to centralise colonialism in knowledge production and the understanding of global political economy and everyday life. While these efforts have yielded a great deal of important scholarship, the practicalities of doing decolonisation in terms of what is taught, what is the unit of analysis, and who bears what responsibility to rectify absences in the curriculum are still questions that scholars interested in decolonisation are pondering. This panel brings together researchers based in Africa and Europe who have been grappling with what it means to think and do decolonisation in the classroom, in framing research and through writing and public intellectualism. It among other things asks old questions in light of contemporary realities: Why should scholars based in Africa have to cite scholars from the global North for their papers to count as worthy of publication? Why is engaging African scholarly output not a requirement for Northern Scholars writing about Africa? How can this deeply embedded differentiated expectation be remedied? Following Connell (2007: viii) how can scholars in the global North learn “about” the texts of scholars in Africa and also learn “from” such texts?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 8 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
The paper discusses a teaching collaboration where mainstream social science and its amnesia about colonial histories and presence, was critically addressed as a potential practice against silencing positionalities, divisions, student paralysis and anxiety.
Paper long abstract:
The paper will discuss experiences from a South African – Ethiopian – Finnish research and teaching collaboration especially in terms of its impact on sociology and gender studies teaching in Finland. The paper will argue that the practice of addressing and challenging the mainstream social science tradition, and the university as an ideal, critically from the lens of colonial histories and presence, engage the students and their lived experiences, compared with the class rooms where explicit de-colonizing, Africa or development were in focus, and learning could be compartmentalized into a “here” and “there”. The European social science canon of denial and amnesia of the importance of the global context, and a more general whitewashing of sociological history and present (Bhambra & Homwood 2021), are in the paper discussed through an anxiety and alienation presented in student narratives about the university. The paper proposes that a teaching collaboration where mainstream silences are addressed is in itself a practice against silencing positionalities, divisions, paralysis and anxiety.
Paper long abstract:
This contribution discusses ongoing efforts to decolonise a first-year introductory course to the social sciences at a university college in Oslo, Norway. Theoretically, these decolonial efforts are informed by the thinking of Achille Mbembe, while they find practical guidance through a toolbox for decolonising teaching and syllabus issued by the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH). Thinking and doing decolonisation in higher education classrooms in a Norwegian context concerns Norwegian academic institutions as Eurocentric and Westernized, Denmark-Norway’s partaking in the colonisation of territories in the global South, as well as Norway’s history of colonising the Sami people within their own country. The attempted decolonial efforts presented here commenced last year upon discussions with colleagues based on the question what and how social science students should learn in 21st century Norway. The preliminary changes that were introduced to the course included changing the order of lectures to start (rather than end) with a problematisation of so-called Western knowledge, introducing a lecture on the coloniality of knowledge production (in addition to orientalism, which had been on the syllabus before) as well as literature on Sami philosophy. The aim for this year is to introduce more encompassing changes based on hitherto open questions; one of the most pertinent questions being the choice of an adequate syllabus: If decolonisation means to diversify and decentralise, this does not only imply adding new readings, but also reducing and disrupting the existing social science canon. What should remain on the syllabus and what should not?
Paper short abstract:
How can one do science in a decolonial way as a European? I argue that solidarity and looking for empowering approaches are key ingredients. I will show how personally, these choices affect issues e.g of research, of citing African authors and of publishing. Focus is on challenges and possibilities.
Paper long abstract:
In a field so dominated by a heavy historical load of otherizing and dehumanizing discourse, no European student of Africa can pretend to work in a 'pure', value-free scientific way. Any decolonial approach has to involve the choice of an explicit position – and such a choice should not be without consequences. My choice is to seek to work in solidarity with African thinkers and activists who are trying to build an Africa based on authenticity, on the interests of the peoples of Africa and not based on narrow self-interest. However, how does one find such Africans and how does that choice still reflect personal bias and prejudice? In the times of the apartheid system, there was a simple choice between ‘good’ and ‘evil’. Today, things are not so straightforward. I choose to use the lens of ‘empowerment’, which means trying to identify approaches that challenge existing power relationships that open up scope for African agency. It also means that I cannot pretend to speak on behalf of Africa or Africans.
The paper will explore this personal search for position taking in greater detail and overtime and the limitations, challenges and possibilities it offers. How to avoid a patronizing attitude? What does this mean for citing and using African authors? What does it mean for formulating research questions? What does it mean for (inter-)disciplinarity? For publishing? How can this be generalized? These and related issues will be explored.