Decolonising the Human (eBook)

Reflections from Africa on difference and oppression

Melissa Steyn, William Mpofu (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | Main
Wits University Press (Verlag)
978-1-77614-653-6 (ISBN)

Infos

What does it mean to be human in a decolonial worldview? African scholars examine the ongoing political and social project of constituting ‘the human’ that has been conceived and shaped by colonial forces. They argue for a world where local knowledges, indigenous knowledge systems and traditional wisdom are part of the conversation.

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Decolonising the Human examines the ongoing project of constituting 'the human' in light of the durability of coloniality and the persistence of multiple oppressions. The 'human' emerges as a deeply political category, historically constructed as a scarce existential resource. Once weaponised, it allows for the social, political and economic elevation of those who are centred within its magic circle, and the degradation, marginalisation and immiseration of those excluded as the different and inferior Other, the less than human. Speaking from Africa, a key site where the category of the human has been used throughout European modernity to control, exclude and deny equality of being, the contributors use decoloniality as a potent theoretical and philosophical tool, gesturing towards a liberated, pluriversal world where human difference will be recognised as a gift, not used to police the boundaries of the human. Here is a transdisciplinary critical exploration of a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and decolonial studies.

Inhalt

Acronyms and Abbreviations Chapter 1 The Trouble with the Human – William Mpofu and Melissa Steyn Chapter 2 The Invention of Blackness on a World Scale – Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Patricia Pinky Nkete Chapter 3 To What Extent Are We All Humans? Of Culture, Politics, Law and LGBT Rights in Nigeria – Olayinka Akanle, Gbenga S. Adejare and Jojolola Fasuyi Chapter 4 Humanness and Ableism: Construction and Deconstruction of Disability – Sibonokuhle Ndlovu Chapter 5 Doing the Old Human – Cary Burnett Chapter 6 Being a Mineworker in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Decolonial Perspective – Robert Maseko Chapter 7 Meditations on the Dehumanisation of the Slave– Tendayi Sithole Chapter 8 ‘Language as Being’ in the Politics of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o – Brian Sibanda Chapter 9 The Underside of Modern Knowledge: An Epistemic Break from Western Science – Nokuthula Hlabangane Chapter 10 The Fiction of the Juristic Person: Reassessing Personhood in Relation to People – C.D. Samaradiwakera-Wijesundara Chapter 11 The Cultural Village and its Idea of the ‘Human’ – Morgan Ndlovu Chapter 12 A Fragmented Humanity and Monologues: Towards a Diversal Humanism – Siphamandla Zondi Contributors Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.3.2021
• Verlagsort: Johannesburg
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: decolonial praxis • decolonial sociology • Disability • Humanism • object oriented ontology • South African Studies, decolonization • vitalism
• ISBN-10: 1-77614-653-0 / 1776146530
• ISBN-13: 978-1-77614-653-6 / 9781776146536