Decolonial theory

Contributions to decolonial theory are made from different parts of the world and from different disciplines. Every month this sections bring two contribution to decolonial theory.


November 2016
On August 19 2016 Ramon Grosfoguel and Sandew Hira gave a joint lecture on intersectionality at the University of South Africa, Department of Anthropology & Archaeology, as part of Africa Decolonial Research Network (ADERN).
Here are the videos of the lecture of Grosfoguel and Hira.

Sandew Hira explains the differences in research methodology between decolonial theory and positivism on the basis of a report of the University of Amsterdam on diversity of the university.
Click here to the article.


September 2016


Asma Lamrabet is a Islamic liberation theologist from Morocco who lectures at the Granada Summer School on Islamic Liberation Theology. DIN interviewed her about her work on Islamic feminism.
Click here to read the interview.

“Today’s Europe is in the middle of an identity crisis, and questions who belongs to it and who should be kept out,” writes Hatem Bazian. He invokes the memories of the Spanish inquisition.
“The Inquisition was a repressive regulatory structure that governed Muslim and Jewish bodies and spaces, with limits imposed on clothing, food, hygiene and movement,” says Hatem. “The Islamophobia industry’s expected response to drawing similarities between the Inquisition and what is occurring today would be rejection, and possibly to consider it faulty because Europe is facing Muslim terrorist and security threats.”
But Hatem explains the reason for the comparison: “The Inquisition witnessed the construction of a distinct European identity centring on whiteness and coupled with Christianity, which meant casting out the other – the Jew and Muslim – to arrive at “purity of race” or “pure to the source” epistemic.”
Read more.

Many progressive groups and academics carry the narrative of intersectionality in their work and activism. Intersectionality calls for the recognition of multiple forms of oppression and exploitation and the need for solidarity. These are ideas that should be supported by everybody. So where does the need come from to criticize the concept of intersectionality from a decolonial perspective?
Sandew Hira explains both the need and the nature of the critique.
Read more.


August 2016


Houria Bouteldja is leader of the Parti des Indigènes de la République (PIR) in France.  Houria develops decolonial concept on the relationship between racism and the oppression of women. In this article she explains: “I am a woman. Not just any woman. And I don’t owe solidarity to just any men. I am an indigenous person and I offer my solidarity to men who share that condition. Those from my community. And if I didn’t offer it, it would catch up with me and force itself on me whether I wanted it or not.”

Click here for the article.


July 2016


Ramon Grosfoguel develops the argument based on Frantz Fanon that Racism is a global hierarchy of superiority and inferiority along the line of the human. Click here to read about this theory.


C.K. Raju makes the case for decolonizing mathematics and argues that decolonial mathematics produces better results than colonized mathematics.  Click here to read an interview with Raju.

Decolonial International Network