Sport participation in South Africa remains rooted in the dilemmas of colonial society. It necessitates an ongoing need for discourse, debate and dialogue on decolonisation in sport history.
Calls to “indigenize” universities must start with listening - to Indigenous scholars and nations. And real reparation will be painful for settlers, for it will be unsettling.
Khanya College’s curriculum was quite different from the one taught at other universities of the time. Its students studied oral African literature and history alongside Western literature.
French is no longer taught as a European language representative of “French” culture in South Africa. New modes of teaching, learning and research speak to an inclusive Africanist agenda.
The process of decolonising research methodology is an ethical, ontological and political exercise rather than simply one of approach and ways of producing knowledge.
Island philosophies can be used to decolonise university courses and teaching. They can also advance sustainable development models and, ultimately, achieve responsible tourism.
“What have we failed to know and at what cost?” An education professor draws upon Indigenous literature to support a personal journey into classroom decolonization.
One First Nations community stands out in northern Ontario, for its low rates of suicide and other mental health challenges. The residents say it’s all about their connection to the land.
The Greco-Roman society believed that people weren’t born human, they became human. But how can humanity be defined?That’s what the project of decolonising the humanities could be dedicated to.
Critical decolonisation means accepting risk of error. It means considering whether indigenous knowledge systems might contain truths that western science hasn’t accessed.
Phrases like “knowledge production” conceal the fact that knowledge answers to something beyond itself and beyond us. To produce knowledge is to find out about something.
A global approach to African history complements the radical post-colonial histories, while also asserting the role of the continent in the world’s global pasts and present.
There are other ways to conduct meetings and present lectures. Could adopting, adapting or even just understanding more about these help universities to release colonialism’s grip on their practices?
There’s no doubt South African universities need to undergo a real shift. But are the country’s current intellectual and academic forces up to the task?
Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa and Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations, Utrecht University