Decolonising the Human
Reflections from Africa on difference and oppression
Published on 1. March 2021
264 pages
978-1-77614-653-6 (ISBN)
Description
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.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-1-77614-653-6 (9781776146536)
Persons
Melissa Steyn (Editor)
Melissa Steyn holds the South African National Research Chair in Critical Diversity Studies and is the founding director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies. She is best known for her publications on whiteness and white identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
William Mpofu (Editor)
William Mpofu is a researcher at the WITS centre for diversity studies at the University of Witwatersrand. He is also a member of the Africa Decolonial Research Network.
Melissa Steyn holds the South African National Research Chair in Critical Diversity Studies and is the founding director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies. She is best known for her publications on whiteness and white identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
William Mpofu (Editor)
William Mpofu is a researcher at the WITS centre for diversity studies at the University of Witwatersrand. He is also a member of the Africa Decolonial Research Network.
Content
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 Ngugi 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
