● NP ●
By Nicholas Pansegrouw
(South Africa – Taiwan)
Editor's note:
A writer and teacher currently living in Taiwan, Nicholas Pansegrouw is the editor of this book. Having learned about Decoloniality as part of his Unisa (University of South Africa) studies, he has since assembled a group of amazing people to contribute what Decoloniality-oriented articles form this book's content.
IN IT'S CURRENT FORM, our globalizing world is arguably the product of colonially-catalyzed forces, the sum of which have coalesced to create what Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano has termed the colonial matrix of power. The core intention of this socio-economic superstructure is to protect and propagate the Euro-American modernity we currently live enmeshed within.
According to renowned Argentine semiotician Walter Mignolo, the colonial matrix of power began gaining significant global traction when latter fifteenth-century Europe was transformed by heavy commercial activities, the sum of which fashioned the structure of Western Christendom post-Roman Empire into the idea of 'modern Europe.' When that century culminated in the 'discovery and conquest of America,' the possibility of massive exploitation of labor and lands via colonial conquest provided countries like Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and England with unrivaled commercial options. Capping all of this, the European mercantile economy transformed into a mercantile capitalist economy within but a few short decades, and in doing so, formulated the core structure for hegemonic Euro-modernity.
Five hundred years later, it is clear to see the significance of adding capitalist to mercantile economy, in that mercantile capitalist economy defines the enduring economic efficacy of colonialism. With the New World having been put under the heel of European seaboard powers, it became obvious that the growth of colonizers' power, influence, and economies worked proportionally to how much force they were willing to use. Colonizers understood that more could be gained from long-term cooperation with local populations than from committing wholesale genocide. Accordingly, theological (e.g., religion) and philosophical soft-power elements (e.g., Descartes' Rationalism) were deemed necessary to 'justify' violent behavior when appropriating foreign lands and subjugating local populations. And it is now these elements – instilled as socio-political cornerstones – that have and continue to drive colonial culture ever forward.
Returning to now, our world is stricken with division, uncertainty, and inequality. By elevating certain individuals and groups of people to positions of socio-economic status (and hence ability) over others, the colonial matrix of power has evolved to include and exclude according to what propagates its core tenets, the main one being to retain and utilize power on behalf of those whom the system benefits most.
Despite Coloniality being a worldwide phenomenon, its ill effects are most evident in the 'developing' world, which is synonymous with the continent of Africa. Having been carved up 'like a cake' and shared between colonial powers in the early eighteenth century, Africa has undoubtedly rebounded, albeit as a bruised and beaten entity that remains subservient to accommodating – either through workforce, cultural appropriation, or resources – the wills and whims of capitalist markets the world over. Being at the bottom of the pile, the only way is up, and Africa – as an avatar for all those downtrodden and forgotten – is fast realizing its unfathomable potential.
As the counterpoint to Coloniality, Decoloniality is a pivotal cog in recognizing the need for a more accommodating world, both in terms of social and existential recognition and what material needs should be met to maximize the potential of everyone sharing this planet. Through a process of delinking from the insidious and invisible processes dictating our lives, humankind – along with wisdom, technology, and the wish for a fairer, better future – can come together and deliver on the love, open-mindedness, and sense of community we are forced to bury to ascend the colonial matrix of power ladder.