From Discourse to Praxis: Decoloniality, Knowledge Production, and Everyday Resistance in the European South
Yodit Estifanos Afewerki, Ariam Tekle, Mikal Woldu
Abstract
Decoloniality remains a central yet contested project: despite intellectual traction, the voices and lived experiences of the descendants of formerly colonised peoples are too often marginalised in both scholarly and public spheres. This paper, co-authored by three Black-Italian women working across academia, activism, community organising and cultural curation asks: how do we move beyond elite discourse to praxis that grounds decoloniality and anti-racist commitment in everyday resistance and solidarity? What role can—and should—academia play in building equitable collaborations which acknowledge and redress existing power inequalities in knowledge production? Drawing on our work and positionalities as descendants of formerly colonised people living in Europe, we consider multiple ways of engaging—through academic, activist, cultural, and curatorial practices. We examine how the tools we use such as oral history, podcasting alongside institutional and discursive practices determine who has access to knowledge, whose voices are amplified, and who is centred or marginalised. We further explore what ethical partnerships look like, how leadership, authority, and agency are distributed in collaborative work, and how decolonial practices can reach beyond academia into everyday praxis. Ultimately, this paper aims both to celebrate achievements in postcolonial and decolonial scholarship over the past decade and proposes forward-looking strategies for sustaining its relevance and impact. At times of heightened global crises, rising far-right white-supremacist narratives, and persistent colonial legacies, we argue for a decolonial praxis rooted in solidarity, everyday resistance and redistribution of authority and knowledge-making.
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Download ArticleKeywords
Decolonial praxis, everyday resistance, ethical collaboration, anti-racism
Pages
49-64
DOI
10.25430/2531-4130/V18-005