Decoloniality

Decoloniality (Spanish: decolonialidad) is a school of thought that aims to delink from Eurocentricknowledge hierarchies and ways of being in the world in order to enable other forms of existence on Earth. It critiques the perceived universality of Western knowledge and the superiority of Western culture, including the systems and institutions that reinforce such perceptions. Decolonial perspectives understand colonialism as the basis for the everyday function of capitalistmodernity and of imperialism. As Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera notes, “decolonial thinking endeavors to disrupt the Eurocentric prescriptions regarding who counts as human and thus who is considered possible of producing a valid thought."

Decoloniality emerged as part of a South American movement examining the role of the European colonization of the Americas in establishing Eurocentric modernity/coloniality — according to Aníbal Quijano (1928-2018), who defined the term and its reach.