The social scientist Dr. Sebastian Garbe describes decolonisation as follows:
“The demand for ‘decolonisation’ arises from the diagnosis that our present is still shaped by colonial structures. Political, cultural, but also intellectual (not only academic) perspectives and movements that critically examine the continued existence of these colonial relations and seek their overcoming can be described as ‘decolonial’. In contrast to the formal decolonisation of many regions under former European rule—in Latin America at the beginning of the 19th century and in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean from the mid-20th century—‘decolonisation’ aims at detachment from colonial relations in their economic, political, cultural, epistemic, (inter-)subjective, gendered, and ecological dimensions. In doing so, colonial continuities are challenged both in the Global South and in the Global North.” 90
In decolonial activism, almost everything is problematised as (neo-)colonial; in particular, it examines how so-called “colonial continuities” from the era of colonialism shape societal discourses.91 According to the Peruvian activist Aníbal Quijano, colonial relations permeate “all areas of social existence”.92
According to the postcolonial sociologist Sousa Santos, there can be no theory of decolonisation without praxis.93 For this praxis, a so-called “Eurocentric mode of production” of knowledge must be overcome, as it constitutes a so-called “epistemicide” (see epistemic violence).94 Decolonial activists therefore attempt to decolonise all areas of societal knowledge, especially education systems, media, administration, politics, and science.95
According to Professor Fatima el-Tayeb, it is necessary to
“transform the curriculum from a decolonial feminist perspective.” This involves “interrupting the colonial imagination; learning by unlearning the internalised supremacy of whiteness.” For el-Tayeb, decolonisation means “dismantling, from an intersectional feminist and decolonial perspective, the way knowledge production and pedagogical practices perpetuate the white, male, and Eurocentric canon.” 96
The process of decolonisation requires societal transformations. As a rule, Western culture is viewed as a colonial system in which colonial continuities are hidden everywhere. The Western tradition, embodied in the so-called “old, white men”, is accused of marginalising alternative forms of knowledge with their knowledge stocks and perpetuating neocolonial oppression relations (see Science, Liberation, and Postcolonialism).97
In addition to dismantling the established canon, decolonisation also includes demands for immediate reparations, expressed with the phrase “decolonisation is not a metaphor”.98 Complete decolonisation of the USA would amount to a complete restructuring of the USA, as white American settlers stole the land from the indigenous peoples.
Decolonial activists often draw on the ideas of the postcolonial thinker Frantz Fanon: in 1961, Fanon stated in his work “The Wretched of the Earth” that decolonisation must be associated with counter- violence against the colonial rulers.99 For Fanon, decolonial violence forms a bridge to genuine emancipation.
After the end of European colonial times, many decolonial theorists take sides against the Israeli state: Jewish Israel is regarded as the last white colonial state in European tradition.100 Israel is often denied the right to self-defence, and terrorist movements like Hamas are downplayed as resistance movements. Since Israel is viewed as a white, colonial project, it should disappear in favour of an Arab state, which could enable a genocide of millions of Jews. Unsurprisingly, the Islamist massacres of 7 October were interpreted by some decolonial academics as an act of decolonisation.101