21 July 2020 – On July 17th 2020 I was officially invited to become a member of the expert group that is to assist the Special Commission of the Belgian Parliament tasked with: “het onderzoek over Congo-Vrijstaat (1885 – 1908) en het Belgisch koloniaal verleden in Congo (1908-1960), Rwanda en Burundi (1919-1962), de impact hiervan…
Tag: Africa
[video] On the Ruins of Epistemicide
Decolonising Westernised Solidarity through Epistemic Blackness (JIAS Seminar) In Februari 2020 I embarked on a stimulating Writing Fellowship at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies (JIAS) in Johannesburg, South Africa. On 18 March 2020 I got the chance to present my work in progress – a monograph for the special book series Kilombo, of Rowman…
The corona pandemic blows the lid off the idea of Western superiority
Anticolonial Solidarity in times of Pest and Cholera [this op-ed was originally written in Dutch and published on March 23, 2020 by MO* Magazine here] Olivia U. Rutazibwa looks at the spread of the corona virus in Europe from a great distance as she is on a writing retreat at the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced…
[Video] Interview Zwijgen is Geen Optie
** now with English and Dutch subtitles** (massive thanks to Sam de Vocht). In September 2019 I was blessed to sit down with Anthony Bosschem and Tom Mahy from Zwijgen is geen optie (‘Not speaking up is not an option’) – I forgot how gratifying it is to sit across from people who actually want to…
On Babies and Bathwater – full TEXT
On December 7th 2017 I gave a Sussex Development Lecture in which I offer a conversation between personal experiences, reflections and decolonial scholarship to reflect on the fundamental, practical, institutional and epistemological implications of recognising the coloniality in the international development project. When we seek to part with the coloniality but not with the desire…
[Video] On Babies and Bathwater: Decolonising Development Studies
In this Sussex Development Lecture (7 December 2017), I offer a conversation between personal experiences, reflections and decolonial scholarship to reflect on the fundamental, practical, institutional and epistemological implications of recognising the coloniality in the international development project. When we seek to part with the coloniality but not with the desire and imperative of global…
Letter from my student. Why #DecolonisingEducation matters.
This is a letter I received from one of my graduating undergrad students in International Development Studies this July 21, 2017 at the University of Portsmouth. However deeply flattering (as well as resonating so much with my own journey) these words are to me personally, this ain’t no bragging exercise. I share my student’s words…
Migration and the Need to Decolonize (Hegemonic Thought)
(This short piece was written in the Summer of 2016 for the Global Dialogues publication of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg, Germany during my visiting Fellowship there. You find the full publication here.) Looking at the world from and in Europe today, the old continent seems to be grappling with…
[MO* Column] Lessen solidariteit, soevereiniteit & democratie liggen buiten Europa
(verscheen op MO*.be op 16/07/2015) Onder een loodzware hemel, tussen de miezerige regendruppels door, haast ik me over de Portsmouth-Damm brug. Ik ben op weg naar mijn eigenste ‘it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day’ en het poetisch toeval wil dat net dan Lauryn Hill, Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ mijn oren in zingt. (Het…
Back to Basics: Decolonizing Democracy in Africa
Introduction Not dissimilar to the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ protests that spread across the Middle East and North Africa in early2011, at the beginning of the 1990s, sub-Saharan Africans came to the streets to protest against hardship. People had been facing the structural adjustment programmes promoted by the international financial institutions (IFIs) in the 1980s, the…
Afscheid van Integratie [Speech/TEXT] – Open Forum Dag
Keynote Speech tijdens de Open Forum Dag van het Minderheden Forum – 29 maart 2014, Vlaams Parlmenent, Brussel. Proloog Laat me beginnen met het volgende: ik ben heel blij dat ik het woord tot jullie mag richten vandaag, en dit op de hoogdag van het Minderhedenforum. Het is al even geleden dat ik in het…
[IB Speech – TEXT] THE DECOLONIZATION OF OUR STORYTELLING
(Speech delivered at the International Baccalaureate (IB) Peterson Academic Symposium in The Hague, the Netherlands, July 5-6, 2012 for an international audience of educators and curriculum developers. http://www.ibo.org) Good morning everyone. It is a real pleasure to be here in this setting to reflect on what to teach young people and children, on what we…
// Olivia U. Rutazibwa 