“Congo” Commissie – why I will not participate in the expert group [NL/ENG]

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…

[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…

[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…

[Article] Hidden in Plain Sight: : Coloniality, Capitalism and Race/ism as Far as the Eye Can See.

A while ago I was asked by Millennium Journal of International Studies to review a line up of amazing works: Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016, 175 pp). Gloria Wekker, White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016, 226 pp.). Robbie Shilliam and…

E-IR Black History Month Interviews

28 October 2019 — To celebrate Black History Month e-IR.info asked several scholars about race and IR: Do you think the discipline of IR has made important strides to equally incorporate the research, ideas and histories of People of Colour, both conceptually and institutionally? What could be done better? Below is the interview edited by…

[op-ed] What’s There to Mourn? Decolonial Reflections on (the End of) Liberal Humanitarianism

1 January 2019 – The first issue of the brand new open access Journal of Humanitarian Affairs is out! The focus is on Humanitarianism and the Liberal Order, with contributions from Juliano Fiori (ed), Mel Bunce, Stephen Hopgood, Mark Duffield, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, David Rieff and José Luis Fiori I was asked to contribute with and…

[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…

(Radio) Touché – te gast bij Friedl’ Lesage [Dutch]

Op 17 december 2017 was ik te gast bij Friedl’ Lesage in het radio 1 programma Touché. Happy memories. Killer soundtrack 😀 herbeluister hier Anthony Hamilton- Ain’t nobody worryin’ Stevie Wonder- Free Bob Marley – Redemption Song Nusrat fateh ali Khan & Eddie Vedder – The Face Of Love uit Soundtrack Dead Man Walking Lauryn…

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…

From the Everyday to IR: In Defence of the Strategic Use of the R-word

To cite this article: Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa (2016) From the Everyday to IR: In Defence of the Strategic Use of the R-word, Postcolonial Studies, 19:2, 191-200, DOI: 10.1080/13688790.2016.1254016 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2016.1254016 Published online: 17 Jan 2017. Abstract Rather than scrutinising who is a racist or not in John Hobson’s seminal work on…

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] Radicale Vervreemding

Waarom pendelproblemen zwaarder wegen dan de afbraak van sociale zekerheid. (verscheen 27 januari 2016 op mo.be) Op 15 januari zou Martin Luther King (MLK) 87 kaarsjes hebben uitgeblazen. Het mocht niet zijn, maar de man is zoveel jaar later gelukkig nog niet vergeten. Zo hebben de Amerikanen elke tweede maandag van januari – zo dicht…