“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…

[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…

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…

Het bruingemaakte vrouwenlijf: intiem kruispunt van geweld

(This essay was first published online on March 1st 2017 on MO*.be and written for the Spring print edition of MO* Magazine.) Er is een bijna obsessionele aandacht voor “de bevrijding van moslimvrouwen” in Europa, maar tegelijk lijkt men vaak niet geïnteresseerd in de vraag of al die aandacht islamitische en gekleurde vrouwen echt vooruithelpt….

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…

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…