#decolonial thought

[letter2bledi]

It’s 2025 and people still say “colonialism is over, move on” it makes me sick. It’s always voices untouched by the wounds, speaking over Africa as if they knew anything, dismissing what they never had to live. That’s when it hits me: the decolonial fight isn’t behind us it’s now. We’re still breathing its impact, while those with zero legitimacy keep downplaying it. It fuels my anger, but it also reminds me why I’ll never stop speaking the truth.

[ninthwhisperinguts]

i will write an essay about it, but to all of you who read/watch Frankenstein and think it's so astronomically unbelievable that someone would write a novel about rejection and abandonment, and only look into white straight cis abled european, mostly men, authors to inform the psychological and philosophical aspects of such scenarios: 1) step the fuck up 2) read BIPOC authors. black, indigenous, asian, latin-american authors have written extensively about this and I'm sick and tired of seeing questions deemed "unanswered" and "new" when a bunch of ppl have thought about this already. the fact that mary shelley herself was a 18 year old woman when she started writing this is enough to tell you that ppl outside of the norm know about this ever since they enter the social world, heck, sometimes even before it.

and I'm also sick and tired of white feminism informed ppl acting like bc a story has a man as main character it can't be feminist bc 1) contradicts the original text 2) shallows down what feminist authors can do. thinking about gender also involves thinking about how men are raised to perpetrate violence and exploitation, and how they themselves are violated and exploited. the same way, thinking about whiteness informs how white ppl are also affected by this system. at the end of the day, these movements are talking about the several ways dehumanization happens, and how it harms our relationships with others and with ourselves. the mechanisms it uses, because it's by questioning it that we can find ways to change it.

with that being said, be fucking for real and start reading and listening to BIPOC, women, queer and disabled ppl in philosophy and psychology. stop relying only onto european/us authors.

if i see someone again acting like it's so fucking groundbreaking to think ab the ontological and existential implications of social constructed rejection, abandonment and violence, and using only an european/us author as a reference, and acting like these questions are a mystery, it'll throw Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon on their head

[krista-venka]

We must not tell ourselves that the indeterminate, the uncertain, the un-obvious, is a weakness. We must say to ourselves that it opens our minds to unexpected forms of complexities. The Tremulous thought is not a thought out of fear, scared thinking, it is a thought that is opposed to systematic thinking. All the poets have said it. The gasping, the breathing, the pulse, the misfortunes, the fears, the insane hopes, and the sterile obsessions. All of these need to be relearned and remixed. The poetics of this endeavor seems more important than the categories of quick thinking, that lead to definitive and fixed conclusions. We understand the world better if we tremble with it.

Édouard Glissant in One World In Relation (2010), Manthia Diawara. Film.

[cognitivejustice]

[raffaellopalandri]

Who is responsible for African underdevelopment

From today’s Book of the Day, I have selected one sentence for a multidisciplinary analysis. “The question as to who and what is responsible for African underdevelopment can be answered at two levels: first, the operation of the imperialist system bears major responsibility for African economic retardation.” — Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) Walter Rodney’s observation in…

[saboramii]

Sobriety is decolonial

Sobriety disengages Empire

Addiction is trauma decontextualized!

[letter2bledi]

I have come to see the lingering effects of colonization not just in structures or territories, but in the very psyche of societies. White supremacy today is often conscious. Those who benefit from systemic privilege are aware of it, and many wield it deliberately. It is not merely unconscious bias; it is a learned entitlement embedded in history, reinforced socially, and performed with confidence.

Colonization is no longer only territorial. It exists in behaviors, interactions, and social hierarchies. Franz Fanon, in « Peau noire,masques blancs (1952), articulates this precisely: the colonizer asserts dominance consciously, shaping the mental, social, and emotional life of the colonized. The colonized internalizes these hierarchies, sometimes unknowingly, sometimes under coercion. This is what I see in my everyday life, in academic settings, in social spaces, and even in intimate encounters.

For instance, at my university, a French white professor heads the Malagasy department. Her authority is not just institutional; it is performative. She infantilizes us, crosses personal boundaries, and enjoys the visibility of her superiority. Her actions illustrate how colonial hierarchies survive in education, where the supposed merit of local expertise is overshadowed by her racial and social position. These dynamics are a direct manifestation of what Fanon describes: the conscious colonizer and the colonized conditioned to navigate their subordination.

This extends beyond the academy. White travelers, professionals, or acquaintances often unconsciously replicate colonial power dynamics. They impose norms, disregard local knowledge, and assert entitlement. This is not innocent; it is deliberate socialization. What is most dangerous is how these behaviors shape the minds of the colonized, teaching us to accept subordination, to admire those who dominate, and to internalize inferiority.

I perceive these patterns not only in personal interactions but also in the global context of Africa. The continent’s history of resource extraction, cultural suppression, and territorial domination has left deep psychological scars. Healing and development cannot occur without addressing the mental colonization that persists. African liberation is not just about sovereignty over land or resources; it is about reclaiming consciousness, resisting inherited hierarchies, and reconstructing identities free from imposed inferiority.

My lived experiences as a racialized woman in Europe illustrate this everyday colonial logic. I have encountered people who exploit trust, space, and kindness, consciously asserting superiority simply because of their whiteness. These are not isolated incidents; they are part of a broader social mechanism that has endured for centuries, continuously shaping interactions and self-perceptions.

Recognizing this, refusing to internalize it, and reclaiming agency is a form of resistance. It is through conscious awareness, self-deconstruction, and Pan-African solidarity that we can begin to dismantle both the structural and psychological residues of colonization. Africa’s healing, our liberation, and the reshaping of our futures depend on it.

[raffaellopalandri]

Living the Interdependent Self: From Conceptual Realisation to Embodied Wisdom - Part 2

In the first movement of this exploration, we confronted the illusion at the core of modern subjectivity: the atomised, sovereign, self-determining individual — the Cartesian res cogitans reanimated through liberalism, capitalism, and the psy-disciplines. Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com We traced how this idealised subject, far from being a neutral construction, is inextricably entangled…

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