Decolonising decolonial thought: theoretical critiques from further south in the Global South

Abstract

In the last decade, decolonial thinking has been gaining momentum in the field of human sciences in Brazil, above all through the introduction of theories produced by the Modernity/Coloniality Group and Boaventura de Sousa Santos. These authors have taken centre stage in the theoretical references of academic productions with this approach, producing a sense of hegemony over an epistemology that proposes to be counter-hegemonic. The aim of this theoretical-conceptual study is to highlight the most relevant criticisms of the hegemony and centrality acquired by the Group and Boaventura de Sousa Santos: the prominence of white men, the absence of Brazilian male and female authors among its exponents, the sidelining of gender and race issues, the predilection for epistemological studies and its excessive academicist tendency. Some contributions from other decolonial voices, positioned further south in the Global South, such as Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and Ailton Krenak, are also analysed. It concludes that the existence of a hegemony in the decolonial field is an indication of the need to decolonise it, above all by seeking to listen to voices from further south in the Global South. It points to the need to bring different decolonial perspectives into radical dialogue, without fearing tensions or shying away from inflections.