Reconstituting the ‘Founding Fathers’ of Humanities: A Black Radical Decolonial Turn

 

 

 

In this paper I firstly provide a historical context and account of the onto-epistemic coloniality deeply embedded in the Enlightenment period in Europe, also known as the Age of Reason to explicate how Euro-North American ‘Founding Fathers’ of Humanities has always been entangled in white settler colonial conquest and epistemic violence. Secondly, I then discuss the Euro-North American ‘Founding Fathers’ of Humanities disciplines and how their work continues to be foundational and hegemonic canons taught in the Faculty of Humanities at in a South African university. As Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2020, p. 143) states, “at the centre of humanities, as a field of study, lurks the contested idea of the human - the very question of being human and its meaning. The core subject of the humanities constitutes the state of being human. Because of colonization of knowledge and being human itself, the humanities became haunted by a difficult onto-epistemic question” (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2020, p. 143). Additionally, this paper also shows how black academics struggle and grapple with de-centering the Euro-North American male ‘Founding Fathers’ of Humanities disciplines as foundational canons in their respective departments. In addition, this paper also examines decolonial attempts of black academics in re-centering the scholarship of black, African and women scholars as they rethink their curricula and teaching and learning.  

 

 

 

Reconstituting Humanities, A Black Radical Decolonial Turn.