This edited volume critically examines the coloniality of humanity and how it affects colonized and racialized people in both the Global South and Global North.
The contributors reveal how ongoing geopolitical power imbalances are rooted in colonial histories and colonial structures which perpetuate global inequalities. The volume explores how these entrenched colonial systems intersect with gender, class, disability, and other social factors, often overlooked in mainstream discussions of global inequality. By synthesizing empirical research and theoretical perspectives on race and colonialism across various historical and geographical contexts, it emphasizes the importance of combining postcolonial research with decolonial praxis. Through the perspectives of scholars and activists from the Global South, the book aims to decolonize knowledge production and challenge the continuing dominance of coloniality.
Table of Contents Introduction: Epistemological and Political Implications of Analyzing the Coloniality of Humanity by Robel Afeworki Abay, Isabelle Ihring, and Faisal M. Garba Section I: Silencing the Colonial Past Foreword by Vanessa E. Thompson Chapter 1: ‘Transgressive’ Mobility and the Structuring of Space and Belonging by Rose Jaji Chapter 2: Coloniality in Refugee/Forced Migration and Health Research: Reflections on Complicity and Disobedience by Diana Podar and Yudit Namer Chapter 3: Can the African subaltern speak? The Colonial Legacies of Racial Hierarchies in Times of COVID-19 by Robel Afeworki Abay and Nomaswazi Mthombeni Chapter 4: The Neglected Colonial Legacy of the 1951 Refugee Convention by Edwin O. Abuya, Ulrike Krause, and Lucy Mayblin Chapter 5: The Construction of the ‘West’ and the ‘Rest’ Reloaded by Isabelle Ihring and Faisal M. Garba Chapter 6: Self-Determination under Coloniality: Cultivating Open-mindedness in South-North Relationships by Jacques Zannou Section II: Understanding the Postcolonial Present Foreword by Nomaswazi Mthombeni Chapter 7: Can Human Rights Help [re]build Community? by Oche Onazi Chapter 8: The Paradigm of the Camp: COVID-19 and Pandemic Politics in Racialized Capitalism by Robel Afeworki Abay, Tanja Kleibl, Caroline Schmitt and Nikos Xypolytas Chapter 9: Examining the Colonial and Apartheid Socio-economic Intersectionalities during COVID-19 in South Africa : Implications for Social Policy and Social Justice by Minenhle Matela and Ndangwa Noyoo Chapter 10: From the Kitchen Table to the Streets: Queer of Colour Reflections on Racial Capitalism by Jin Haritaworn Chapter 11: School as a Place of Self-experience: Knowledge about Racism from the Perspective of Subjects Who Experience Racism in Germany by Yasmina Gandouz-Touati, Veronika Kourabas, and Paul Mecheril Chapter 12: The Transatlantic Trade with Enslaved People: Dehumanizing Effects of Slavery and Colonialism upon the Enslaved People by Joseph Wolsing Chapter 13: When the Circle is Closing: On the Motivation of People of African Descent to Leave Their Home Countries to Live in Ghana by Isabelle Ihring Section III: Imagining the Decolonial Future Foreword by Céline Barry Chapter 14: Resistance and Creating Spaces for Transformation with Smai Tawi/Kemetic Yoga in Germany by Cassandra Ellerbe Chapter 15: The Importance of Transnational Solidarity in Shaping the Decolonization of Social Work by Janet Ananias and Ursula Kämmerer-Ru¨tten Chapter 16: Conversation with the Specters of the Camp: Thinking Refugee Resistance through the Lens of the Mass Strike and Convivial Futurity by Céline Barry Chapter 17: Decolonizing Development Studies: Social Work in the African Perspective and Social Work Considerations in Africa by Zeldah U. Rukambe and Utjiua I. Ndjoonduezu Chapter 18: Exploring Transformative Relationships towards Decolonizing Social Work Education in Sylhet and Frankfurt by Chaitali Das and Tulshi Kumar Das Index About the Editors About the Contributors
Robel Abay is sociologist and visiting professor of disability studies at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin. Isabelle Ihring is professor of social work with a focus on youth at the Evangelische Hochschule Freiburg. Faisal M. Garba is associate professor of sociology at the University of Cape Town and associate professor of sociology, migration and mobility at the Africa Institute, Sharjah.
Reviews for The Coloniality of Humanity: Disrupting Racialized Capitalism and Fostering Transnational Solidarity
This volume offers a powerful transnational intervention into the persistent structures of coloniality that shape our current moment. Bringing together scholars and practitioners from across the Global South and North, it critically examines the geopolitics of racialized capitalism, migration regimes, and epistemic violence. The editors have curated a timely and urgent collection that resists the reductive framing of decolonization as metaphor and instead insists on accountability, relationality, and material transformation. It’s a valuable resource for those committed to unsettling dominant knowledge systems and imagining liberatory futures rooted in both refusal and solidarity. * K. Bailey Thomas, University of Rhode Island *
