Decolonial Options in Higher Education

Cracks and Fissures

Edited by Prof. Sinfree Makoni, Chanel van der Merwe

Publication date:

10 June 2025

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

245x174mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9781836680888

In order for decolonisation to avoid becoming yet another orthodoxy, this book argues that it is necessary to recognise the neoliberal ideologies and imperatives that drive so much work in universities in both the Global Norths and Global Souths, and to understand the enmeshment (both historical and ongoing) of universities in colonial practices. The chapters interrogate both these issues and the terms in which they are usually critiqued in order to identify the cracks and fissures within institutions that may enable decolonisation to be leveraged as a praxis and a means of radical change. The chapters explore a range of issues across Higher Education including reparations, allyship, soft power, academic publishing and the politics of race within the university; together they represent an argument for the necessity of continually rethinking and re-making the theories, methods and assumptions of decolonisation.

Contributors

André Keet: Foreword

Sinfree Makoni and Chanel van der Merwe: Introduction: Decolonial Options in Higher Education: Cracks and Fissures

1. Horace G. Campbell: Reparations and the University in the 21st Century

2. Jonathan Jansen: How Institutions Defang Radical Curriculum Ideas: The Fate of Decolonization in South African Universities

3. Tshepo Madlingozi: Decoloniality as the Forging of Communities of Critical Consciousness or Beloved Communities

4. Pedro Mzileni, Sinfree Makoni and Chanel van der Merwe: Interlude: A Conversation with Dr Pedro Mzileni

5. Shirley Anne Tate: The Impossibility of Black–White Feminist Allyship: A Summary

6. Raewyn Connell: The Good University

7. Kenneth King: China and India’s Higher Education Cooperation with Africa: Cultural Diplomacy and Soft Power

8. Diana Jeater: Imperial Standards in African Publishing

9. Adam Habib: Structural Racism, Social Change and the Politics of Race in Universities in the United Kingdom

Cécile B. Vigouroux: Epilogue

Index

Profound and complex explorations of decoloniality in academia are needed and this timely volume offers them. Scholars from across the globe critique institutional racism, advocate for inclusive knowledge production, and emphasize the need for global solidarity and transformative education. This volume is essential reading for understanding and probing decolonial praxis.