Anyway, All The Dogs Are Howling a POSSIBLE FUTURES Podcast Exploration 1: Basics Conversation 1: Decolonisation Lite More on this POSSIBLE FUTURES podcast at https://decolonise.possiblefutures.earth/anyway Anna Denardin: Hi, this is Anna Denardin, and you are a fly on the wall here amongst the POSSIBLE FUTURES Collective. "Decolonisation lite" is a term we have been exploring to refer to projects that either masquerade themselves as decolonial in order to advance coloniality by design, or that have decolonial intentions, but end up co-opted in their efforts to establish themselves in a colonial world order. Coloniality has seriously sophisticated self-correction mechanisms to remain relevant as the time changes. The continued consolidation of colonial hegemony is often led by appropriation and co-optation of whatever is gaining popular momentum, manipulating narratives to fit to the status quo motives, broadening and deepening system dependencies to reduce likelihood of real systems change. Mainstream discourses on decolonization often get too cozy with the very colonial systems they claim to dismantle. Coloniality knows exactly how to lure them in with its irresistible offers to safety, comfort, recognition, and of course, a fat paycheck. Coloniality peddles these luxuries while thriving on stomping out any real alternatives. Decolonisation wasn't supposed to be about endless armchair philosophizing or self-congrupulatory debates, but it seems that we are stuck in this intellectual paralysis purgatory, trapped in a foggy ideological haze where decolonisation gets watered down into something vanilla, nice and safe, because this approach to decolonisation is the most comfortable way to pretend change is happening. If the decolonial initiative is just about making the suffering of the colonised a little more bearable, then it is not fighting colonialism. It is just making it taste a little sweeter. So let's get down to basics in "decolonisation lite" through exploring these questions. What exactly do we understand as "decolonisation lite"? Does "Global South" equate to "decolonial"? Does "non-white" equate to "decolonial"? Does "DEI" equate to "decolonial"? What are the patterns and mechanisms of recolonisation? And the $1 million question, what do we understand as real decolonisation? - Samantha Suppiah: Coloniality is effective precisely because it has had 600 years of setting up systems and structures that quash every new decolonial form of practice. Co-optation within the global decolonial movement has been an extremely effective sabotage operation over the centuries. Modern Western civilization is highly effective at eliminating and managing dissent while marketing its own branded optics of democracy, justice, equality, etc. Obviously, democracy means nothing when mass media is controlled and free speech is policed. Justice means nothing when the powerful are not held accountable. Equality means nothing when our profiteering systems are based upon exploitation, oppression, and violence. This is what I mean when I say it's just optics. And yet, people believe the propaganda because they are steeped into this indoctrination since the moment they are born. That's what it means to be part of a civilization. Most folk don't start to see these realities until they have spent most of their lives' energies on feeding the system. And then by then, all they have is regret, wishful thinking, and powerlessness. Yes, the lines are blurred, but that doesn't mean that it's difficult to make a robust assessment of what is appropriation and what is decolonisation. A couple years ago, I wrote a piece on Medium discussing how to assess the difference. But I also know it means nothing when there is no accountability procedure. I think the term decolonisation lite, we have been calling it, as part of this branding. Professor Nelson Maldonado-Torres was the one who used the term "decolonisation lite" as part of our collaborations together. Personally, I thought it was a bit too cute, like some harmless little toy, when in reality it's this insidious and manipulative mechanism that profits from extractive and narcissistic colonial structures. That would be why I prefer Decolonisation Inc., as it refers primarily to motivations and mechanisms rather than something as simple as toothless intellectual philosophy for the purposes of personal branding. Decolonisation is not about narcissistic intellectualisation, so-called calling in people who don't conform to your meaningless semantics as though you have constructed them in order to impose them on others, whose realities, by the way, are not the same as yours, and do not aspire to be. - Luiza Oliveira: Decolonisation lite, for me, is the repackaging of colonisation, meaning, in simple words, recolonisation. Or even simpler, colonisation that is happening again and again, more of the same. Decolonisation lite is the repetition of co-opting a concept just for the optics. As Samantha just mentioned, where there may be some changes on the language or on how things seem to be framed, but there is no change in the core structure of the social system and [in the] dynamics themselves. There is no strategy to change in the first place, let alone accountability processes or reparation to be implemented in the short or long term. In the era where social echo chambers are amplified with social media and its algorithms, to dismantle colonialism, we first need to understand what colonialism has been and its mechanisms and evolution. And for me, this kind of understanding cannot only happen intellectually alone. Otherwise, there is no embodiment in the change. Since colonialism is present in the educational system, in the way we learn to see ourselves, our aspirations, desires, history, and [it] is enforced in our professional life, and so on. So in order to go beyond decolonisation lite, we need to learn as we practice, and practice as we learn. There is not one way to do it. There are many ways, since each context is very different. So be careful if someone says that they have a recipe for decolonisation or five steps for you to follow. This is colonisation happening again, even if they are not using this word. For starters, To be able to understand the mechanisms of colonisation, we need to be strategic and intentional in order to step out of our social bubbles. We need to become more critical about the systemic privileges we benefit from and how we have been othered by the system to better understand the bigger picture of the systems we are part of. - Anna Denardin: I totally agree with what you both said, and I think I see three main ways in which "decolonisation lite" or "Decolonization, Inc.", as Samantha mentioned, manifests. There is a version of decolonisation that lives comfortably in seminar rooms and LinkedIn thought pieces, this decolonisation as intellectual exercise. Not as a tool for dismantling empire, but as a performance that keeps empire entertained. When decolonisation is kept within the realm of the intellect, it doesn't need to confront the truth that real decolonisation demands loss from those who hold power. Actual decolonisation isn't about just talking about colonialism. It's about ending it. Another way that decolonisation lite happens is through co-optation. The initiative can start as decolonial but gets lost as it tries to establish itself within a colonial world order. This is particularly common as projects seek funding. Money holders are institutions that probably made their money through exploitative business practices or hoarded colonial wealth. And accessing this money often comes with strings attached. Projects begin to shift, to soften, to accommodate the comfort of funders and become the perfect domesticated pet. House-trained, well-behaved, never [biting] the hand that feeds it. It can also be the case of the initiative being performative from the start. This is not uncommon when we consider what Samantha said about how coloniality had centuries to set up systems and structures to sabotage and eliminate alternatives, while marketing its own branded optics, as she said. It appropriates what is gaining momentum, tweaking small parts of the system not to transform it, but to improve it, to sustain and prolong its life. Actual decolonisation is about centering the demands of those most harmed by colonisation. Indigenous rights movements have been very clear about what those are: land back, wealth back, stopping the harms, reparations, and sovereignty. [Though], decolonial work is not inclusion into a same broken system. It's about abolishing those systems. So when someone says they are doing decolonial work, some basic questions come in handy, like: - Who decided what that work looks like? - Who benefits? - Who funds it? - And who gets to walk away feeling good about it? - Samantha Suppiah: Everything you just said, Anna, is precisely why we are self-funded. This is the only way we can retain our own sovereignty, agency, and decolonial perspectives. That means the only way for us to exist in a money-based economy is if we create enough value for those with money to decide to spend it on what we offer. Bringing a topic like decolonisation into a colonial world order that is currently tightening its grip is financially suicidal. But it's also extremely necessary, particularly when we see decolonisation being muddled by Western or Global North folk who have no idea how to even relate to or center Global South's concerns, issues, and perspectives. Layers and layers of ethnocidal coloniality are fueled by Western liberal progressives. This is the crucible in which white supremacist eco-fascism was created, of which Sustainability Inc. is a part. Luiza mentioned the role of social echo chambers in amplifying and feeding this dynamic via white supremacist social media platforms. Social media is built upon manufacturing emotional extremes amongst their user base in order to generate data that powers their business models. It also sells censorship to the highest bidder. We have seen this in many ways, especially in the silencing of pro-Palestinian perspectives since 2023, especially. And yet, few of us who seek to do real work within the global decolonial movement can exist without the low-cost tools of outreach that social media provides. There are many hurdles for the global decolonial movement, and yet Decolonisation Inc. is not even new. Colonisers have long sought to co-opt decolonial perspectives, interventions, and movements. The aim is to either benefit from them, or to destroy them, using stolen colonial wealth to do so. We need to be clear-eyed around how coloniality is evolving and developing. There are many ways to learn in quiet and learn out loud, but amongst these ways, there are also inappropriate ways, harmful ways, and ineffective ways. We ourselves, POSSIBLE FUTURES, are regularly misappropriated, insulted, and stolen from. This is why we have boundaries and we are active at communicating and maintaining them. Things would look very different if we had strong legal backing. It would look very different if we had strong industry backing. This is probably the top of my wish list for POSSIBLE FUTURES right now. One thing that Decolonisation, Inc. will never do is to center or credit or pay Global Core. Global Core are, of course, those in the, Global South most harmed by coloniality. Indigenous rights movements, Global South, anti-imperialist movements, the peasant movement, the urban poor movement, these are the folk who are due colonial reparations as a first priority. And we count our partners amongst these movements. Decolonisation Inc. will not even seek Right Relationship with Global Core, simply because they don't understand why it's necessary to change themselves that much. - Luiza Oliveira: There is so much in what you both mentioned that is so often overlooked or dismissed by coloniality, for coloniality. For example, when people don't see the difference between performance and reparation, or when people are quick to critique others without understanding their own privileges, biases, and the both standards. Or when the voices and histories of those most harmed by coloniality continue to be silenced, and they are not part of the discussion, let alone decision-making processes related to possible reparations. And I think this is where many people get confused, or use confusion, to get comfortable in their wishful thinking or blinded ignorance, and continue to promote coloniality when they state that either Global South or non-White perspectives are equivalent to decolonial perspectives, or that their DEI work is equal to decolonial work. Be careful. These are not the same. You can find many examples about these dynamics and how they are not the same in either Paulo Freire's work, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Pedagogy of Freedom, and Fanon's work in Black Skin, White Masks, for example, where both share different situations and contexts, where the oppressed internalises the oppression they endure and become the oppressor themselves. So be attentive when people state that they do DEI work or I'm from Global South, so my work is implicitly decolonial, because this is not necessarily true. Again, as Anna said earlier, who is part of the discussion? Who is part of the decision-making process? Who is benefiting from these processes? What accountability processes are being implemented? What reparations are being made? How this is grounded in reality? How this is relevant, so it is not lost in intellectualisation? Again, there is no one right answer for these questions. Contexts are different, people have different life experiences, needs are different. We are part of a dynamic nature, and to look for one answer that fits all is to continue to perpetuate harm, since it is a way to cultivate an universal truth that promotes hegemonic perspectives. - Anna Denardin: I completely agree with you, Luiza. You can be from Global South and still serve empire. You can be black or brown and still uphold the master's house. Why? Because internalised coloniality is real. Because career incentives reward assimilation. Because visibility is too often mistaken for liberation. This is what Paulo Freire and Fanon warned us about, as Luiza was saying. The oppressed can become the oppressor when they adopt colonial logic to gain access, power, and proximity to whiteness or Western legitimacy. What is the cost of being legible to systems of power? Decolonial work often gets lost in translation because it's trying to be acceptable to institutions that are themselves colonial in origin and form. When your decolonial work starts being praised by those who profit from coloniality, it's time to check who you are really serving. The Zapatistas, Fanon, indigenous movements across the Global South have already highlighted that decoloniality is grounded in land, history, memory, and repair. It involves refusal, not just reform. And it requires living differently, not just thinking differently. So, as we are seeing here, representation is not reparation. Diversity is not justice. Inclusion is not transformation. - Samantha Suppiah: Global South, BIPOC, BAME, non-white, all these labels and identifiers do not refer to that which is inherently decolonial by default. Decolonisation is not about diversity, equity, or inclusion. Decolonisation is not about non-white folk having representation within, and sharing in the profits and benefits of, violent and oppressive white supremacist systems like globalized, extractive, or disaster capitalism. Decolonisation is about abolishing white supremacist systems like globalized, extractive, or disaster capitalism. Decolonisation is about justice and reparations for colonial harms past, present, and future, and ensuring that colonial systems end forever. In itself, it does not include nor require at any step of the way performative representation like diversity, equity, and inclusion. The fears and insecurities of white supremacist ideology, narratives, and systems are real because the decolonial movement is indeed a serious threat to coloniality. Coloniality tightens its grip even as it crumbles apart, spawning maggots that cannibalize itself, expanding its reach as its core rots away. - POSSIBLE FUTURES Crew: This is Luiza Oliveira. This is Samantha Suppiah. This is Anna Denardin. Anyway, all the dogs are howling.