Dr. Anthony Idoko Okpanachi

Fellow during the winter term 2019/20

Project: Border Thinking as a Model of Postcolonial Epistemology

There is no question that epistemology as theory of knowledge is at the heart of relationship between the Global North and the Global South in the context of World Systems analysis. While there have been various propositions regarding the most viable way forward for postcolonial states majorly in Africa, postcolonial epistemology stands out as one of the most significant theme if indeed these postcolonial states are to significantly reinvent social emancipation on a global scale. The idea is basically that the epistemic beliefs and habits of the people in the postcolonial states are crucially implicated in the success and/or failure of the sort of knowledge produced, the knowledge of nation-building included. Various theories have been developed in this context but the one that has a lot of currency today is the theory of border thinking first used by Gloria Analzadua but profoundly articulated by Walter Mignolo, a leftist postcolonial critic of modernity, whose aim is to be open to thinking other than modernity. In this theory, Mignolo articulates the ways that the epistemology of subaltern is still burdened with the relics of coloniality many years after the decolonisation of these political territories. This situation therefore warrants a decolonisation of the epistemology of the erstwhile colonies. To attain this goal, Mignolo proposes the theory of border thinking. This theory is the focus of this research effort. To what extent can a radically anti-capitalist epistemology be developed from an African standpoint? This project intends to investigate the feasibility of border thinking from an African epistemological perspective, by critically appraising border thinking in Mignolo vis-à-vis the African predicament and various attempts made to better the lots of Africa within the larger global context. This project is pertinent since the received systems and structure of knowledge production is largely inefficient in making for a robust understanding and appreciation of the African identity within the colonial and postcolonial experiences. Thus, while the work seeks to enrich the available systems of knowledge production; the aim here is to critically evaluate the adequacy of border thinking as a model epistemology of postcolonial states; especially as it relates to the African context. This is purely a theoretical work and library research with special bias for use of analytical, critical and evaluative tools of philosophy.