SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The term has become a mantra, but “decoloniality” has almost no precise meaning and is used as an ideological trope. It points in a “progressive” sense towards a status quo ante, almost an arcadia descended from an anti-slavery Victorian regret that colonialism had robbed the “native” of his “innocence.” It is a term brandished often in African studies, but the imperial outreach impacted most of the world. When China’s President Xi Jinping speaks of eroding Western influence, is this a form of decoloniality or a form of chauvinist imposition? If imposition, it all the same draws from a Confucian tradition in which an endless genealogy of Chinese emperors have participated. When Zambia, under the organised umbrella organisation, the United Church of Zambia, brings together both mainstream Christian religions and a host of charismatic religions that have “indigenised” Christianity, is Christianity anymore a colonial project? Is there anything at all in common between Xi and Zambian Christianity? In this essay I object to the laziness of “decoloniality” as a term of righteousness, and argue for complexity, plurality, and a means all the same of speaking together in a common language for international decency and generosity.