SMUS Podcast Special: Decolonial Thinking with Prof. Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni

This 5-episode podcast special offers insights on decolonisation from Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni a leading decolonial theorist with over a hundred publications in the fields of African history, African politics, African development and decolonial theory.

We invite you to listen to the episodes and explore the accompanying resources, including reading lists, maps, and timelines, to deepen your understanding of decolonisation, The interview series is also available as an 11-part video series.

Listen to the podcast special on Spotify here. Explore the 5 episodes below.

Episode 1

In this first episode, Prof. Ndlovu Gatsheni defines decolonisation and introduces decolonial theory from a structural, epistemic and personal perspective.

Episode 2

In this second episode about structural decolonisation, Prof. Sabelo Ndlovu Gatsheni discusses how the terms anticolonial, decolonial and postcolonial differ. Prof. Sabelo Ndlovu Gatsheni and Pinky Ndlovu then discuss how the term decolonisation is being used as a metaphor for change and why decolonisation is necessary.

Episode 3

In this third episode, we hear Prof. Ndlovu Gatsheni highlight that all humans are born into legitimate knowledge systems and why it is necessary to reclaim this knowledge without disregarding other sources of knowledge, through epistemic decolonisation. He then states that to address some of the most pressing crises we currently face, such as climate change, we need to draw on various sources of knowledge or “ecologies of knowledge”.

Episode 4

In this fourth episode, Prof. Ndlovu Gatsheni looks at how being human itself was colonised through the colonial matrices of power with some individuals being at the top of an invisible social pyramid and others at the bottom.

Episode 5

In the last episode, Prof. Ndlovu Gatsheni reflects on the state of decolonisation in Africa and talks about scholars and movements that have inspired him as a decolonial thinker.