Beyond Epistemology Beyond Epistemology: Challenges and Pitfalls in Decolonizing Knowledge Production

An ambitious initiative to reform tertiary education in South Africa recommended a ‘transformative plan towards a post-imperial and post-colonial relationship to the world of knowledge’. However, while Eurocentrism is mentioned as an obstacle, neither epistemology nor the institutional structures of higher learning are questioned in principle. This reflects the limits of system-immanent approaches. In contrast, the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall campaigns on campuses indicated that further serious efforts were required. Epistemological changes are a step in the aspired direction, but it is argued that they fall short of decolonisation if the structural constraints in a society reproduce the former class- (and gender-) related patterns of dominance. The mission remains unaccomplished if a ‘decolonial’ or ‘post-colonial’ epistemology is cultivated in the inherited structures of dominance, privilege and discrimination. Positionalities matter. This article summarises the underlying patterns of Eurocentric dominance and its pitfalls, with the aim of highlighting the challenges beyond epistemological decolonisation.