I have been greatly influenced by scholars such as Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (Decolonizing the Mind) Edward Said (Orientalism) and Asish Nandy (Exiled at Home) who were all speaking about how to deal with the aftermath of European colonisation. All these scholars are 'indigenous' to the site of colonial impact which was their lands and waterways.

If you mean 'Indigenous' in the sense of people with sui generis rights who have been subsumed into new nation state formations of majority non-indigenous people then the language has been more about self-determination, treaty and sovereignty with an aspect of 'decolonization' as a strategy to overcome colonial thinking....hope this helps!

Zane

Thank you Zane for your helpful comment. It helps to know so I know I have to cite these references carefully, appropriately, and precisely.

In the Latin American case, there are two points of introduction of "decolonial" ideas. The offical one, academic and influenced by the Indian postcoloniality. This one started in the early 1990, building up on the fundaments of dependency theory and others. Here, you find Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo and others.

The other way started in the 1960s and 1970s within the indigenous movements. Indianism, as Fausto Reinaga (http://www.faustoreinaga.org/) and -later- others proposed has strong decolonial contents - even if the term "decolonial" is not used. This line of thinking also influenced intellectuals, such as Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui.

So, as a concept, decoloniality is clearly non-indigenous. As a set of ideas, it clearly is. At least in Latin America.

Philipp, you are knowledgeable about indigenous studies. Thank you for your always helpful feedback. Your introduction is instrumental to begin engaging these great contributors and their works. Many thanks!

I would take into consideration Frantz Fanon as well, with contributions since 1952, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Skin,_White_Masks

Albert Memmi (the Colonizer and the Colonized)

Hi! The adequate answer to your question depends on how narrow your understanding of the concept is. If you mean its intellectual use in social scientific literature, it may be a quite modern term that - in its current understanding - was coined in the first half of the 20th century, for example in the francophone négritude movement (Fanon, Césaire, and others). As a political term, however, it is much older; that does not necessarily mean that the English concept itself (i.e., "decolonization") shows up literally, but that its meaning shows up as an essential part of political argumentation, reflexion, and stretegy. In this latter sense, you can find the topic  treated in early Greek and Indian political texts (e.g., Thucydides' "Peleponnesian War" or Kautilya's "Arthashastra"). Of course, there are many more ancient contributions of various cultural origin.

I am adding this remark because one central aspect of decolonization is the critical reflection not only of the colonization of territory but also - and even more - of the minds of the colonized people. Part of this "mental" colonization might be our tendency to start with "Western" concepts and look for their origins that are then "miraculously" found in "Western" traditions of thought, which are by the way indigenous themselves. In order to work on the decoloniszation of our minds, it might be helpful to look into non-Western contributions and into contributions of times past when there was no "West" as we know it today.

By the way, I think that the political writings of Mohandas K. Gandhi reflect most of what I would like to convey here.

bear in mind that some forms of decolonization are not recorded in history because they are part of the oral tradition. You have several instances of this in Africa and the rest of the world, where 'indigenous' cultures had to fight for self-determination and reclamation of land and knowledges.

A recent event underlies this. People from the APY lands in Central Australia presented an artwork to the official site of Australia's commemoration for its soldiers who died in battle - registering the loss of indigenous lives in the battles against European colonisers. This is the first time that the colonial wars have registered in any way in the scope of this institution. The article appeared in the 17th November edition of The Canberra Times

Whilst this doesn't answer your question directly, Raewyn Connell's book Southern Theory provides a well-argued and researched view of the history of sociology in parallel to the history of northern empires (British, French, US etc) in context of how knowledge in social sciences might be decolonisefor a discussion aboutd (2007, Allen and Unwin).

Hello,

If you are still looking for context, "Open Veins of Latin America” by Eduardo Galeano has been considered by many Latin American revolutionaries as a foundational source. You could categorize Galeano’s book with Césaire’s texts and Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth" as 'manifestos’. Manifestos started the pushback against colonialism. Common themes include: agitators, asymmetries (top, power, hierarchy / bottom, rendered weak, inferior), pluralism, and altruism.

Most notably, these authors used nationalism in order to raise minority status, violence, and pan-movements of the oppressed. They began during the 1960-70s and were heavily influenced by Marx and existentialism.

It should be noted that these ‘manifestos’ were written within oppressive colonial societies, while post-colonialism was born as a more austere, academic practice in the West.

I believe that "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire back in 1968 was a huge part of getting that discourse started.

Decolonisation has been the ongoing struggle of those colonised not only for 'material' freedom but to "Emancipate themselves from mental slavery" because in fact none but ourselves can free our minds. That was and has been THE project. In this context I should very much like to thank Pradeep Chakkarath for his comment distinguishing "its social scientific use". I understand the (European?) academic preoccupation with finding "a" scholar who can be posited with parenthood but this is a collective process. It distresses me to see and hear what Fanon, CLR James, Galeano, the Yunupingu brothers, Oodgeroo Noonucul struggle/d for theorised in ways that silences other sources. Thank you Violet Lunga. May I stress that those named are only a few and that they stand on the shoulders of those in their communities who have struggled not only to retain, reclaim and resist but to refashion

"One should pay attention to the fact that those who demand the 'decolonization' of knowledge are generally among the most ignorant while the best and brightest make no such demands." https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/how-did-this-come-to-pass