Decolonial Subversions

This essay examines the concept of the 'failed state' from a theoretical and empirical perspective arguing that the false characterisation of Somalia as a failed state has severe consequences on the future of state building. The popularization of 'failed state' in the political lexicon has proven to be problematic when analysing states such as Somalia, as the term has inbuilt contradictions and inconsistencies that makes it worthless as a political tool for analysis yet have severe and tangible consequences on state building. This article aims to debunk the myth of 'failed states' from a theoretical perspective by exposing the legacy of coloniality in statehood and the role of external agents in destabilizing Somalia, drawing on Constructivist and Post-Colonial theory to do so. Domestic state building projects in Somalia are repeatedly undermined and destabilized because the label of 'failure' has restricted the notion of governance to conform to a Western ideal. The Somali context demonstrates that the clan, a historic entity of socio-political order, and Islam are legitimate sources of governance and security beyond the state. By exploring indigenous state building projects, with a tight focus on clannism and the Islamic Court Union (ICU) movement, Somalia proves to be an arena for competing political realities showcasing that the reality of the situation is more complex than initially thought. This article examines the implications of using the 'failed state' as an approach, concluding that processes of state building are Western and extremely particular, and need to actively integrate the Somali identity in processes of state building and as such how governance is conceptualized needs to be re-evaluated.

The biomedical paradigm, characterised by the separation of human from nature, of mind from body, and of 'us' from 'them', is encrusted with the jewels of western exploitation. Its legacy, one of many, has been to permit critical thinking to be infused with the domination of scientific knowledge over indigenous knowledge, of expert experience over patient experience, and of western knowledge over knowledge from other regions. Planetary sustainability has put us all into an uncomfortable liminal space where there is an urgent need to develop new ways of thinking to navigate the complexity and uncertainties of the Anthropocene. The decolonization/dismantling of the historically biased, epistemically rigid, hierarchical thinking that has led us to the brink of environmental collapse must re-centre a more 'nomadic' or 'rhizomic' type of thinking that works against the grain of traditional western categories and conventional methods, making breathing space for experiential person-centred, ecological wisdom to blossom. What might this look like for global health and academia? Practicing medicine using an ecological lens; a system with geographically diverse representation in the authorship of scientific literature; methodological diversity in the top journals, placing qualitative research, stories and art on an equal footing with Randomised Controlled Trials; and editorial boards composed in part of lay members. A more inclusive academe, through Cultural Safety, where works from patients, service users, indigenous community voices are published alongside and co-produced with expert/professional communities is a step in the right direction.

‘Decent work’ is a concept, which seeks to promote opportunities where all workers are entitled to employment security, freedom, equality, recognition and dignity. This paper presents an attempt to understand decent work deficit conditions amongst urban informal workers who occupy two different economic sectors in the Bulawayo central business district. The study applies the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index as its theoretical framework to understand the differences between the two groups of informal workers. The findings indicate that, for the sampled informal workers, decent work meant work related improvements, insurances and risk management, right of expression and business advancement skills, all of which closely resembles the International Labour Organisation’s conceptualisation of decent work. The findings also highlighted that childcare assistance and disability insurance are concepts, which remain excluded from the current conceptualisation of decent work in the Zimbabwean context. The survey findings revealed that food vendors scored poorly on the decent work deficit index compared to the clothing traders. The paper offers a new policy angle, which shows that, to advance decent work, the
concept of heterogeneity must be incorporated into informal economy analysis. The paper also advances the postulation that the Edward Webster Decent Work Deficit Index can be used as an appropriate methodology for monitoring progress towards achieving decent work standards at the micro level.

In apartheid South Africa, the Afrikaner government imposed Afrikaans throughout the country (Roberge, 2002) and used indigenous languages to divide the population. In 1953, the Bantu Education Act created a parallel school system for Black people (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2016; Msila, 2007; Nkondo, 1979) and in Bantu schools mother tongue instruction functioned as a barrier to higher education. Regarding this, Tollefson (2015) argues that language policies are key to reproducing or resolving inequalities. Once apartheid ended, nine indigenous languages became official; the School Act of 1996 unified the school system, and the Language Policy in Education of 1997 established the use of three official languages in schools. However, as this paper demonstrates, English (introduced in colonial times) and Afrikaans are still dominant, thus showing the colonial legacy. In this opinion paper, the language policy of a traditional, prestigious school in Cape Town is investigated to show the relevance of language policies and ideologies (Woolard, 2016) to decolonising the curriculum and to highlight how the roles assigned to each language cast light on the school's commitment to decolonisation and multilingualism. This investigation supports Cooper's (1989) assertion that the language of instruction tends to be used as a competition ground for the elites. The analysis was based on a qualitative approach (Vasilachis, 2016) using a virtual ethnographic study (Hine, 2004).

The aim of the present article is to introduce and discuss the decolonial vision of the Brazilian philosopher, Djamila Ribeiro, through an analysis of her books, O que é lugar de fala? (2017) and Pequeno manual antirracista (2019). In particular, I want to stress the importance of academic debate where everyone takes part equally in order to decolonise knowledge, inside and outside the academic domain. Since academia is still consolidating the hierarchical distinctions among races and genders in terms of knowledge production and fruition that reverberate outside the university environment, I use Ribeiro's works as a starting point to develop a wider debate. This relates to the processes of suppression by silencing all those who are situated outside the hegemonic white, male, and heterosexual discourses and to the subversive power of acknowledging one's own social positioning, lugar de fala. Ribeiro is widely inspired by a long list of writers and thinkers from different parts of the globe who deconstruct and criticise long-established mainstream "western" thought, hence allowing a shift in perspective from the standpoint of the dominant to that of culturally and physically dominated figures, through the act of speaking. Despite their immateriality, words are a strong weapon of subjugation and domination, having been used for centuries to establish and exert power. Finally, this article stresses the importance of 'listening' as a fundamental and complementary act to that of 'speaking' in order to decolonise physical as well as intellectual spaces of knowledge production and fruition.

The Academy is a hybrid between a creative platform and a corporate industry. On the one hand, we are given the liberty to explore, dare and critique. On the other, we must constantly negotiate this liberty with loyalty and commitment to the hierarchical structure we belong to. "Be brave but be smart" summarises the contradictions that, at present, I endorse as a PhD researcher. It is provocative in reflecting on the experience of a young aspirant scholar and on the internal dilemma of choosing between fitting in or looking beyond the boundaries that the Academy imposes. In turn, the paper reflects on the frustration that comes with being exposed to epistemic freedom but conscious of the danger that this freedom comes with. This reflection unfolds into a dialogue between two journeys. The first one considers the evolution of epistemically disobedient ways of knowing and writing. The second is my own intimate and intellectual journey as a writer in social science. By entangling these two journeys, the paper draws attention to the tensions that exist between the intellectual stimuli we receive as researchers, the emotional drivers influencing our writing, and the institutional machine we are part of.

The first online meeting of the Decolonial Subversions Reading Group took place on Friday 27th November 2021. The attendees were (in alphabetical order): Gavaza, Rachel, Romina and Vincenzo. It was a productive and stimulating occasion to talk about decolonisation and decolonial practices; considering the positive outcome, this experience will inform and foster future online meetings in following months, with the conscious aim being to include more people, both within and outside the academic environment.

This is the editorial of the first issue of Decolonial Subversions, a newly established open access, multilingual, peer-reviewed publishing platform committed to the decentring of western epistemology. The editorial reviews recent efforts in decolonising knowledge production in the UK and internationally and provides a dissection of the concept of culture in western thinking citing historical, anthropological and religious studies scholarship. It additionally outlines the basic premises of this initiative, one of which is to bridge knowledge production with societal problems and contribute to their alleviation.

Plan S is a an initiative that aims at ‘opening up’ access to scientific knowledge by ensuring immediate and cost-free (for the reader) access to scientific knowledge under specified Open Access  (OA)  principles.  While  the  initiative  is  guided  by  evidently  good  intentions  to overcome  current  obstacles  that  restrict  the  quick  publication,  dissemination  and reproduction  of  scientific  research,  it  is  not  only  informed  primarily  by  a  natural  sciences perspective,  neglecting  the  humanities  and  social  sciences,  but  also  it  does  not  appear  to consider  or  address  the  more  profound  structural  inequalities  in  knowledge  production across  the  world.  The  essay  aims  to  problematise  some  of  these  less  often  pronounced asymmetries in an effort to shift the attentionof OA advocates to more urgent issues and to evidence the necessity for more subversive remedial strategies.

A  Plan  S  nevű  kezdeményezés  azt  ígéri,  hogy  segít  „hozzáférhetővé  tenni”  a  tudományos tudást azáltal, hogy az olvasók számára azonnali és ingyenes hozzáférés biztosítását követeli a  megfelelő  Open  Access  elvek  betartása  által.  Noha  akezdeményezés  kétség  kívül jószándékú,  és  célja  azon  jelenlegi  publikációs  akadályok  leküzdésének  segítése,  melyek hátráltatják a gyors publikálást, a tudományos ismeretek terjesztését és sokszorosítását, a Plan S  sajnálatos  módon  elsősorban  a  természettudományok  perspektíváját  veszi  tekintetbe, figyelmen  kívül  hagyja  a  humán  és  társadalomtudományok  jellegzetességeit,  és  egyáltalán nem foglalkozik egy sokkal alapvetőbb strukturális kérdéssel, tudniillik a tudástermelésben jelenlévő  globális  egyenlőtlenségekkel.  Jelen  esszé  elsősorban  ez  utóbbi,  általában  kevéssé hangsúlyozott  aszimmetriákkal  foglalkozik  annak  érdekében,  hogy  az  Open  Accessre irányuló szinte kizárólagos figyelem helyett néhány sokkal sürgetőbb, kapcsolódó problémát is megfogalmazzunk és felhívjuk a figyelmet arra, hogy a globális tudástermelési folyamatok megreformálása  érdekében  sokkal  alapvetőbb  változásokat  tartalmazó  stratégiákra  lenne szükség.

This article positions the depictions of caste in mainstream Indian cinema as cultural histories reflecting the discourse on caste relations and social inequality prevalent in contemporary India. Drawing from postcolonial theory that analyses the politics of representation, I situate how cultural representations of caste are shaped by colonial and postcolonial modes of governance and feudal landownership in India. I extend frameworks grounded in postcolonial theory to study empirical media phenomena which have relevance for future interdisciplinary studies. In that sense, this article attempts to decolonise representations of subaltern subjectivity by taking the case study of Sairat (Wild), a commercially successful film made in Marathi, a widely spoken regional language in western India. The article considers the treatment of themes of social difference related to caste in cinema and culture, that also foregrounds the need for studies of critical spectatorship of representations in mainstream Indian cinema.

While decolonisation has in recent years become increasingly popular in everyday and academic discourses, it has thus far failed to deliver the radical ruptures and revolutionary transformations of the world-order envisioned by anticolonial practitioners and intellectuals. In great part, this is because exploitative politico-economic relations reminiscent of imperialism are upheld under the guise of globalisation, free-market and development. This Decolonial Manifesto is a call for action to dismantle current power structures and bring about fairer and decentred processes of producing, legitimising and distributing knowledge over and above challenging western hegemony in general. While a series of pragmatic points of action (including rotational editorship, open access publishing, multilingual written, audio and visual contributions among others) aim directly at overcoming the deep-rooted issues pervading academic publishing, these are to be collocated within larger narratives challenging race- and class-informed marginalisations, capitalist and neoliberal market-structures, unethical patriarchal setups, ableist discourses and the relentless destruction of planet Earth. Such a project is necessarily open-ended, collaborative and disruptive, and promises subversive and enriching spaces for change.

This is a call for peace with oneself, others and nature. It seeks to lead people to take  responsibilities vis-à-vis what they do around them,  be it other people or  nature. It stems from a poem that was sang before a community of Congolese, Burundian, Rwandan refugees as well as local Tanzanians in Nyarugusu Refugee Settlement in Tanzania, titled in Kiswahili: Mazingira ni Maisha (meaning nature is life). The context is used to appeal for peace in the world. The aim is to address cross-cultural understanding using Kiswahili as a language of peace. A particularity of this speech is its twofold focus.  It is firstly, to use a language of Africa par excellence  (Kiswahili) in building inter-sectorial peace among the people and the nations  – bearing in mind that alternatives means of communication are possible solutions, and secondly, it analyses language policy issues. Any language has the ability to unite the people and help solve communicational problems. It advocates for tolerance, equality, acceptance, care for people and the environment. Using statement by eloquent orators such as Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie, It is hoped that this talk will spark a dialogue about linguistic human rights and how  Kiswahili could play a positive role in Africa. The audio can be accessed via Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/elisee-byelongo-isheloke/aud-20191222-wa0000

Hotuba hii inataka kuleta amani moyoni mwako, kati ya mtu na wengine na kati ya mtu na mazingira. Ina wataka watu wawe na jihusisha na yale hawanabudi kuyafanya, ikiwa inahusu watu ao mazingira. Chanzo ni poemu ambayo imetamkwa mbele ya jamii ya wakongomani, warundi, wanyarwanda wakimbizi na wazalendo watanzania waliokuwa kambini Nyarugusu, kichwa cha poemu ni: Mazingira ni Maisha (meaning nature is life). Imesemwa ili kuita amani duniani. Kiini ni ku sababisha uelewano wa ki utamaduni kwa kutumia lugha ya kIswahili kuwa lugha ya amani. Ina lengo mbili inayoitofautisha: kwanza, kutumia Kiswahili lugha nzuri kabisa ya kujenga amani kati watu na mataifa – tukijuwa kuna njia zingine kilugha za kuleta suluisho kimawasiliano, pia inazungumzia mambo ya siasa ya lugha nchini. Kila lugha inaweza kuunganisha watu na kusaidia kutatuwa matatizo ya mawasiliano. Inawasii watu kuchukuliana, kuwa na umoja, kuitikana, kutunzana na kutunza mazingira. Kwa misemo ya watu waliondelea kama Chinua Achebe na Chimamanda Adichie, tunatumaini hotuba hii itaanzisha majadiliano kuhusu haki ya kilugha na vipi Kiswahili kinaweza kufanya kazi muhimu Africa. The audio can be accessed via Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/elisee-byelongo-isheloke/kiswahili-kama-lugha-ya-amani-ya-kutunza-mazingira-aud-20191222-wa0001

The silences around Indian women’s histories and experiences impelled my ethnography among Tamil women in Singapore. In the process, I found myself in a deluge of stories – micro histories beyond the narratives of community or nation, life stories of women, perplexities of belonging for gendered diasporic subjects, yearnings for attachments distant and near, and desires to document intimate worlds. Dissatisfied by the incompleteness of field-notes and academic papers, I resorted to writing verse to process the inchoateness of lived experiences and ethnographic fieldwork. I performed a few of the poems that arose during fieldwork at open-mic platforms, where some of my interlocutors had also gathered to share their own words and narratives. I collaborated with one of my respondents to design an event to curate conversations about Indian women’s experiences through dance, poetry, music and panel discussions. My own biography as an immigrant of over twenty years found some resonances in the life stories of Tamil women and a general sense of up-rootedness. The verse that I share here – what I call the poetry of ethnographic dialogue – arose from these interactions.

The brilliant red hues of the dyed, painted, printed and resist-dyed cottons of the coastal belt of the Deccan-historically known as kalamkari-have invited continuous debates and scholarly interventions into the usage of dyestuff in this region. The majority of the scholars stressed the use of one specific dyestuff, the roots of chaya or oldenlandia umbellata, though historical records suggest that several kinds of red dyes were available in the Deccan region, sourced locally and beyond. Whereas elsewhere I have argued that the artisanal processes and local water sources significantly contribute to the vibrancy of red dyes of this region, here I would like to present a praxis-oriented approach with regards to utilising three different kinds of red dyes in my workspace to reflect upon this historical matter. I have chosen to work with three dyes, which were in use in southern India: manjistha or rubia cordifoila, aal or morinda citrifolia and sappanwood or caesalpinia sappan. The experiments will broaden understandings around the materiality of Deccani dyes and dyeing practices. Moreover, I will emphasise the aspect of layering and over-dyeing in the celebrated Deccani cottons, which remains mostly understudied. For the submission, I produced a photo essay as a chronicle of this practice-based research. This approach is rooted in the recent art historical scholarship that prioritises the process of making objects over the final outcome.

Actions to control nature and people often involve the centralisation of knowledge and erasure of different and opposing views. This way, a singular ordered and homogenous nature takes the place of a highly complex and multidimensional one, hiding all historical, cultural, and regional issues. As a result, the understanding of nature needs to break the silo of the environmental and be understood as a complex assemblage of emotions, worldviews, knowledges, practices, and processes. Ethnography then becomes epistemologically important to the investigation of crucial aspects of the continuous reproduction of ecologies. Here the situated local actors are viewed as knowledgeable; not limiting the focus to a single dimension makes the ontology rich and complex. These field notes represent a qualitative methodology, making use of methods such as semi-structured conversations and exploring different landscapes with the actors. I examine how a government employee and a land-claiming farmer describe their surroundings and their role while situating themselves within the larger socio-political structures. Using field notes makes it possible to share a microscopic view of the larger picture. The intention is not to romanticise the knowledges of farmers as a key to bringing equitable outcomes; rather, the intention is to untangle the complex socio-ecological reality of the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi.

Since individual attitudes about caste practices continued to rule daily life despite constitutional protections, Dr. Ambedkar, the Constitution maker, and leader of oppressed people in India, converted to Buddhism as an alternative approach to addressing the oppressive caste system. Buddhist discourse in Maharashtra, India, is seen primarily as an expression of protest and emancipation of the Mahars because Dr.Ambedkar himself was a Mahar—a former untouchable caste—and hence Buddhism is viewed as a Mahar religion, despite its theoretically universal value system. Over time, non-Mahar Dalits and other castes in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region also converted to Buddhism, making Buddhist conversion an emancipatory route out of the repressive caste system more broadly. This paper argues that the emergence of new autonomous activist leaders among non-Mahars in the post-Ambedkar era led to the anti-caste missionary movements that culminated in Buddhist conversion among non-Mahar castes in the Marathwada region. The paper first discusses the Ambedkarite perspective on caste and religious conversion. It then illustrates non-Mahars’ engagement with Buddhism and explores the post-Ambedkar anti-caste movement in the Marathwada region. It further demonstrates the changing consciousness among non-Mahar communities with the help of case studies of activist missionaries who took up religious conversion as a mode of resistance against caste discrimination.

This Special Issue of Decolonial Subversions on the theme of decolonising the university and the role of linguistic diversity is motivated by a desire to expand critical conversations on the potential of linguistic inclusion in higher education. The Special Issue is multi-/trans-disciplinary, multilingual and multimodal with contributions from authors living and working in Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and South Africa. Contributors are teachers, comedy writers, poets, and university researchers. This diversity enriches the Special Issue as a whole, as authors address the issue of decolonising the university and the role of language in the diversification of knowledge in ways that are sensitive to their own histories, contexts and positionality.

The following article discusses the potential of creative writing as an alternative form of writing in academia. I ground the importance of such a form of writing in my experience of writing comedic and creative nonfictional accounts during my doctoral research. Influenced mainly by Feminist and Decolonial thought, I attempt to lay bare the subversive nature of such personal forms of writing in what may seem a rigidly defined academia. Ergo, the article holds a rather unconventional structure, as the discussion moves between my experience and the analysis of relevant theoretical literature in what may seem a personal style of writing. I ground my argument in the unfolding of truth from the Other's standpoint, the linguistic and the cultural richness that the stories present us with and the diverse stylistic discourses that such creative forms of writing bring into the rigid scholarly discourse that we are used to. This enables linguistic diversity to take place and to provide counter storytelling to colonial power situations that we encounter. Stand-up comedy in particular creates a space for honest critique that also develops our counter narratives. These creative forms of writings are not simply a biographical documentation of the Self, but can be a rich site for delivering critical, cultural, and linguistics analysis of complex narratives.

Decolonial Subversions was envisioned as a platform for the dissemination of decolonial perspectives by implementing a model that subverts current practices of knowledge production, validation and dissemination-both within and outside of academia. It does so by departing from mainstream standards of communication (which privilege English as language, text as format and intellect as the locus of knowing) and implementing a multilingual and multi-format publication model. This is based on the understanding that epistemic violence is perpetuated linguistically in significant ways, such as when converting multidimensional and embodied knowledge into rigidly mono-dimensional scholarly articles. Authors whose first language is not English are often forced to write in English in order to reach a wider audience and for their knowledge to be accepted as intelligible and valid. In response to this dynamic, Decolonial Subversions enables authors to submit their manuscripts in their first and working languages, as well as in an English version they can produce with the support of a translator, assistant or co-author, in addition to accepting visual and acoustic formats. This strategy aims to minimise the epistemic violence inflicted via linguistic requirements, maintain the text's original nuance, and simultaneously ensure that the work reaches and can inform Anglophone scholarship and thinking. In this essay, we discuss this approach in detail, how our contributors have engaged with the multilingual option we provide, and some of the challenges we have faced in moving towards a multilingual publishing model. The essay provides a publisher's perspective as a way of complementing the growing dissemination of multilingual articles reflecting authors’ vantage points.

Decolonial Subversions è una piattaforma per la diffusione di perspettive decoloniali tramitel’implementazione di un modello di pubblicazione che sovverte le attuali pratiche diproduzione, legittimazione e diffusione della conoscenza—sia all’interno che all’esternodell’ambito accademico. Per raggiungere questo obbiettivo, Decolonial Subversionsabbandona standard di comunicazione tradizionali (che privilegiano l'inglese come lingua, iltesto come formato e l'intelletto come luogo del sapere) a favore di un modello dipubblicazione multilinguistico e multimodale. Questo si basa sulla convinzione che laviolenza epistemica si protrae linguisticamente in vari modi, come ad esempio quandoconoscenze sensoriali e multidimensionali vengono convertite in articoli accademici rigidi eunidimensionali. Autorə la cui prima lingua non é inglese sono spesso forzatə a scrivere ininglese per poter raggiungere un pubblico più ampio e per far sì che la loro conoscenzavenga considerata valida e accessibile. Per contrastare questa dinamica, Decolonial Subversions permette ad autorə di inviare i loro manoscritti nella loro prima lingua—o nellalingua in cui si trovano maggiormente a proprio agio—in aggiunta ad una versione ininglese, che possono produrre con il supporto di traduttorə, assistantə o co-autorə; per lostesso fine, Decolonial Subversions accetta anche contribuzioni audio e visive. Questa strategia ha lo scopo di minimizzare la violenza epistemica che viene inflitta tramite prerequisitilinguistici, mantenere le sfumature del testo originale, e garantire che il lavoro possainformare culture e pensieri anglofoni. In questo articolo illustriamo in dettaglio questoapproccio, come autorə hanno interagito con l’opzione multilinguistica che offriamo, edalcune delle difficoltà che abbiamo incontrato nel promuovere un modello di pubblicazione multilinguistico. Questo articolo presenta una prospettiva dal punto di vista editoriale, in modo da complementare la crescente diffusione di articoli multilinguistici che invece riflettono i punti di vista di autorə.

Suresh: I am glad we can have this conversation on the complex issues behind your special topic issue in Decolonial Subversions, Victoria and Gillian. My life experiences comment relevantly on your thematic concerns. I first came to United States for graduate studies from the small South Asian island of Sri Lanka. After my doctorate in Applied Linguistics, I went back to my regional university in the north of the island, University of Jaffna, as I was interested in contributing educationally to my local community. However, the ethnic conflict and civil war there drove me away to seek refuge for my young family. Though I have been working in the United States since 1994, I have been shuttling between diverse communities in the Global South and my American academic home to develop more inclusive scholarly exchanges.

The aim of the special issue has been to bring together theologians, academics of religions and development and missionaries to explore how missions affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox and so-called 'Oriental Orthodox' Christian traditions engage with and affect communities in Africa and Asia. The special issue was particularly interested in bridging mission studies with international development, which has been increasingly focusing on faith-based actors and religion in development. Both these literatures have been informed primarily by Roman Catholic and Protestant missionary experience in the African and Asian regions, and have drawn very little attention to their non-western Christian counterparts. As a result, the distinct theological and dogmatic underpinnings that govern these non-western missions have not been captured in the literature, nor have the implications for missionary activities abroad been explored systematically. Due to their theologies, such missions have engaged with local belief and knowledge systems, cultures and languages in notably more holistic ways, with important implications for human and societal development. The special issue achieves to increase knowledge around these missions and their historical and contemporary engagements to suggest a more nuanced template for thinking about faith actors and development in Africa and Asia.

The article discusses the theological and historical origins, and the grassroots impact of Orthodox missionary work inspired by N.I. Il`minskii among the Turkic and Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia's Volga-Kama region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It attributes Il`minskii's motivation in using vernacular languages and indigenous personnel in schools and churches to an entangled mixture of influences from 'below' and 'above', including the incarnational theology of Feodor Bukharev and the Russian Orthodox Church's response to increasing adherence to Islam among the Volga-Kama peoples. It illustrates the impact of Il`minskii's ideas through a case study of how the teachers and graduates of the Simbirsk Chuvash Teachers' School engaged with Chuvash communities and the issues vital for them between the 1860s Great Reforms and the 1917 Revolution: preservation of their language and culture, development of the rural economy, and just repartition of the land. It argues that Il`minskii's native schools had a russifying effect, yet the creation of a vernacular written language, the emphasis on indigenous agency and the formation of a native intelligentsia, meant that Chuvash communities both resisted assimilation into Russian culture and experienced an awakening of national consciousness which led to aspirations to political and ecclesial autonomy in the early 20th century.

This paper provides information on exactly where and how Russian Orthodox missionaries in China were learning Chinese, and what the practical application of this knowledge was in their missionary activities. The focus of this paper lies in the history of the New Testament translation projects completed by two missionaries: Archimandrite Gury Karpov, who was the first Orthodox missionary to translate the New Testament into Chinese (1864); and Bishop Innocent Figurovsky, who provided his own New Testament translation (1910), which remains relatively unknown among modern sinologists. This paper also provides some brief information on the lives of these outstanding missionaries, and attempts to elucidate the background of the Chinese co-worker Long Yuan, who helped Archimandrite Gury Karpov to revise his New Testament translation. The topic of religious literature that was translated by the Orthodox missionaries in China is still relatively unexplored and is almost forgotten among Western scholars. This paper addresses this lacuna and aims at drawing attention to this field.

This is the Manifesto of Decolonial Subversions, which outlines the basic principles and motivations of this initiative. This was developed on the basis of conversations between the co-founders, but also in response to working with different international partners and their feedback. We welcome responses or new articulations in response to the Basic Manifesto outlined here. It is our aim to encourage a vibrant discussion around the praxis of decolonisation in the context of this platform and beyond, in line with our vision that Decolonial Subversions emerge as a collaborative, international and community-led endeavour.

These are the Guidelines for Contributors. Please note that these need to be reviewed together with the Basic Manifesto of the platform. While we need to abide by the highest possible standards, we are flexible and aim to accommodate different contributors, adapting to their different needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us in person if you'd like to make a contribution.

Decolonial Subversions is a newly established open access, multilingual, peer-reviewed publishing platform committed to the decentring of western epistemology in the humanities and social sciences. It seeks to grant more visibility to scholars from the Global South by subverting barriers and norms that govern mainstream Anglophone knowledge production and publishing. Decolonial Subversions is comprised of an international team of collaborators and like-minded researchers, practitioners and professionals from India, Ethiopia, Senegal, Namibia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Hungary, Greece, Moldova, Italy and the UK. The founding editors, Dr Romina Istratii and Monika Hirmer, are supported in their effort by a team of designers, photographers, web-development specialists, language partners, translators and reviewers, all of whom appear on the website of the platform as integral members and stakeholders of this initiative. The platform will be officially launched on 30 March online. You may register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introducing-decolonial-subversions-tickets-98024962301

Over the last few decades there have been movements to decolonise universities, which encourage university communities to challenge traditional ways of knowing and representation in order to reverse unequal access and educational outcomes. This Special Issue seeks to interrogate the role of linguistic diversity within universities across different geo-political contexts with the aim of refining current understandings of how multilingual practices can be deployed as a tool for decolonial praxis. We are seeking contributions that draw on a range of different languages, modes, formats and contexts in order to offer new and under-represented perspectives, which are linked to the role of linguistic diversity in universities.

Over the last few decades there have been movements to decolonise universities, which encourage university communities to challenge traditional ways of knowing and representation in order to reverse unequal access and educational outcomes. This Special Issue seeks to interrogate the role of linguistic diversity within universities across different geo-political contexts with the aim of refining current understandings of how multilingual practices can be deployed as a tool for decolonial praxis. We are seeking contributions that draw on a range of different languages, modes, formats and contexts in order to offer new and under-represented perspectives, which are linked to the role of linguistic diversity in universities.

En las últimas décadas, se han desarollado varios movimientos para descolonizar las universidades, alientando a las comunidades universitarias a desafiar las formas tradicionales de conocimiento y representación para revertir el acceso desigual a la educación y los resultados educativos. Este número especial de la revista busca interrogar el papel de la diversidad lingüística dentro de las universidades en diferentes contextos geopolíticos con el objetivo de clarificar la comprensión actual de cómo las prácticas multilingües pueden implementarse como una herramienta para la praxis descolonial. Buscamos contribuciones que se basen en una variedad de lenguajes, modos, formatos y contextos diferentes para ofrecer perspectivas nuevas y subrepresentadas que estén vinculadas al papel de la diversidad lingüística en las universidades. Traducido por Ileana L. Selejan, Decolonising Arts Institute, UAL.

Decolonizarea universității și rolul diversității lingvistice Rezumat În ultimele decenii au apărut mișcări de decolonizare a universităților care încurajează comunitățile universitare să conteste modalitățile tradiționale de cunoaștere și reprezentare, cu scopul inversării accesului inegal la educație și al rezultatelor educaționale. Acest număr special al revistei urmărește să interogheze rolul diversității lingvistice în cadrul universităților din diferite contexte geo-politice, cu scopul de a rafina cunoştiinţele actuale legate de modul în care practicile multilingve pot fi desfășurate ca instrument pentru practicile decoloniale. Căutăm contribuții în baza unor serii diverse de limbi, moduri, formate și contexte, pentru a oferi perspective noi și subreprezentate, legate de rolul diversității lingvistice în universități.

Деколонизация университета и роль языкового разнообразия Резюме На протяжении последних десятилетий развиваются движения за деколонизацию университетов, побуждающие университетские сообщества бросать вызов традиционным способам познания и представления знаний. Эти движения направлены на преодоление неравенства в доступе к образованию и результатах образования. Специальный выпуск посвящен исследованию роли языкового разнообразия в университетах в различных геополитических контекстах с целью уточнения нынешних представлений о том, как многоязычные практики могут быть использованы в качестве инструмента для деколонизации университетов. Мы готовы рассмотреть материалы, основанные на различных языках, формах, форматах и контекстах, содержащие новые и недостаточно представленные точки зрения, связанные с ролью языкового разнообразия в университетах.

This special issue aims to bring together theologians, academics of religions and development and missionaries to explore how missions affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox and other pre-Chalcedonian or Miaphysite Churches (so-called ‘Oriental Orthodox’) engage with and affect communities in Africa and Asia. The special issue is particularly interested in bridging mission studies with international development, which has been increasingly focusing on faith-based actors and the role of religious beliefs in development. Both these literatures have been informed primarily by Roman Catholic and Protestant missionary experience in the African and Asian regions, and have drawn very little attention to their non-western Christian counterparts. As a result, the distinct theological and dogmatic underpinnings that govern these non-western missions have not been captured in the literature, nor have the implications for missionary activity abroad been explored systematically. Due to their theologies, such missions have engaged with local belief and knowledge systems, cultures and languages in notably different ways, with important implications for human and societal development. The special issue aims to increase knowledge around these missions and their historical and contemporary engagements to suggest a more nuanced template for thinking about faith actors and development in Africa and Asia.