Mwamandi Munthali, the Institutional Learning Coordinator in the Department of Systemic and Endogenous Educational Development (SEED), presented and reflected on Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s manifesto, which has been structured as a framework for understanding global power and resistance through the lens of knowledge and art. In the theses, which are contained as a chapter in the collection called “Knowledges Born in the Struggle”, Santos argues that the modern world is structured by an inseparable triad of domination of capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy, which are sustained by the hegemonic epistemologies of the North that have invalidated and invisibilised other ways of knowing. The theses thus call for a decolonial proposition: the “epistemologies of the South” and the identification of the “post-abyssal artist” as a critical figure in the liberation struggle.
In the theses, Santos begins by diagnosing a central tragedy of modern resistance – the fragmentation of resistance against the three forms of domination (capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy), which he argues operate in a coordinated totality. This fragmentation, Santos argues, is a result of the dominance of the Eurocentric civilisational paradigm, which is maintained by the hegemonic epistemologies of the North that push for a “false narrative” that there is no alternative to the status quo. Their most powerful tool is what Santos terms the “abyssal line” – the invisible but fundamental divide that separates metropolitan sociability, where the “universal ideals” of humanity and rights apply, from colonial sociability, where populations are rendered sub-human, their knowledge subjected to epistemicide. In contrast, their cultures and lives are continuously subjected to violence, oppression, and exploitation.
Based on the foregoing, Santos proposes the “epistemologies of the South” as a solution for the elimination of the dominating effect of the epistemologies of the North. Santos further posits that the epistemologies of the South are not a geographical concept but a political and epistemological stance that seeks to construct and visibilise the “ecologies of knowledges” that combine the academic and non-academic, scientific and artistic, and Eurocentric and non-Eurocentric ways of knowing, among others, in a non-hierarchical way. This epistemological stance, Santos argues, seeks to value the knowledges born in the struggle against capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy, in addition to promoting the idea that global social justice is impossible without having the multiplicity of other forms of knowing.
To get to the proposed solution that Santos puts forward, the idea of the post-abyssal artist, who is projected as a critical agent of the “aesthetics of the South”, comes to the fore. According to Santos, the post-abyssal artist’s vocation, in the context of the aesthetics of the South, is to denounce the abyssal line and to visibilise, in its monstrous forms, the violence and oppression that are associated with colonial sociability. In addition, the post-abyssal artist strives to recover and valorise the artistic forms and practices of the South, which have been denigrated as primitive, blasphemous, and non-existent.
In the context of the proposed solution that Santos puts forward, the art that characterises the post-abyssal artist is developed with “communities”, not “about” or “upon” them. It is thus communal art, not individualistic. In addition, Santos projects a proposition that characterises the post-abyssal artist as a specialist in “absences” and emergences”. In that regard, Santos argues that the post-abyssal artist gives “presence” to what the hegemonic system has rendered “absent” and cultivates new possibilities that are latent or “not-yet”. Santos thus characterises the post-abyssal artist as a specialist in the “sociology of absences” and the “sociology of emergences”.
In conclusion, Santos’s theses are a powerful call to move beyond fragmented resistance. By emphasising the knowledges of the oppressed and embracing an insurgent, communal aesthetics, the epistemologies of the South and its post-abyssal artists aim to dismantle the abyssal line that separates metropolitan sociability from colonial sociability. As abyssal exclusion becomes more pronounced in the context of colonial sociability, our vocation, as the people of the countries and territories of the Greater South, is to co-create new worlds, within ourselves, that are free from the intertwined effects of capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. It is in that context that the Organisation of Southern Cooperation comes in. As an intergovernmental organisation founded by countries of the Greater South, it seeks to contribute to the elimination of abyssal exclusion, which is associated with colonial sociability, through its various programmes that essentially seek to valorise and bring to prominence both the academic and non-academic knowledge domains from the Greater South, among other areas.
During the event, Asasira Simon Rwabyoma, the Senior Research & Policy Specialist – Endogenous Knowledge Development (REEF), led the discussion by anchoring it in a historical context of the three forms of domination: colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy, as highlighted by author Bonaventura de Sousa Santos. The discussant identified the reasons for the challenges and fragmented resistance across the twenty-two theses by referring to the intellectual standpoints of scholars and intellectuals from the decolonial and post-colonial schools of thought. The discussion provided a critique and nuanced understanding of the aesthetics of the epistemologies of the South and the proposed manifesto in twenty-two theses.
The discussion aligned the Book Talk to the OSC’s vision and mandate by highlighting the importance of:
- Alternative thinking about the alternatives— towards the construction of an alternative Third Way of Development for the South and Humanity.
- Alternative histories of the Greater South— validating diverse ways of knowing through research and documentation about the diverse histories of the Southern epistemologies that have historically been marginalised.
- Building transformative futures— through leveraging indigenous (and endogenous knowledges) born out of the struggles for the alternative endogenous development interventions in the Greater South.
In conclusion, the discussion highlighted the need for the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC) to continuously seek alternative thinking of the alternatives towards the construction of a Third Way of Development. The Book Talk provided insights for ideological, technical, and conceptual frameworks, and the theories of change that can be adopted in future OSC Common programmes.
