Decoloniality is fundamentally about the reparation of land, but is not restricted to this definition by which decolonization, the transition from colonies to nation-states, or the formation of tribal nations might be said to have fully realized decolonial political desires. Rather, it is concerned with the terms on which territory and land are managed or brought into relation with peoples and society. Decoloniality is not territory in the sense of a nation-state, which needs a national identity and sovereign territory to defend. However, it is not the absence of territory in favor of only an abstracted notion of emancipation, i.e. to decolonize the mind. Recalling Tuck and Yang (2012), decolonization cannot be abstracted or appropriated from its intention as the reparation of indigenous land and indigenous life. It is critical, though, that the two not be understood separately. Land cannot be understood as separate from social relations of power, just as social power is infused with histories of dispossession, capitalist accumulation of unlimited wealth, and the equation of whiteness as property and entitlement to be protected against at all cost. It is important to recall the histories of decolonization movements post-WWII conflated with formation of nation-state serving to facilitate US economic hegemony, as well as the histories of reservations in the US as a form of exile transferred over from prisoner of war camps. While a movement toward sovereignty may take on rhetorical and strategic tactics in the frameworks of coloniality in order to be heard, the limits that this produces should be questioned and cautioned against. Senghor and Cesaire have argued against the correlation of decolonization as tied to nation-state formations (Wilder, 2015) European political conceptions of nation-state homogenize and narrow the rightful, belonging citizen and includes peoples on the basis of inferior difference. A political project of decolonialities does not propose to find salvation or liberation through the structures of the state and their legislative bodies. It does however, recognize the material realities of violence that the state structures and so need to be mitigated. Decoloniality calls for an abolishment of state structures that are rooted in and propelled by the ideologies of coloniality where development and progress rely on the continuous production of the criminal, backwards, underdeveloped, or indolent. Delinking implies a necessary departure from European political structures, and European epistemologies, but the two cannot be thought of separately. In the aftermath of nationalist movements for decolonization, the national economy was made a central concern by whom Fanon (1961) calls the “national bourgeoisie,” with actors like United States and US-based corporations similarly concerned with their establishment of stable economies, and environments suitable for capital investment through infrastructure (factories), steady supply of labor, and suspension of labor regulations and trade tariffs (i.e. through free trade zones and free trade agreements). Fanon (1968) observes these economic development projects, with visions toward political autonomy, became a “cult for local products” and for “local crafts” turning decolonized spaces to “specialists of unfinished products” (pp. 98-99). Updating to today’s global market, these spaces also become highly specialized in arranging and assembling products from electronics to clothing in factories for which the deplorable conditions have been well publicized to a desensitized and apathetic consumer audience. Understanding the Greek etymology of economy to be eco/ oikos/ house and nomy/ nemein/ management, collectively meaning ‘household management,’ we see the concern for the development and emergence of a national economy is relevant to home, management of place and belonging. The development of national economies in emerging nation-states marks a concern for the continued extension of US and European home to the former colonies, comfortable to its own economic interest and the leisurely desires of their ambassador-tourists.
Decoloniality is fundamentally about the reparation of land, but is not restricted to this definition it is concerned with the terms on which territory and land are managed or brought into relation with peoples and society. Decoloniality is not territory in the sense of a nation-state, which needs a national identity and sovereign territory to defend. it is not the absence of territory in favor of only an abstracted notion of emancipation, i.e. to decolonize the mind. decolonization cannot be abstracted or appropriated from its intention as the reparation of indigenous land and indigenous life Land cannot be understood as separate from social relations of power, just as social power is infused with histories of dispossession, capitalist accumulation of unlimited wealth, and the equation of whiteness as property and entitlement to be protected against at all cost. While a movement toward sovereignty may take on rhetorical and strategic tactics in the frameworks of coloniality in order to be heard, the limits that this produces should be questioned and cautioned against. A political project of decolonialities does not propose to find salvation or liberation through the structures of the state and their legislative bodies. It does however, recognize the material realities of violence that the state structures and so need to be mitigated. Decoloniality calls for an abolishment of state structures that are rooted in and propelled by the ideologies of coloniality where development and progress rely on the continuous production of the criminal, backwards, underdeveloped, or indolent. Delinking implies a necessary departure from European political structures, and European epistemologies, the two cannot be thought of separately. The development of national economies in emerging nation-states marks a concern for the continued extension of US and European home to the former colonies, comfortable to its own economic interest and the leisurely desires of their ambassador-tourists.