Consciousness breathing resistance in higher education:not separate but equal

This paper attempts to take the ocean of experiences, feelings and thoughts in relation to online teaching as a reaction to the restrictions on face-to-face teaching brought about by the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 that have passed through my mind, having been influenced by the efforts and ruminations of others, and fit it into a teacup. The purpose of this exercise, in grappling with the visceral tensions experienced in this moment despite the similarities evoked of the ‘separate but equal’ treatment of persons under apartheid; and in keeping with Robinson-Morris’ ‘(re)thinking as (non-)method’, is to explore how challenging the Eurocentric conception of the unitary-self challenges the duality implicit in ‘Double Consciousness’ and proves a grappling with ‘Multiple Consciousness’ as a way of being-becoming and inter-being towards seeking liberation of the mind (framed through Black Consciousness and African Feminist Theory) through recourse to Ubuntu and Buddhist Philosophies.</p

Decolonising the Human

"Decolonising the Human examines the ongoing project of constituting ‘the human’ in light of the durability of coloniality and the persistence of multiple oppressions. The ‘human’ emerges as a deeply political category, historically constructed as a scarce existential resource. Once weaponised, it allows for the social, political and economic elevation of those who are centred within its magic circle, and the degradation, marginalisation and immiseration of those excluded as the different and inferior Other, the less than human. Speaking from Africa, a key site where the category of the human has been used throughout European modernity to control, exclude and deny equality of being, the contributors use decoloniality as a potent theoretical and philosophical tool, gesturing towards a liberated, pluriversal world where human difference will be recognised as a gift, not used to police the boundaries of the human. Here is a transdisciplinary critical exploration of a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and decolonial studies.

Reframing Corporate Subjectivity: Systemic Inequality and the Company at the Intersection of Race, Gender and Poverty

In this paper I use South Africa as a reference point to discuss the company as a juristic person and its relationship to natural persons through the concepts of subjectivity and personhood. I do this in an attempt to reveal that granting of juristic personality as ‘the company’ is not a neutral, organic or inevitable product of the law and economy but a construct symbiotically bound to the colonial state. Underlying this juristic personhood is colonial ideology which perpetuates racialized and gendered poverty and inequality as systemic oppression, in order to deliberately facilitate and maintain conditions of domination and exploitation. Rather than taking the conventional business and human rights starting point that accepts the corporate structure without critique, it is argued that by reorienting away from juristic personality as purportedly ‘neutral’ and reframing the construct, the powers of the company might be curtailed, thereby interrupting these continuing colonial logics

Complementarity and Criminal Liability of Companies in Africa: Missing the Mark?

The chapter explores the idea of accountability for international crimes in national courts in the context of Africa, pivoting from South Africa, with specific focus on the corporation as a juristic person. In doing so, the chapter asks the question whether in undertaking this exercise, debates about direct versus indirect liability and which platforms are best suited, we may be missing the mark. In other words, the chapter contends with whether the debate on corporate criminal accountability for international crimes and the reforms being advocated for have identified the correct person to hold accountable. The chapter situates the significance for accountability in a brief historical foregrounding of the relationship between the state and corporation in the founding South Africa, drawing parallels to Nigeria, the implications of continuing corporate harm and the relationship between the state and the corporation as juristic persons. In so doing the chapter aims to provide a brief critical historicism of the object of analysis: the juristic person of the corporation and problematise its nature. It systematically unpacks the meanings of the core concepts employed in this exercise: international crimes and accountability. The chapter also outlines the current accountability mechanisms for international crimes across international and domestic platforms and their limitations. It considers regional mechanisms, as collective power to support increased domestic control the parameters of juristic personality, that emerge as a possible solution to navigate the challenges that both international and domestic levels present

Decolonising the Human

"Decolonising the Human examines the ongoing project of constituting ‘the human’ in light of the durability of coloniality and the persistence of multiple oppressions. The ‘human’ emerges as a deeply political category, historically constructed as a scarce existential resource. Once weaponised, it allows for the social, political and economic elevation of those who are centred within its magic circle, and the degradation, marginalisation and immiseration of those excluded as the different and inferior Other, the less than human. Speaking from Africa, a key site where the category of the human has been used throughout European modernity to control, exclude and deny equality of being, the contributors use decoloniality as a potent theoretical and philosophical tool, gesturing towards a liberated, pluriversal world where human difference will be recognised as a gift, not used to police the boundaries of the human. Here is a transdisciplinary critical exploration of a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and decolonial studies.