The True Path of Decolonisation

''I prefer conscience to belonging'". The well-known words of Régis Debray, are dissected today by the brilliant Senegalese sociologist, journalist, and writer Elgas, author of Mâle noir and Les bons ressentiments.

Joined by Leila Belhadj Mohamed, the two explore the canvas of what decolonisation truly means, looking at what values did - and, importantly, still could - underpin it. Elgas underlines how many ex-colonies like Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali, may be experiencing a kind of "colonial discomfort" in their struggle to cut their colonial ties, even after independence. Side by side with instances of pure erasure of the culture indigenous to a place and its people, the colonizer's culture may get tangled up with it. Differently, there can be pockets of what Elgas calls the "uncolonisable", a long-held resistance - with language being a prime site of confrontation - which can inform and accompany decolonisation.

As Elgas points out, decolonialisation is never a finish line, but an horizon. The wind of decolonisation may gain momentum and then lose strength. It requires costant work. Not out of revenge or aiming at isolation from the West, but as a kind of labour that can carve an original path towards equity and liberation.

A path that, drawing on Mâle noir, Elgas and Leila Belhadj Mohamed centre around patriarchy. Its intertwining with racialisation and land is universal, they point out. As such, their exhortation is for decolonisation, the "uncolonisable", and the struggle against patriarchy to join forces.