Knowledge as political : the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa and the Geography of Dissent

Abstract

This study analyses the politics of knowledge, through the political that was the call to dissolve the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa (PSSA); a call that was made at the 2017 January Annual Conference at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape – South Africa. An analysis of knowledge as political seeks to demonstrate how the philosophical community situates decoloniality in our context, necessitating that social theorists respond meaningfully. The study demonstrates how an analysis of the PSSA, highlights the political and historical machinations that influence the knowledge project. The call to dissolve the PSSA revealed the political and historical machinations of the knowledge project, along with the rationale of the decolonial philosopher, i.e. revealing loci of enunciation(s). The study therefore, locates the discipline of Philosophy within the decolonial debate that presently preoccupies the contemporary scholar and the University, more broadly. I highlight how the call to dissolve the PSSA offers insights into decolonial struggles while substantiating the claim of Knowledge as Political. The speakers’ loci of enunciation reveal the author’s political underpinnings and how these influence their knowledge claims. Revealing the politics of knowledge is aligned with the aims of the decolonial philosopher who attempts to respond to epistemic injustices. In response to epistemic injustices that are both historically situated, while highlighting the political motivations of the knowledge project, I propose the use of the Black Archive. The Black Archive is constitutive of the works of Black/Indigenous literato, poets, musicians and artists who were thinking through and theorising the Fact of Blackness/Indigeneity even as they were excluded from knowledge production institutions; i.e. the South African University.