The Decolonial Turn in Khoisan Studies: Opportunities, Pitfalls, and new Directions in Longstanding Debates Concerning Southern Africa’s Indigenous People

A "decolonial turn" is arguably afoot in Khoisan Studies, an interdisciplinary field of enquiry that originated in the colonial era and focuses on the Khoisan indigenous peoples of Southern Africa. This trend is exemplified in three recent publications: [overnes, Siv. 2019. Street Khoisan: On Belonging, Recognition and Survival. Pretoria: Unisa Press, Bam, June. 2021. Ausi Told Me. Why Cape Herstoriographies Matters. Sunnyside: Jacana, and Muthien, Bernedette. 2021. "Rematriation: Reclaiming Indigenous Matricentric Egalitarianism". In Rethinking Africa: Indigenous Women Re-Interpret Southern African Pasts, edited by June Bam and Bernedette Muthien, 51-84. Sunnyside: Jacana]. These texts share a great deal with scholarship in the tradition of what I refer to as "postcolonial Bushmen Studies". Notwithstanding these overlapping concerns and approaches, I argue that the authors shaping this budding paradigm stand out for posing different types of research questions, centring indigenous scholars, exploring novel analytical approaches, utilizing and unearthing alternative sources, laying bare international parallels, and focusing on areas, research subjects and topics that have traditionally fallen outside of Khoisan Studies' purview. This provides new insights into the field and its diverse subject matter, as well as opportunities for further research and methodological innovations. However, it is important to note that the decolonial turn has potential pitfalls due to its positioning at the intersection of academia and activism.