Internal Violence: An Invitation to the Decolonial Turn

Abstract The nature of colonial epistemology and ontology was, and in some ways remains, deeply rooted in universalist and absolutist ideologies. These ideologies legitimized and undermined other conflicting positions, as they were considered “barbaric,” “debased,” “primitive,” and “devoid of time” and were in need of civilization. These arguments justified all kinds of horrendous acts such as violence, assimilation, colonization, exploitation, and dehumanization. The commitments and philosophical engagements on decolonization have often focused on a departure from colonial epistemology and ontology. In an attempt to add, in a novel way, to existing discourse on decolonization, the article draws on Richard Turner’s The Eye of the Needle: Towards Participatory Democracy in South Africa and argues that the decolonial turn is also an invitation to engage in a new kind of violence, an internal kind.