#decoloniality

Benjamin WatchPan-Africanism · Identity · Critique · June 2026 OpinionWinterABC 2026 · Week 3 · Africa and Identity Mazrui · Rodney · Decolonisation · The Idea We Never Finished The Wigs We Still Wear Pan-Africanism without a plan is not liberation. It is a new mythology wearing the old chains as a necklace. Musanjufu Benjamin Kavubu Development Watch Centre Benjamin Watch Blog June…

on decolonial and post-colonial studies

(within the lusophone world)

João Ninguém: soldado da grande guerra (impressões humorísticas do C.E.P)

Portuguese illustrated memoir of 1916 Great War

A Europa teve “jardins zoológicos humanos” até 1958

revision of the human zoos in europe.

Portugal colonial (revista/magazine)

seeking to propagandise the people living in the metropole about the settler colonial imperative taking place in the African colonised territories (manifest destiny style).

Primeira Exposição Colonial Portuguesa (1934, album comemorativo)

Arquivos fotográficos (via catalogo digital do Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo)

It is getting usual nowadays to read about works in local/indigenous theologies being undertaken so that voices from the margins or the underside will be heard. Yay!

But the question has to be asked: be heard by whom and be heard where?

If the point of doing such works is so that, for example, Majority World voices can be 'heard' and therefore included in the conversations going on in the West, in a way, a happy and blessed addition, then whose interest really is being served? Who is benefiting from such gestures of 'inclusion'? Who is being incorporated into 'what'? At the end of the day, it has to be asked: whose body of knowledge is getting enriched, broadened, and strengthened? And what arrangement/s of the theological status quo are getting reinforced and further taken to be good for everyone, everywhere?

These questions are missed (or lost, drowned) especially when the concern described above gets framed in and within the terms of the fancy word 'global', e.g., global conversations, global table, global theology, etc. But what exactly is 'global'? Where is this 'global'? And most important of all, who is gatekeeping, posturing to be the 'right' point of reference, of this so-called 'global'?

My own personal experience tells me that not a few of these so-called 'global' are more or less operating (still) with the logic of what can only be properly described as 'colonial.'

Emerging are projects this and that with the aim of incorporating non-Western voices into something so that it would appeal more to non-Western voices and therefore expand relevance and ultimately, reach across the globe. Unwittingly, not a few folks from the Majority World end up contributing to the tragic re/construction of the apparatus that upholds the old colonial impulse within the field of theology.

Fortunately, there are some efforts in the Western world to rethink what ‘global’ means from their side of the fence. Usually coming from folks whose social location may be in the West but whose imagination and sensibility transcends geographical belonging. My guess is that this may, more and more, take the shape of an 'insider conversation' -for those reared in the dynamics of Western civilization/Christianity to figure out among themselves on how to re-engage better with the 'rest of the world.' My hope is they will be the one who can help arrest the re-emergence of what has been called as the 'colonially of faith.'*

For those in the Majority World, the 'insider conversation' that might be worth trying is to get folks from within the non-Western contextSSS (yes it has to be in the plural) to hear each other, be able to listen and understand each other, learn to talk to each and in the process also learn from each other, and hopefully, discover options along the way, on how to strengthen not only each other’s sense of belonging, but also a collective resolve towards what may be contributed elsewhere…

Smaller insider conversations as alternative to the massive gatherings that sadly ends up with imperial feels...

Last year, there is one gathering that sought to do something very close to this. I hope there will be more of such spaces this year...

On how these different spaces will converge is an altogether another question. Hopefully, we will not repeat what was wrought at Nicaea. And Chalcedon, later on.

-Rants by Rei Lemuel Crizaldo (January 30, 2026)

This year, 2026, opened with the good news of our book on political theology finally coming out!

I attempted in my chapter to articulate a decolonial perspective, wherein, for the first time, I commit into writing what I think can be called as 'gastronomic theology'. My hope is that this will encourage more people to explore alternative epistemic footing to doing local theology.

Writing this chapter also allowed me to challenge myself on doing something about the disappointment I often feel when reading works in so-called contextual theology but only to find the bibliography thoroughly an inventory of the Western knowledge industry. I tried to avoid this irony by making sure my bibliography will be faithful to what I wrote -more than 95% of the works I cited are written by fellow Filipinos.

Edited by Dr. David Lim and Dr. Aldrin Penamora, the volume captures a broad range of how evangelicals are deepening their engagement in the political sphere, its systems and structures, with the hopes of experiencing a more just society and the least of the people living with dignity.

Much gratitude to Langham Publishing for their commitment and relentless pursuit of publishing voices from the Majority World and get their reflections accessible across the globe. They continue to offer free shipping of their books to anywhere in the Majority World. Orders can be placed here.

Read the endorsements below by Dr Ruth Padilla DeBorst, Dr Sebastian Kim, and Bp. Hwa Yung.

Days before the 2025 General Assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance, I was advised that the stage would be clad in a sea of people in their ties and suits and I better dress accordingly for my part in one of the morning plenaries, lest I embarrass myself. I said, there's no way I'd be up there in a coat and a tie. But I promised that I'll be in something from my country that could go toe-to-toe with the best of Western formal wear.

In truth, I really have no clue then what it would be exactly. I have to wear my 'Barong Lumban' on the first day for the cultural celebration so that won't do. As the days went by, I felt the pressure to just conform and I actually thought of just packing the only piece of American coat I have in the closet. I was telling myself, "What's the fuss Rei? it is just a piece of clothing, get on with it, as would, for sure, everybody else."

But I know deep inside that this is not just about a piece of clothing. It is about identity, history, and so much more.

Amidst the on-going shift in Christianity wherein more and more of the church is ALREADY in the Majority World, the stage of global gatherings should have so much more vibrant colors than just those of dark suits and ties.

Fortunately, on the night before I left for South Korea, I found exactly what I need in one of the local shops that specializes in reimagining traditional clothing for the future. I could not believe my eyes, but yay and hooray! And so, there I was up on stage in Seoul carrying one of my people's best -the 'Barong Tagalog' with a contemporary flair -hopefully a tribute as well to how the indigenous reinvents itself from within.

This, too, my friends, is part of the wider fabric of what it means to do decolonial theology -that field of reflection that seeks to reclaim the best of who are as a people, wherever we are from, identify and resist those which has sought to deny and destitute this identity, and reimagine how this re-lived sense of self can flourish even more beautifully in the many different spaces we inhabit today. A kind of theologizing that can be worn? Absolutely!

-Rei Lemuel Crizaldo, rants from the WEA General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea

Theology can be a way of working for justice if by theology we mean the reflective act and practice of uncovering, addressing, and dismantling 'theological structures' that serve and continue to be deployed as foundations for much of the acts of injustice committed in the name of Christ in our world today.

But of course, this prophetic act of resistance has to come with articulating alternative ways of Christian thinking rooted more faithfully in the biblical text and the contexts of the people it seek to liberate.

While it is good to be reminded, especially for those doing theology from the perspectives of the Majority World, that a more 'just' theologizing has to be more pro-active than reactive, and therefore, can't be fixated on merely being contrarian and critical of Western thought, there are very specific instances wherein it would be inevitable to do so. The prophetic call can't be framed merely to reform, or to correct, or even to 'enrich' the systems of theology that have been propagated in the Majority World. Rather, it would have to be a bold and creative endeavor to replace harmful, toxic, and oppressive theological systems that developed out from the West and got shipped to Africa, the Latin America, Asia, and Oceania.

What can be more worrying is when peopleS of the Majority World are called to come and 'contribute' to the theological table. One has to ask, who is doing the inviting and from where was the table prepared and designed, and for whose benefit. God-forbid that Majority World people shall be put in the odd place and position of perpetuating and 'oiling the machine' of the extractive practice of siphoning insights, wisdom, culture, heritage, from all over the world for the sake of enriching all the more what is more properly classified as 'Western theology.' This gross 'epistemic extraction' is just one way, a very subtle way, wherein colonialism comes fully alive today and also why contextual theology may no longer be enough if devoid of the mindful stance of decoloniality.

We can no longer just do theology if the context demands a 'just' kind of theology.