Despite vast research on North American Indigenous people and their struggles with sovereignty and autonomy, little attention has been paid to internal conflict within a First Nation. Inter community conflicts affect Mi’kmaq peoplehood and they relate to themselves and each other. This research was conducted in Mi’kma’ki, the traditional Mi’kmaq territory and explored issues surrounding language, financial wellbeing, geography, and Pow-wow. Interviews with 17 self-identified Indigenous people in Nova Scotia, Canada reveal that colonially induced conflicts only run so deep. Pow-wows seem to lesson conflict and become space of political protest, social inclusion and cultural reclamation. Hope lies with the younger generations who are now extending their relationships beyond the borders of the reserve.

Decolonizing Revelation: A Spatial Reading of the Blues demonstrates that the cultural phenomenon of the blues is an indigenous way of knowing that offsets the hidden logic of racialized dominance within modern Christian understandings of revelation. In distinction from the Christian, Religious, and racialized understandings of the blues, this dissertation focuses on the space in which the blues emerges, the Delta Region of the United States. By attending to space, this dissertation shows how critical consideration of geography and region can reveal nuances that are often veiled behind racialized and theologized ways of understanding the people of the Delta Region. Reading the blues in space discloses the ways in which the blues dislocates the confines of interpreters that label it a racialized phenomenon on one hand, and “the devil's music” on the other. By wresting the blues from colonialist and racist logics, this dissertation contends that the space that produces the blues can be recovered as a viable resource for reimagining a theology of revelation. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Theology / PhD; / Dissertation;

Au coeur de la présente thèse se trouve la quête inachevée d’une/de conscience(s) de libération au moyen d’une pensée radicale et critique. Le savoir épistémologique développé par bell hooks et Paulo Freire quant à la transformation de conscience en vue d’une libération a été le premier guide dans cette recherche. L’étude empirique exprime ce que signifie une trans/formation de conscience politique, pour les participant.e.s – plusieurs acteur.e.s politiques palestinien.ne.s et israélien.ne.s situé.e.s à l’intérieur des frontières géographiques de l’Etat d’Israël. À travers de longs entretiens sous la forme de conversations, cette recherche ambitionne de comprendre les voies biographiques qui conduisent les participant.e.s à opérer des performances contre-hégémoniques dans leur vie quotidienne. La conscience coloniale est en rapport avec des questions de savoir et de pouvoir et est liée, d’après les participant.e.s, à une position hégémonique de pouvoir, de violence et d’arrogance. Cette recherche montre que si le sionisme est défini par tou.te.s les participant.e.s comme un fondement de l’oppression et de la domination institutionnalisées, il ne détermine pas de la même manière le destin des participant.e.s juif.ve.s israélien.ne.s ashkénazes, juif.ve.s israélien.ne.s mizrahi.e.s et palestinien.ne.s. L’engagement dans les processus de trans/formation est perçu comme l’accès à un site inconnu de transgression où l’on acquiert du savoir et des outils tout au long du voyage. La vue apparaît comme un sens crucial à travers lequel les participant.e.s racontent la perpétuation de la conscience coloniale ainsi que la possibilité de développer un regard contre-hégémonique libérateur. Les récits de libération des participant.e.s impliquent une pensée critique suivie, qui examine constamment la réalité et dévoile la vérité sur le monde. De même, il semble que tou.te.s les participant.e.s, tout en se trouvant à différentes étapes de leur processus de libération, comprennent la trans/formation de leur conscience politique, et ainsi leur quête de libération des structures coloniales de la pensée, comme une quête de savoir objectif authentiquement féministe. Les récits montrent que le fait d’abandonner des positions binaires permet une compréhension complexe de la réalité et du propre point de vue du sujet dans cette réalité, et est essentiel pour le(s) processus de libération. Les deux premiers chapitres, qui composent la première section intitulée « Le Regard », décrivent ce que signifie la conscience coloniale pour les participant.e.s, puis tracent les contours du processus de libération et présentent la réalité asymétrique d’un point de vue national. Avec le développement d’une lecture complexe de la colonialité israélienne, la thèse poursuit une analyse à plusieurs facettes. C’est ce qui est présenté dans la deuxième section, intitulée « Acte(s) de libération : faire de la pensée critique », où sont présentés les actes et les tâches assumées dans la quête d’une libération continue. Au troisième chapitre, sous le titre « Rendre présent » et au quatrième,intitulée « Rencontres radicales », est présentée la manière dont le développement d’un regard oppositionnel implique une constante réflexivité quant à la propre position du sujet au sein des rapports de pouvoir. Comment la conscience coloniale peut-elle être défaite au sein de la structure israélienne de colonialité ? Comment peut-on se frayer un chemin vers des manières alternatives de vivre ensemble ? Ces questions et d’autres, tout aussi vitales, sont au fondement du présent travail. / At the center of this dissertation stands the unending quest for liberation consciousness(es) through radical and critical thought. The epistemological knowledge developed by bell hooksand Paulo Freire, on consciousness transformation towards liberation has been the primary guide in this research. The empirical study expresses what trans/formation of political consciousness means to these participants - several Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli political actors with in the geographical boundaries of the State of Israel. Through long conversational interviews, the research strives to understand the biographical paths which lead the participants to counter-hegemonic performances in their daily life. Colonial consciousness relates to questions both of knowledge and of power and is connected, according to the participants, to a hegemonic position of power, violence and arrogance. The research has shown that while Zionism is defined by all participants as a basisto oppression and to institutionalized domination, it does not determine the fate of the Ashkenazi Jewish-Israelis, the Mizrahi Jewish-Israelis and Palestinian participants in the same way. To engage in liberation trans/formation processes was perceived as an entranceinto an unknown site of transgression from which one acquires knowledge and tools throughout the journey. Vision appears to be a crucial sense through which the participants recount the perpetuation of colonial consciousness, as well as the possibility to develop acounter-hegemonic gaze, which liberates.The participants’ accounts of liberation entail ongoing critical thought that constantly examines reality and unveils the truth about the world. Likewise, it seems that all participants, while in different stages within their processes of liberation, understand the trans/formation of their political consciousness and thus their quest for liberation from colonial structures of thought as a quest for genuine feminist objective knowledge.The accounts have shown that stepping out of binary positions, enables a complex understanding of reality and of one’s own standpoint within it, and are crucial within liberation processes(es). The two first chapters, which comprise the first station called The Gaze, describe what colonial consciousness means to the participants and then outlines the process of liberation, and presents the asymmetric reality from a national standpoint. With the development of a complex reading of Israeli coloniality, the dissertation follows a more multifaceted analysis. It is presented in the second station, called, Act(s) of Liberation : “Doing Critical Thinking”, and presents the acts and tasks one takes in the quest for constant liberation. In Chapter Three, entitled ‘Presencing’ and Chapter Four, entitled, ‘Radical Encounters’ I present the way the development of an oppositional gaze entails constant self reflexivity on one’s own position within the relations of power. How can colonialconsciousness be undone within the Israeli structure of coloniality ? How can people work their way towards alternative ways of living together ? These questions and some other vital ones, are at the basis of this work.

The town of Izalco in El Salvador has recently become the site of indigenous revival. This development is occurring in the midst of numerous narratives at the national and local levels which assert that the indigenous Náhuat-Pipil people have disappeared from El Salvador. The causal assumption is that indigenous people were massacred during a peasant uprising in 1932 and since then, the remaining few assimilated into the dominant mestizo culture through the adoption of ladino language, dress and traditions. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to analyze this apparent paradox, where indigeneity oscillates between presence and absence. Using an interpretivist political ethnographic framework, this dissertation deepens our understanding of indigeneity by identifying hidden practices and discourses, across everyday social contexts in Izalco, which give meaning to indigeneity. Rather than beginning with set ‘ethnic’ criteria aimed at examining how a pre-established group of indigenous people experience indigeneity, I focus my analysis on four areas where indigeneity surfaced: as part of cultural celebrations (during Día de la Cruz), in stories and storytelling practices, through visual representations of ‘Indians’, and within the context of the global tourism industry. My research therefore moves beyond the tendencies of negating an indigenous presence because of the perceived absence of essentialist ethnic identifiers in El Salvador. In approaching the study of indigeneity in such a manner, I demonstrate the pervasiveness of hegemonic colonial representations through which people give meaning to indigeneity. Across the sites of analysis presented in this dissertation, expressions of indigeneity (that is, when people speak, in images, spaces, religious rituals, and social interactions) consistently reproduce colonial power relations, in which the Indian is positioned as inferior in relation to mestizos. Such a characterization also suggests that it is indigeneity, rather than simply indigenous people, which has been subject to coloniality.

Coloniality and nest defence were examined in black brant <i>Branta bernicla nigricans</i> and lesser snow geese Chen caerulescens caerulescens. Increased nest density had no effect on nest survival, egg survival, or likelihood of partial clutch predation in snow geese. In brant, nest survival declined as nest density increased in 1992 and with increased distance from shore in 1993. Brant with conspecific nearest neighbours were less likely to suffer partial clutch predation in 1993, but not in 1992. Egg survival in brant increased with nest density in 1993, but decreased as density increased in 1992, however, the decrease occurred only in nests with three or four eggs. Nesting at high densities, in central positions, or far from shorelines commonly travelled by glaucous gulls <i>Larurs hyperboreus</i> and parasitic jaegers <i>Stercorarius parasiticus</i>, the primary egg predators in this study, did not provide geese with a nest or egg survival advantage because effects were lacking in snow geese and were inconsistent and contradictory in brant. Female snow geese had very high nest attendance and both sexes had high territory attendance so snow goose nests were rarely unattended during incubation. Brant had lower nest attendance than snow geese, and due to a lack food near their nests, brant left their territories to feed resulting in lower territory attendance as well. Although male brant were capable of defending the nest from avian predators and usually remained on their territories when females were absent, males were less effective defenders than incubating females. Increased vigilance and decreased resting by female brant as incubation progressed provided support for the prediction, from parental investment theory, that nest guarding effort would increase with offspring age, but there were no changes in male brant or in snow geese. However, declining nest and territory attendance by female brant and males of both species contradicted predictions from parental investment theory but were consistent with an increased need to forage as nutrient reserves declined through incubation as expected due to energetic constraints.

This study is a critical examination of the complex search for peace, reconciliation and unity in Zimbabwe between the years 1978 and 2008, with a view to identify factors that have been blocking sustainable peace, national unity, reconciliation and development. It is a qualitative study which draws data from document analysis and oral interviews. The specific focus of the study is an analysis of the four peace agreements signed in this period namely; the 1978 Internal Settlement, the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement, the 1987 Unity Accord and the 2008 Global Political Agreement. Its central thesis is that coloniality in its multifaceted invisible forms is largely responsible for conflicts that have engulfed Zimbabwe and for compromising the chances of success of the four peace agreements. Coloniality has produced a ‘postcolonial’ leadership that has continued to practice politics in a violent, repressive, corrupt and unaccountable manner because of interpellation by the very immanent logic of colonialism that reproduces such inimical practices as racism, tribalism, regionalism and patriarchy. Theoretically, the study deploys de-colonial epistemic perspective in its endeavour to unmask and explain challenges to peace, unity, reconciliation and development in Zimbabwe. Finally, the thesis makes a strong case for pursuit of decoloniality as the panacea to conflicts and as an approach to conflict resolution and peace building that privileges decolonization and deimperialization so that Zimbabwe’s development goals could be achieved. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

This study critically engages with the current security debate on the conceptual understanding of the Islamic State (IS). The study critically evaluates the dominant Western view within the debate that conceptualises IS as an ‘Islamic’ terrorist organisation and a product of the ‘backwardness’ of Islam. By conducting a critical review of the literature on IS, the author argues that such a conceptualisation of IS is rooted in a racist, orientalist and Islamophobic Western epistemological narrative which seeks to create a ‘natural’ link between terrorism and Islam. Through a conceptual discussion on terrorism and a critical assessment of the Eurocentric nature of security studies theories, both traditional and critical, the study shows how hegemonic Western epistemologies are able to conveniently ignore the European roots of terrorism in the foundation of Western modernity. The result of this is that hegemonic Western epistemologies are able to appropriate the concept of security as an exclusive domain of Western states and their societies. This whilst carving out the non-European world, particularly Islamic societies, as the exclusive sources of potential terrorist threats. The study therefore advances the decolonial theoretical concept of global coloniality as a means of reframing the debate and shifting the point of enunciation from dominant Western views of IS to a more critical Global South decolonial perspective. As such, the study places emphasis on the European origins of terrorism as a constitutive element of the foundation of Western modernity, whilst addressing the cognitive confinement of security studies theories. In this light the study concludes by asserting that the Islamic State is a creation of the constitutive violent logic of Western modernity/coloniality, which has terrorism as its foundational core. / Mini Dissertation (MSS)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Political Sciences / MSS / Unrestricted

Including all students through the educative processes is instrumental to their success. Each student's journey through education is therefore impacted by the ways they are included in the classroom. As such, social inclusion, and academic inclusion underpinned by a general sense of belonging are key elements impacting students' successes in schooling. Both globally and nationally school systems face challenges in enacting policies, pedagogies, and practices to meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations. Student voice which has historically been absent from the literature can be a valuable tool in accounting for the lived experiences of diverse students with or without a formal label of dis/ability. Student voice can (re)present a revelatory tool that can be acted upon in responding to these diverse needs. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore how secondary students in Grenada with or without a label of learning dis/ability but who are considered as part of responsive inclusive education, experience a sense of belonging through academic and social inclusion. This qualitative study using critical narrative inquiry pursued through semi-structured interviews with students, their teachers and parents revealed resonant threads of strained responsive education, childism and coloniality, the pedagogy of nice and an elusive inclusive education. Recommendations are therefore made to center student voice and choice, further the decolonization of schooling, create improved systems of evaluation and diagnosis of specific learning challenges, and to provide extensive teacher training so that the needs of diverse learners can be met. The findings have the potential to encourage and introduce collaborative educational practices amongst teacher-practitioners, students, and Grenada's Ministry of Education and thereby improve responsive models for secondary learners of diverse abilities.

Development aid discourses have been criticised for perpetuating othering and coloniality. The discourses have been argued to produce and reproduce conceptual creations of a distinguishable 'us' and 'them' through binaries of 'developed' and 'underdeveloped', and they have been stated to uphold lingering colonial and racial hierarchies where the former colonial powers remain preeminent and subjugate the 'Global South'. This decolonial critique of development aid discourses and their perpetuation of asymmetrical relationships between donor and recipient has led to the emergence of development partnerships. This discourse emphasises the levelling of the playing field, and mutual cooperation to achieve common development goals. The development partnership discourse thus appears to challenge the othering and coloniality inherent in former development aid discourses. In 2015, the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) ended their 'traditional' bilateral aid programme to South Africa and implemented a 'development partnership' in its place. DFID's development partnership discourse has previously been criticised for denying mutuality, however, and for perpetuating racialised hierarchies. The question is therefore whether the discourse surrounding DFID's development partnership with South Africa is perpetuating othering and coloniality, or whether it is establishing a relationship built on mutual interests and cooperation. This research paper analyses two DFID policy papers setting out the planning of the partnership approach, and four transcripts of interviews with representatives involved in the implementation of the development partnership. By applying Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) the thesis analyses linguistic aspects of the discourse that serves to uphold certain power structures by defining decision-­‐making. The CDA particularly focuses on the science, narrative and perceived 'truths' about development, the recontextualisation of its particular language and the interconnectedness with other discourses that continue to sustain and reproduce the discourse. The research finds a more nuanced approach to development, as conceptualised by the representatives involved in the implementation of the partnership, and that it is challenging the 'imperial gaze' inherent in development aid discourses. However, the analysis also reveals clear examples of othering and coloniality. This is evident through linguistic distancing through notions of time, relying on particular binaries, and referring to a naturalised development trajectory which denies lived experiences and subjugate South Africa as a country. The suggestion of mutuality therefore appears to be just a façade, and the development partnership discourse is rather emphasising difference and justifying colonial hierarchies.

This research observes how discourses of belonging and citizenship manifest in media coverage. I combine both the theoretical framework of postcolonial and coloniality, and a close critical discourse analysis of various media coverage about sanctuary. I observe how nonprofits who work with the immigrant community, municipal government media, and local and national mainstream news media in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and San Francisco cover the concept of sanctuary. The inauguration of President Donald Trump in 2017 marked a new iteration of executive orders, that barred much of the immigration population that sanctuary policies are attempting to keep safe. Therefore, observing the sanctuary during the Trump administration generates new data to analyze. Through a critical discourse analysis of media in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, I found that the conceptualization of sanctuary is convoluted. I argue that without a precise definition, it offers the Trump administration space to deem the practice of sanctuary as dangerous. The mainstream news media relies heavily on placing immigrant groups in deservingness frames, translating that some immigrants belong while others do not. In my analysis, I also found that nonprofits and municipal media use media to create welcoming atmospheres through multiculturalism, assimilation, and religious rhetoric, so the immigrant population feels like they belong. While these welcoming practices are helpful to building an immigrant community, these practices were reliant on these strategies, which I argue could overshadow the complex relationship between those supporting the immigrant and the immigrant. / Media & Communication