Crafting a Decolonial Economic Order for Re-Afrikanisation in the Context of South Africa

Abstract

Colonialism was anchored on the economic principles of capitalism. The driving force behind the colonial expansion of Europe was the quest for economic advantage and advancement. The destruction of the ancient African social order in South Africa, through the agency of the military and missionaries, provided economic benefits for the settler, as well as colonial powers in Europe, while stripping away Africans of their birth-right. Capitalism was the economic order that undergirded colonialism. This article poses the questions Can decolonisation be achieved within a capitalist economic order? What can decolonial Afrikan knowledge teach us about the kind of economic order that is necessary for an effective re-Afrikanisation of contemporary Afrika?