“Creatively in Coalition” from Palestine to India: Weaving stories of refusal and community as decolonial praxis

Abstract

Colonialism and coloniality constitute the backbone of modernity. Colonial structures/systems are predicated on recurring patterns of domination and violence. Decolonial movements are rehumanizing and abolitionist projects guided by Global South peoples' reimagining and reclaiming of what it means to be human. Decolonial praxes therefore require transnational efforts to decenter Whitestream academic institutions as hubs of knowledge production. In light of this, we question the boundaries of what we consider to be research in psychology as we walk in the legacies of struggle and survival-of our grandmothers and grandfathers, and so many ancestors who never used the word "decolonial". Weaving together stories of refusal and community grounded on our work in Palestine and India, we demonstrate how our decolonial strivings require us to continuously rediscover ways of being present, being in struggle, and being human together as we work ''creatively in coalition'' with our communities. Through our stories of accompaniment, and bringing them into conversation with each other, we disrupt violent, colonially-configured borders. In our world-making coalitions and the writing of this article, we turn to a praxis that allows for the revisioning of justice as irresistible and interlinked, ungovernable and in defiance of borders and walls.

The modernity/coloniality of love: Individualist lifeways and charismatic christianity in Ghanaian worlds

“…For psychologists who enact a decolonial attitude via accompaniment with communities (Atallah & Dutta, 2021; Segalo et al., 2015; Watkins, 2015), the current research might seem like a misguided articulation of decolonial perspectives: a retreat to ivory‐tower intellectual games far removed from everyday struggles of the global majority of people on the colonial side of Eurocentric modernity. Although we appreciate the value of participatory research and accompaniment with communities in struggle, we suggest that decolonial work also requires a critical re‐thinking of the constructions of self and society that inform efforts for social justice.…”

Transitional or Transformative Justice? Decolonial Enactments of Adaptation and Resilience Within Palestinian Communities

“…Rather than entrusting the work of transformative justice to governments or neoliberal institutions, I (Devin) have learned to focus on co-building communities of resistance and resilience grounded in Palestinian refugee camps through generative creative coalitions in collaboration with marginalised communities (Atallah, 2021;Atallah and Dutta, 2021). One such refugee camp community is directly adjacent to my Indigenous village -the valley in which my paternal grandparents' roots grow deep down into time immemorial where my grandfather Jamil was born.…”

Counterstorytelling as Epistemic Justice: Decolonial Community‐based Praxis from the Global South

“…We conclude with the implications of community-centered counterstorytelling as a powerful form of decolonial praxis that recenters knowledges from the margins. Across these endeavors, we decenter disciplines and institutions and center those at the frontlines of struggles for justice; in fact, we actively undiscipline ourselves as we consider how, where, and with whom we stand in relation to justice (Atallah & Dutta, 2021). We also heed decolonial scholar Lewis Gordon who cautions us against disciplinary decadence -"the phenomenon of turning away from living thought, which engages reality and recognises its own limitations, to a deontologised or absolute conception of disciplinary life.…”