“Suahunu,” the Trialectic Space

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of “suahunu” as the “trialectic space” and highlights its key principles and ideas as part of the project of pioneering new analytical systems for understanding Indigenous communities. The concept is borrowed from the lexicon of the Akan people of Ghana, with the embedded meaning that if one is seriously about learning, one will come to know and acquire knowledge and act responsibly. The article also raises lessons for the ways we produce and validate knowledge for social action and practice. In the discussion, the ideas embodying the “trialectic space” (e.g., body-mind-soul interconnections, culture-society-nature interface, sacredness of activity, spiritually centered space, ancestralism, embodied connection, decolonization, and multicentricity) are fleshed out, pointing to the implications for revisioning schooling and education globally for contemporary learners.

Listen to her: Re-finding culturally responsive poetic inquiry as home knowing for women of African descent

“…In reflecting back to thinkers who theorize poetry as decolonial practice, I am reminded of poetry’s evocation of homeplaces. Poetic inquiry as home knowing is congruent with Ghanaian George Sefa Dei (2012) theorization of the trialectic space of local knowledge of African descendant people, where knowing moves beyond the rational mind to encompass body, soul and spirit, interfaces with history, and its legacies, recognizes the sacredness of our knowing practices, and its connection to our cultural precepts and practices. Using methods that culturally respond to how WE know as people of African descent, can promote their epistemic salience and relevance in social science research with, for and by people of African descent.…”

African Indigenous Proverbs and the Institutional and Pedagogic Relevance for Youth Education: Lessons from Kiembu of Kenya and Igbo of Nigeria

“…These are the conceptual and practical grounds of developing any discursive framework to undergird the study of Indigenous knowledges. Understanding Indigenous philosophies require a frame of reference: the idea of 'society-nature-culture' nexus or interface that ensures the vitality of Indigenous African cultures (see also Dei, 2012). To speak of a world community is to acknowledge the society-nature-culture as in constant union and relations.…”

Cosmopolitanism or Multiculturalism? Towards an Anti-Colonial Reading

“…Within the space of Cosmopolitanism, decolonial learning can proceed if we always uphold a multi-centric knowledge base that brings into learning circles the nexus of body, minds, souls and spirits, and connections of society, culture, and nature (see Dei, 2012;Dei, 2016, p. 34;Batacharya & Wong, 2018). Developing a 'pedagogy of Blackness and anti-Black racism' requires that our schools work with local communities, particularly Black, Indigenous, and racialized educators within our institutions.…”