(DE) COLONIALITY OF POWER, COLONIALITY OF KNOWLEDGE, AND (DE) COLONIALITY OF BEING: SCRUTINIZING ONTOLOGICAL HIERARCHIES, EGO-POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE/EPISTEMIC LARCENY, AND STRATEGIC SILENCE IN THEFT

Abstract

This paper attempts to elucidate the perpetual marginalization/larceny of the non-Western epistemologies/ontologies, instigated by (de-) colonial power structure(s) in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of decoloniality, it foregrounds the ways in which (de-) coloniality of power consolidates the ideological structures of colonialism, sustains the hubris of the zero point/ego-politics of knowledge, and (re)engenders the (de-)coloniality of being in the modern/colonial world(s). The interlocking mechanism of the (de-) coloniality of power and of knowledge exploits the lived experiences of the characters: Raya, Fauzia, and Badar. Raya and Fauzia are afflicted by the colonial control of power/economy/gender; Raya is forced into marriage with Bakari Abbas, enduring the sexual assault, while the colonial gender differences afflict Fauzia, validating Karim’s extramarital affair with the Western tourist, Geraldine Bruno. The scarcity of the coloniality of power/economy deprives Badar of the colonial/modern knowledge, foregrounding the theme of epistemic marginalization. Hawa is entangled in the colonial matrices of knowledge, totality of knowing, and the globalization of language(s). Provoked by the myth of modernity and seduced by the Western epistemologies, Hawa denounces her own accord/culture/tradition/language/praxis of knowledge, adopting British culture, language, and ethics of living. Badar and Fauzia deploy a strategic silence to raze the overlapping relationship between the coloniality of power and of knowledge to dismantle the coloniality of being. In Theft, the colonial ontological differences pervade the colonial epistemological differences: you are inferior ontologically and therefore epistemically; you are inferior epistemically and therefore ontologically, spotlighting an analytical transition from post/post-colonialism to decoloniality. The paper aims to demolish the hubris of the zero point/ego-politics of knowledge, disempower the colonial power structure(s), and obliterate the interwoven dynamics of the coloniality of power/knowledge, advocating the strategic implementation of silence to disrupt the coloniality of being.