The Decoloniality of being PoliticalStudies/Science: Legitimising a(nother)way of being

Abstract

In contributing further to the general debate on decolonising Higher Education in South Africa, this article grapples with the question of being for Political Studies/Science. Specifically, the article engages  with  the question  of  how  might  departments  of  Political  Studies/Science begin  to imagine  and  engage the  kind  of  complex decolonised curriculum  that  pays  attention  to  the relevant  structural  and  sociocultural  contexts of  South  Africa  without resorting merely to  the additive approach or nominalist model of curriculum  transformation as  sufficient .In  response, the article argues that the notion of being (Barnett,2009) for our curriculum transformation as Political Science/Studies  should  be  of  central  concern  in  our decolonisation process. In developing   this   argument,   the   article puts   forth   a   theoretical   model   drawn   from   an interdisciplinary  understanding  of  what  constitutes transformative/decolonised  disciplinary legitimation  codes(being decolonised),that  should be intentionally brought  into  Political Science/Studies through the language of decolonisation