Narrative Expansions

Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries

Jess Crilly, Regina Everitt, Jess Crilly, Regina Everitt

• Publisher: Facet Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781783304974, 9781783304981
• eBook ISBN: 9781783305216
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The demand to decolonise the curriculum has moved from a protest movement at the margins to the centre of many institutions, as reflected by its inclusion in policies and strategies and numerous initiatives in libraries and archives that have responded to the call, and are critically examining their own historic legacies and practices to support institutional and societal change.

Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries explores the ways in which academic libraries are working to address the historic legacies of colonialism, in the context of decolonising the curriculum and the university. It acknowledges and explores the tensions and complexities around the use of the term decolonisation, how it relates to other social justice aims and approaches, including critical librarianship, and what makes this work specific to decolonisation.

The book is international in scope, and considers the contextual nature of decolonisation, with discussion of the impacts of settler colonialism, and post-colonial contexts with authors from Canada, the United States and Kenya, as well as universities in the UK.

Split into two sections, the book first addresses experiential contexts, discussing the environment in which the academic library is enmeshed: legacy knowledge systems, the neo-liberal university, the pervasive Whiteness of the higher education sector, the global publishing industry – how these structures are constitutive of coloniality and how they can be challenged. It then brings together theory and practice featuring case studies interpreting what it means to 'decolonise' in information literacy, collection management, inclusive spaces, LIS education, research methods and knowledge production through the lens of critical pedagogy, critical information literacy and Critical Race Theory (CRT). The book also addresses the impact and implications of the Whiteness of university library staffing.

Bringing together the theory and practice of an area of critical concern to the academy, this book is an important reference for academic librarians, educators and researchers in LIS, education and sociology.

Part 1
Contexts and Experiences

1
Decolonising the Library: From Personal Experience to Collective Action

A conversation with Hillary Gyebi-Ababio

Editors (Eds): Firstly, what do you understand by decolonisation as a term?

Hillary Gyebi-Ababio (HG): The term ‘decolonisation’ is now being used very widely – its definition is often disputed and misinterpreted. Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is one of the earliest texts where we see decolonisation defined clearly. Fanon speaks of decolonisation as ‘the need to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation’ (Fanon, 2004, 2).

In more recent interpretations, decolonisation has been defined as ‘a political process and vital internalization of the rejection of colonialist mindsets and “norms”’ (Ghillar, 2016).

Mbembe describes decolonisation much more tangibly as being about ‘reshaping, turning human beings once again into craftsmen and craftswomen who, in reshaping matters and forms, need not to look at the pre-existing models and need not use them as paradigms’ (Mbembe, 2018, 9). The Decolonising LSE Collective refer to ‘recognizing, making visible and working to address the legacies that colonialism, empire, racism and patriarchy continue to have and envisioning a world beyond these repressive structures’ (Decolonising LSE Collective, n.d.).

Ultimately, as Behari-Leak et al. articulate well, decolonisation is ‘a nuanced, layered concept’, and we should focus ‘more in its detail than its definition’ (Behari-Leak et al., 2017). We must ensure that we don’t get caught up in lengthy academic discussion over the definition of decolonisation that results in cyclical inaction, and ensure there is focus on how to make this work authentic, wholescale and transformative.

The decolonisation movement is alive and growing – and has been for years and years. So much progress has been made, and a firm foundation has been built for the work that is starting to emerge. Therefore, before speaking about how decolonising the library can come to life, we must pay homage to and, in our work, honour those that have been doing this work before us, especially in times where the work of decolonisation has been criticised, misconstrued and outright rejected. A final point on defining decolonisation: many have tried to misconstrue it to be about the ‘erasure of history’. It must be made clear that decolonisation comes to life when there is a real understanding about the justice it seeks to bring to those who have been erased, invisibilised and excluded from the narrative for so long; this comes through rebuilding and reimagining knowledge, the purpose of education, and truly building a world without white supremacy.

Eds: Why is decolonisation so high on the NUS agenda?

HG: Decolonisation is about reimagining education and all aspects of our societies; education is the key that unlocks knowledge, fuels passions and curiosity and defines the truths that allow students to carve out their identity in the world. At the root of the NUS is a deep hunger and determination to rebuild how education is done and remove all the structures that have led to racism, colonialism and imperialism, and in their place, the aim and vision is of a world that is accountable for this violence and works towards restorative justice, by working together towards cultural, psychological and economic freedom. Decolonisation as theory and practice is used to imagine this and create what this change would look like. In our current education system, students are not experiencing that liberation or social justice at the core of their educational experience, and with other members of our education communities, still suffer from the impact of current and historical colonialism that our modern educational system was built on.

Students of all backgrounds need to engage with education in a way that enables them to be architects of their own futures, and partners in its development. The purpose of education should not be to make students consumers or spectators, but, rather, it must be to empower students to share their knowledge, build on it, challenge it, reshape it, critically analyse it, in order to grow as a collective as well as individuals. This is aptly put by the late Martin Luther King Jr, who said: ‘Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically’ (King Jr, 1947, 1).

In King’s definition, education is about investigation, a process of learning and unlearning and, crucially, reimagining and recreating. But the purpose goes even further: in order for change to happen not only in the minds of individuals but in the world, social justice must be embedded in education. This is most important in the world today, as we battle health pandemics, and also ongoing social injustices too.

For the generation who have been spearheading the decolonising education movement, this work is about fighting for more than just an ‘inclusive’ education. It’s about fighting for an education that sets a foundation for students and the world they live in – a world they can build that is anti-racist, fully liberated and accessible for all.

Eds: How is decolonisation part of your broader anti-racist work?

HG: Students and grassroots activists, who have ignited the process of decolonisation across their educational institutions over many years, have grounded their anti-racist work in decolonisation – from solidarity with Black South Africans during apartheid through the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, to work on addressing the Black attainment gap, to launching the nationwide campaign Why Is My Curriculum White? That campaign invited academics, staff and students into spaces that confronted the curriculum’s Eurocentricity; students have seen decolonisation as not just about the university, but instead about the wider world and, most importantly, about people.

In essence decolonisation calls for us to reassess our notions of humanity, as Fanon does, and reset the very foundations of our assumptions, norms and taught truths. This work for the educational community needs to be about the student – every student, who continues to experience and be wrongly taught about the violence of current and historical colonialism in their education.

Mbembe characterises the heart of this work well in affirming that: ‘we are also talking about the creation of those conditions that will allow Black staff and students to say of the university: “This is my home. I am not an outsider here. I do not have to beg or to apologize to be here. I belong here”’ (Mbembe, 2018, 4).

The ultimate aim is to liberate and democratise our education systems so that the world becomes free from spaces, institutions and systems that perpetrate colonial violence, and is built for us, by us. The prominence of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement following the death of George Floyd in May 2020 has played a massive role in calling out colonialism in education. For many students, particularly Black students, this was a time when they took back the fight for the eradication of the systemic racism that has plagued their lives and hindered their educational experiences.

Eds: Where does the library fit with this work and how have students engaged with decolonising the library?

HG: An example of students working with libraries in this space is the Goldsmiths University and Student Union Liberate Our Library campaign (Goldsmiths, University of London, 2021).

Marilyn Clarke, Goldsmiths Library, states that: ‘I as a library worker seek to transgress against the boundaries imposed by racism, classism and heteronormative structures in both knowledge dissemination and organisation, as well as institutional structures’ (Clarke, 2019).

Activists and sabbatical officers in and around Goldsmiths Student Union have long been at the forefront of the decolonisation movement. The Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action group successfully led a 137-day occupation of Deptford Town Hall, where students were able to secure commitments pertaining to an overhaul of the curriculum and wide acknowledgement of the university’s colonial ties. In that same vein, the Liberate Our Library campaign came off the back of a wider campaign to ‘liberate our degrees’ led by the NUS. The importance of the specific work on the library stemmed from the understanding that ‘the library as a professional service must play a fundamental role in this work as a conduit for access to learning and teaching resources’ (Clarke, 2019). This project is particularly interesting in how it centres students and their vision. At the heart of the democratisation of the library, and education more widely, is the idea that there are no gatekeepers of knowledge or any individual or group that holds a monopoly on owning knowledge.

Students must be central to the work of decolonising the library. The two key components that have blocked the progression of the decolonisation movement are the exclusion and destruction of information for knowledge building, and the lack of safe spaces that enable all, especially those that have been marginalised, to be liberated. The first step to any of this work is to recognise that knowledge is not a commodity and therefore must be regarded as ‘a cumulative and shared resource that is available to all’ (Keele Decolonising the Curriculum Network, 2020).

Students, staff and institutions must challenge current ways of knowledge accumulation in the building of the decolonised library. Students must build on the work of those who have laid the foundations for decolonisation and honour those whose ancestral knowledge has been destroyed or erased. For liberation to be achieved, academic tradition must be uprooted to allow students to pave a way that leads to transformative change.

Work to decolonise the academic canon and library is very important to students. This is an area of decolonisation that is active and progressing – and for students has been on the agenda long before the advent of the Why Is My Curriculum White? campaign. Dismantling the academic canon and expanding and transforming the library as we know it is a part of the decolonisation process that can produce immediate change and engage people for longer-term change. The library is a place of discovery, of investigation. It is the place where knowledge is produced and held in physical collections and through access to digital resources. For the individual student, it is a place where, consciously or unconsciously, they look to be found, and not only found, but empowered, equipped and validated by and with knowledge. Knowledge is linked with identity; the availability of a full and truly liberated library of knowledge is crucial if education is to meet its true purpose.

Decolonisation is as much a journey as it is a movement and a force for change. For all those starting the journey, the first step must be to learn and unlearn. Access to knowledge – which includes both theoretical information and accounts of experience – draws the individual in to become invested in the work of decolonisation and releases them from the notion of innocent ignorance, leading them to confront current and historical colonial legacies that have afforded power and agency to White supremacy. Students need to become renewed in their power and authority within the institutions they navigate. This work goes beyond updating and adding to reading lists and looks to dismantle and reimagine the library as a space where people are liberated, challenged and are supported in this journey.

For Black students, decolonising the library is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows their stories and histories to be recognised in their truth, with their pain and their joy. They no longer are the subject nor are they victims, but instead they become transformed into the narrator, the liberated and the visionary. On the other hand, they are also exposed to and made alive to the inheritance of pain and violence that has been sustained over generations of current and historical colonialism. For students there is power in being recognised for the narratives, personalities, individuality and diversity of identities they bring to the academy – and even more so in being celebrated for them.

There is also a need to take great care to give Black students and staff the support to be able to go on this first stage of their journey, where they are unlocking and unpicking the lies and mistruths that were placed on them as fact throughout their educational journey. The work of decolonising the library is both about the exchange of knowledge and about the physical spaces in which they can feel safe and supported in the transformation and revelation that brings.

Decolonisation of the library is a great responsibility and requires us to pay homage to and to celebrate those it brings into the light, but it also must be coupled with trauma-informed action to ensure that the potential wounds it opens can be healed. In such a central place as the library, it is important that what is front and centre is the notion of the reimagined humanity that Fanon calls for, and even more so a willingness to liberate our spaces, texts, institutions and student community to really fulfil their full potential. This is essential in understanding the impact that this has for the discovery of self that is central to this work.

Eds: What is the role of allies in decolonising the library?

HG: Students who are allies in this work must be encouraged to be proactive in approaching knowledge critically and be open to the extent that they will be challenged and simultaneously humbled. The library is a place where their eyes must be opened to a world bigger and more complex than they’ve been exposed to and find themselves removed from the centre of the narrative, to being part of a bigger picture. It is important that this space is one where they can learn independently, without an over-reliance on the victims of colonial violence to teach them. They must learn what it means to have benefited from the colonial legacy and understand the embedded inequalities and injustices that still affect racially marginalised people. It is equally important that in understanding the injustice, allies also understand other cultures and reasons to celebrate them.

Individuals in the student community must learn about cultures, practices and histories that enable those that have been marginalised to be seen as partners in this space and not to be pitied or seen as victims. More importantly, for allies, this work must inspire them to change the way they think and recognise the entitlement they’ve been brought up to have regarding the ownership of knowledge and spaces.

Eds: What about decolonising teaching and learning practices and spaces?

HG: Decolonisation is about the way students are taught and invited to belong in educational spaces. In order for the work done to have any meaning and true engagement, students – especially Black students – need to be able to feel free to engage with education on their own terms. The current system encourages these students to assimilate for success, or challenge and be shut out. If we were to flip this on its head, whether through doing away with modes of assessment that look only to tick off learning objectives, and instead replacing them with authentic modes of demonstrating engagement and critical thinking, or rethinking what learning environments look like entirely, we could reconceptualise the university a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures and tables
• Contributors
• Preface
• Introduction: Decolonise or ‘Decolonise’?
• Part 1 Contexts and Experiences
• Part 2 In Practice
• Index