Having achieved formal independence, formerly colonized societies continue to suffer under the consequences of colonialism. Whereas colonialism is often declared to have ended, coloniality persists. Colonialism created power structures that transcend armed control over territories and people and remain “alive in books, in the criteria for academic performance, in cultural patterns, in common sense, in the self-image of people, in aspirations of self, and many other aspects of our modern experience.” Thus, the question arises: how can we dismantle and break out of this structure? Constitutionalism has traditionally been seen as one of the main paths to emancipation for a people. In defining a collective political identity and laying the ground rules for their society, they could overcome oppression by strongmen. But can constitutionalism also serve the purposes of fighting coloniality, or is it a Western concept whose application imposes on formerly colonized societies the epistemology of their oppressors?
In this conversation, Ronnie Yearwood analyzes the persistence of coloniality in Caribbean constitutionalism and asks what a decolonial constitutionalism, able to overcome the past and think the “new,” must look like.
Ronnie Yearwood is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. He was recently an Academic Visitor at the Institute of European and Comparative Law at the Faculty of Law, Oxford University, and is currently a Visiting Researcher at Newcastle Law School.
The interview was conducted by Konstantin Kipp. Lilith Hakobyan edited the audio file.
