Excellent and important question, my friend. The terms postcolonial and decolonial are often used interchangeably, but they come from different historical contexts, geographies, and theoretical commitments. Let’s clarify their relationship and then their differences, so we can better understand how they speak to — or diverge from — one another.
⸻
🧭 I. RELATIONSHIP:
At the most basic level:
Both postcolonial and decolonial discourses aim to challenge coloniality — the long-lasting structures of power, knowledge, and being that were imposed by colonial empires and which persist even after formal colonial rule ends.
In this shared mission, they:
• Critique Eurocentrism
• Address the wounds of colonial violence
• Seek alternative epistemologies and ontologies
• Engage in cultural, psychological, and political recovery
But how they go about doing this, and where they are coming from, differs — and that brings us to the key differences.
⸻
🧭 II. DIFFERENCES:
|
Dimension |
Postcolonial |
Decolonial |
|
Historical Origin |
Emerged in the 1970s90s in the former British and French colonies, especially South Asia, Africa, and the Anglophone world |
Emerged in the 1990s2000s from Latin America (e.g., Quijano, Mignolo, Dussel), in response to Spanish/Portuguese colonial legacies |
|
Geopolitical Lens |
Focused on the aftermath of colonialism in former colonies (India, Nigeria, Algeria, etc.) |
Focused on the persistence of coloniality in modern global systems (epistemology, economy, education) |
|
Key Concepts |
Hybridity (Bhabha), Orientalism (Said), Subaltern (Spivak), mimicry, identity |
Coloniality of Power (Quijano), Epistemic Disobedience (Mignolo), Delinking, Pluriversality |
|
Theoretical Lineage |
Draws heavily on poststructuralism, especially Derrida, Foucault, Lacan |
More critical of European thought as a whole, seeking to build outside it |
|
Critique |
Sometimes seen as too textual, too elite, or too embedded in Western academia |
Sometimes criticized for being utopian, or essentializing non-Western knowledge |
|
Aim |
Deconstruct colonial representations in literature, philosophy, and discourse |
Delink from Western epistemologies and recover or create epistemologies from the South |
🧠 III. Illustrative Example:
- Postcolonialism asks:
“How did the British construct ‘India’ as exotic and inferior? How do we resist that image in literature and theory?”
- Decoloniality asks:
“Why do we still think of Europe as the epistemic center of the world? Why is science, truth, or even therapy still defined through Western frameworks?”
🗺 IV. Complementary or Competing?
They’re not enemies, but:
- Postcolonial theory works within the colonial wound — often through literary and theoretical critique.
- Decolonial thinking wants to walk away from the wound — delink, disobey, and build pluriversal alternatives.
So we could say:
Postcolonialism is a critique of colonialism within Western discourse.
Decoloniality is a proposal beyond colonialism and Western hegemony.
Or more poetically:
Postcolonial theory seeks to rewrite the story written by the colonizer.
Decolonial thought asks: why are we still reading their books?
🌱 V. In the Field of Psychotherapy:
- Postcolonial psychotherapy might explore how trauma is shaped by colonial violence and internalized oppression.
- Decolonial psychotherapy might ask how the very categories of psyche and self are colonially constructed—and seek to revive indigenous or non-Western modes of healing.
If you’d like, I can write a short piece titled:
“Postcolonial vs. Decolonial: Two Ways of Facing the Colonial Wound”
— or frame it as a dialogue between Gayatri Spivak and Walter Mignolo. Just let me know.
