Decolonial though in "Our America" by José Martí

Abstract

Coloniality or coloniality of power supposes a specific modality of power of modernity. Its genesis is the conquest of America, while its preponderant consequence lies in the establishment of European hegemony on a planetary scale. In this way, modernity and coloniality constitute concomitant concepts. In contrast, thinking in a decolonial way implies an effort to root reflection, that is, to contextualize its discursive development: the first movement is to exclude apriorism. It means, in the field of social sciences, not subjecting the American experience to the theorization of exogenous concepts, but rather designing its own categories that articulate a scientific narrative from the American perspective, that is, from the perspective of the colonized.