Decolonising Disability Studies: Conceptualising Disability Justice from an African relational community ideal

Citation

Onazi O (2024) Decolonising Disability Studies: Conceptualising Disability Justice from an African relational community ideal. In: Disability Intersectional Colonialities: Embodied Colonial Violence and Practices of Resistance at the Axis of Disability, Race, Indigeneity, Class, and Gender. 1st Edition ed. Interdisciplinary Disability Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003280422

Abstract
Decolonisation potentially unlocks neglected intellectual resources from Africa and the global south. Although some literature has considered the transformative capacity of a decolonised field of disability studies, little attention has been paid to disability justice. In a modest attempt to fill this gap, this chapter conceptualises disability justice from an African relational community ideal. In this decolonial reading, disability justice is defined as an obligation-based concept, which can potentially challenge a range of injustices suffered by African people with disabilities. At some degree of abstraction, the chapter considers how core obligations in African philosophy can be mobilised against a range of disability injustices. In the course of this argument, the chapter shows that the concept of obligation is generally under-theorised in disability justice scholarship. It argues in conclusion that an African-inspired approach to disability justice is important in furthering the understanding of what it means to prioritise human obligations ahead of and beyond human rights.

People

Dr Oche Onazi

Senior Lecturer in Law, Law