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.