ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides an account of modernity/coloniality as a catastrophe, or "down turn," that fundamentally altered basic coordinates of being, power, and knowledge. He follows Frantz Fanon in demonstrating the degree to which this metaphysical alteration involves an eclipse of the self-other relation and its replacement with a Manichean conception of order and value. The author also follows Fanon in conceiving decolonization as a series of turns that posit modern colonization as a fundamental problem. In addition to exploring the entanglement between coloniality, Manicheism, and permanent war, he also provides an account of the decolonial turn, with particular attention to the genesis of the concept and early expressions. The permanent war of coloniality is an outcome of the specific ways in which "discovery" and conquest took place in the creation and expansion of the modern Western world. The author offers an account of Ethnic Studies as a decolonial scholarly space that is critical, international, and intersectional.
