Decolonial Turn in the Philippine South

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The "Decolonial Turn in the Philippine South" primarily refers to a recent philosophical and scholarly development, most concretely represented by the 2024 book titled Decolonial Turn in the Philippine South by Menelito Mansueto, a scholar affiliated with Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) in southern Philippines.

This work embodies a broader emerging intellectual movement or "turn" in the southern Philippines (especially Mindanao and surrounding areas), where thinkers apply decolonial frameworks to critique persistent colonial legacies, power structures, epistemic violence, and social injustices in the region.

What is the "Decolonial Turn"?

In global academia, the decolonial turn (building from thinkers like Enrique Dussel, Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, and others in Latin American and Global South traditions) seeks to go beyond postcolonial critique. It emphasizes:

  • Exposing coloniality (the ongoing power patterns of modernity/coloniality after formal colonialism ends — including epistemic, racial, economic, and cultural domination).
  • Centering marginalized voices, epistemologies, and experiences from the Global South.
  • Liberation-oriented philosophy that challenges Eurocentric knowledge production.

Application to the Philippine South

The Philippine South (Mindanao and the Bangsamoro areas in particular) has a distinct historical experience compared to the northern/central Philippines (often called "Imperial Manila" in critical discourse):

  • Longer and more intense exposure to Spanish colonial Islamization resistance (Moros/Muslims never fully subdued).
  • American colonial "pacification" campaigns and land dispossession.
  • Post-independence internal colonialism by the Philippine state — marginalization of Lumad (non-Muslim indigenous peoples) and Bangsamoro (Muslim) communities.
  • Armed conflicts (MNLF, MILF, Abu Sayyaf conflicts, all-out wars under past administrations), martial law impacts, human rights violations, extractive economies, and environmental destruction.

In this context, the "decolonial turn" involves scholars in Mindanao engaging decolonial theory to:

  • Re-read local histories and struggles through liberation philosophy.
  • Critique epistemic injustice (e.g., whose knowledge counts? Who is silenced?).
  • Address ongoing coloniality in politics, culture, education, and everyday life in the South.

Mansueto's book (published December 2024 via KDP) is a collection of essays that illustrates this shift. It reportedly:

  • Opens with an exposition of Enrique Dussel's Philosophy of Liberation (a foundational decolonial/Latin American liberation thought).
  • Engages thinkers like Miranda Fricker (epistemic injustice), Friedrich Nietzsche, and others.
  • Reflects how political-cultural upheavals in Mindanao inspired a radical philosophical rethinking.
  • Discusses a "paradigm shift in the South" toward decolonial perspectives.

It is described as capturing a "radical turn of philosophical thinking in Mindanao."

Broader Context in Philippine Scholarship

While Mansueto's work gives the phrase its most direct title and recent articulation, related decolonial efforts exist in:

  • Filipino philosophy (some trace a "decolonial turn" via historical rethinking of colonial pasts).
  • Indigenous/Lumad studies, peace/conflict studies in Mindanao.
  • Critiques of Manila-centric nationalism and internal colonialism.
Source: xAI (SuperGrok)

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