Towards the unknown

Gloria Anzaldua’s use of Spanish along with English would be unusual and even unsettling at first. Based on my reading of the book, I would often find myself lost and confused when the text shifts from a familiar language to an unfamiliar one. Progressing through the book, one can realise that Anzaldua’s life was in much of the same. This book then is not just a piece produced by her but should be understood as an extension of her existence.

Before discussing her idea of rethinking knowledge or ways of knowing, I will discuss some ideas of Western humanism. For enlightenment thinkers, the world in its entirety is knowable. There is nothing that can not be comprehended or understood using “reasonable” ways. With the death of god and the maddening rule of reason, the world indeed becomes a disenchanted place. This disenchanted place has no space for allegories or myths as the white man sees beyond such “primitive” ideas. Then, it was this domination through reason that has become the root of all evil the world saw after the enlightenment. This inherently problematic/flawed idea of progress has left everyone else in the waiting room of history while discrediting not only their knowledge but also their ways of knowing. Colonialism is then nothing but the reduction of possibilities.

Anzaldua’s idea of decolonising knowledge is something inherently unique. Her idea of decolonising relates to closure, and with it several new possibilities. This closure can not be achieved without the acknowledgement of the damage that has been done. Therefore, the first few sections of her book deal with a fair bit of it. Decolonising knowledge, for Anzaldua, is not replacing one way of knowing with another. Her idea is to move towards a more divergent approach that allows for different possibilities to coexist without being a problem for another. She does believe that standing on river banks and shouting towards the other end will be of no use.

This is the time when we need to break free from the linear progression of humankind towards one predetermined direction. Anzaldua’s text is a call for divergence towards different ways of knowing, thinking, and existing. The West detached itself in search of objectivity but ended up making objects of people and things. This is when one breaks free from this vicious approach of knowing that sees no other possibility. Then, we need to become people who not only see light and darkness but are also able to question its very meaning. Nevertheless, this can not be done without first owning all your heritage and all the damage that can accompany it.

The reason I included the damage humanism has done to our ways of acquiring knowledge is to understand Anzaldua’s work as a way out of the hierarchy of knowledge it has left us with. It becomes increasingly difficult to break out of this since one would often find themselves confused about where to start. Everything you know, or would know relates to the possibilities that have been privileged over many that were left unheard. Therefore, reinforcing the idea that there exist other possibilities that have lost their identity to this hierarchy is very important. As it not only makes one critical of what is known but also bridges the gap between what could be known and how it could be known.