Building Global South-South solidarities to redress inequalities (BUSSIN)

Principle Investigator

Dr Geetha Reddy

International Collaborators

Dr Khoo Ying Hooi, Associate Professor, Universiti Malaya

Prof Datuk Denison Jayasooria, Hon Professor Institute of Ethnic Studies, National University of Malaysia (UKM), President Society for the promotion of SDGs, Head of Secretariat (ASPPGM-SDG) 

Project Summary

From 1834 to the end of the WWI, Britain had transported about 2 million Indian indentured workers to 19 colonies including Fiji, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Guyana, Malaysia and South Africa. The system of indentured labour was officially abolished by the British government in 1917, however the effects of colonisation endure in the psychologies of the descendants of enslaved and indentured peoples till today.

In this transdisciplinary research challenge, we focus on understanding the impact of British coloniality on racism and marginalization in South Africa and Malaysia. One of the project’s key research aims is to contribute a deeper, decolonial understanding of racism by focusing on global South accounts of coloniality and decoloniality.

The project will also focus on developing transformative action to arrest the spread of precarity, racial capitalism and anti-Black racism forged through colonisation and the creation of indentured labourers in the two countries. A core aspect of this project is dedicated to imagining free-er futures for marginalised communities, with marginalised community members, by not only bearing witness as a social psychological method (Fine, 2006) but also recognising that precarity often leaves marginalised peoples without the time-space for future orientations (Reddy & Amer, 2023; Schmitt et al., 2023).

Finally, the project will focus on increased recognition of the strength of South-South solidarities as a map for liberation. The project will utilise elements of critical participatory action research (CPAR) methodology to enliven discussions on and to recognise acts of resistances to coloniality in South Africa and Malaysia.

This project has three strands that will be woven together.

(1) Recording psychological impacts of coloniality in South Africa and Malaysia and translating these insights for academic audiences

(2) Fostering long-term solidarities between communities in South Africa and Malaysia

(3) Contributing to the development of sustainable solutions that redress inequalities and inequities within a vision of decoloniality.