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Decolonising the Library and the Future of Malay Studies Collection
Decolonisation of knowledge is gaining further traction and has become a pivotal topic of discussion in universities worldwide. Decolonisation is a call to action to decolonise the university, curriculum, museums, and the library and archive. Academic libraries are inextricably linked to universities and are sites for the collection, production, and consumption of knowledge. Some narratives are validated while others are excluded. The academic library is also a site which replicates hegemonic power structures but can be a site of resistance and change, particularly in relation to decolonisation.
Librarians have had genuine and long-standing concerns with social justice. This is seen in pro-active collecting practices, which recognises that mainstream or “authoritative” publishing does not necessarily represent the work and interests of marginalised groups.
The decolonising movement has been cultivated within various communities in the Global South. At different historical conjunctures, ideas of decolonisation in higher education have confronted liberal and nation state interests. There are a few key episodes in the movement, such as in the establishment of India’s national university in the 1960s, and in post-apartheid South Africa between 2015 and 2017 through protests by university students.
In 1964, a bill was proposed to establish a new national university in Delhi embodying noncolonial internationalism and liberal socialist ideals espoused by Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first Prime Minister. The Jahawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Act was passed in 1966, legislating the founding of a national university to promote the study of science and technology, addressing the problems of Indian society. The parliamentary debates shaped the decolonial vision of the university; JNU was not to duplicate old universities set up under colonial rule and should reflect India’s diversity.
Universities across South Africa felt the effects of two student movements on campuses of two historically white universities: #RhodesMustFall (#RMF) at the University of Cape Town and #FeesMustFall (#FMF) at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) between 2015 and 2017. #RMF demanded the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (1890-1896). #FMF emerged later in Johannesburg against increased student fees and reduction in government funding for public universities.
#RMF and #FMF activists, in calling for decolonisation, envisioned university education to radically reframe ideas of justice by inter-sectioning Black consciousness, Black radical feminism, and Pan-Africanism. This radical justice framework was considered necessary to overcome inherent racial and class distinctions between and within public universities. The activists perceive decolonisation to mean instituting epistemic and socio-economic justice in knowledge production by reworking university curricula to engage with formal knowledges of South Africa’s diverse communities.
Subaltern postcolonial scholars from the Global South have noted the need to decolonise the mind. Key theorists include Frantz Fanon, Steve Biko and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. As decolonial theorist Ramon Grosgofuel noted, decolonialisation is a critique of Eurocentrism from subalternised and silenced knowledges. In the same vein, Syed Hussein Alatas, too, criticised intellectual imperialism and championed an autonomous social science tradition in Asia.
Decolonising the Malay Studies Collection
Decolonisation has always acted as an alternative discourse to Orientalism within the field of Malay Studies. The importance of cultivating and nurturing an alternative discourse within Malay Studies should not be neglected. An alternative discourse provides valuable functions in approaching colonial works on the Malays. These functions include bringing out the different perspectives of the works. Correcting imbalances and unmasking ideologies are also functions of an alternative discourse. It will also help to understand the relationship between colonial ideas and social groups behind them so as to establish the objective value of colonial works while being privy to the distortive elements arising from the vested interests of social groups such as the colonial administrators, as Malay Studies scholar Shaharuddin Maaruf contended.
Western intellectual heritage, especially within the field of Malay Studies, should be critically selected. Being critical of the knowledge does not mean rejecting it altogether. An alternative decolonial discourse is much needed. Otherwise, as prominent Malay scholar Azhar Ibrahim asserts, the colonialist-Orientalist discourse whose intellectual and research interests are not concerned with the needs of Malay society and does not address its challenges, will prevail.
With emancipatory inclinations as a premise, area studies resource librarians, particularly for those areas which had been under colonial rule (like the Malays) should, wherever possible, strive to rebuild a history that has been systemically erased and raise consciousness through collection development. In the attempt to counter Orientalist works and the problems of representation, librarians should build a collection of quality autochthonous works, rather than only from colonialists and Orientalists. As gatekeepers of knowledge, it is incumbent on librarians to provide access to different narratives so that readers can critically make their own informed view.
However, in trying to collect autochthonous works, librarians should be wary of materials with characteristics of the captive mind. What is the captive mind? As theorised by Syed Hussein Alatas, a captive mind is an uncritical and imitative mind dominated by an external source and whose thinking is void of an independent perspective. Characteristics of the captive mind include the inability to be creative and pose original problems, the inability to formulate original analytical methods, and alienation from the main concerns of indigenous society. Trained primarily in the western sciences, the captive mind reads western authored works and is taught predominantly by western teachers, whether in the west itself, or via their works disseminated through local centres of education. The captive mind lacks creativity, critical ability and are held captive by dominant Eurocentric orientations.
To be free from this mental captivity, conscientisation needs to take place. Conscientisation, according to educationist Paulo Freire, is to learn to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality. People should enter the historical process as responsible Subjects as opposed to Objects (which are known and acted upon) and conscientisation—to quote Freire—“enrols them in the search for self-affirmation”. Works which are critically conscious therefore would break the mould of the captive mind and affirm the identity and increase awareness of the community’s history. Collecting these works in the library can help raise awareness on this.
Apart from emancipation and conscientisation as premises for developing the collection, building a pool of works that are autochthonous may carve a niche for the local library. Libraries in the Malay world cannot compete with far older and richer libraries in the West, especially in building upon works that are authored by Western scholars. Furthermore, area studies resource librarians, especially from within the community, would have subaltern experiences and knowledge, something that those from beyond the community cannot possibly have. Collecting materials that are autochthonous would therefore feasibly strengthen the collection of the local library and this local collection can serve as a niche collection and cornerstone for the library, while attempting to raise the consciousness of the community and encourage a re-reading of history.
The future of Malay Studies Collection therefore lies in decolonisation and in the wider enterprise of decolonising universities from its dependency on knowledge structures that were, and still are, being produced within a hegemonic coloniality.
Nur Diyana Abdul Kader
Nur Diyana Abdul Kader is a Humanities and Social Sciences Research Librarian at the National University of Singapore. She holds a MSc in Information Studies from Nanyang Technological University.