Coloniality of power as a means to knowledge: its limits and explanatory potentialities

Abstract

Given the growing importance of the decolonial turn both inside and outside the Latin American context, this article seeks to return to its roots, making a careful reading of the concepts of coloniality of power/raciality and historical-structural dependence in the thought of Aníbal Quijano. We perceive a mono-causal relationship between the persistence of raciality in politically emancipated societies (explanans) and the Latin American dependency (explanandum). Moreover, we conclude that it is fundamental to employ the decolonial contribution as a tool for conceptual formation or as a heuristic device in cooperation with other approaches of the racial issue in Latin America, such as Carlos Hasenbalg’s and Florestan Fernandes’