Abstract

Drawing on the long-standing debate over the origins of Irish sean-nós singing, and placing Gaelic epistemology into conversation with African decolonial scholarship, this lecture examines how colonial powers have historically sought to control indigenous pasts. It makes the case for an inter-epistemic understanding of indigenous knowledge that exceeds the explanatory limits of Anglo-modern historiography. In contributing to South–South dialogues between Irish and African decolonial thought, the lecture demonstrates how struggles over the origins of indigenous knowledge are inseparable from broader struggles over epistemic justice and the decolonization of knowledge.