Decolonising visuality: Introduction

Abstract

This edition of the RCL proposes a reflection on the decolonisation of visuality, to which we have added the words "gazes, consciousnesses, ways of thinking and acting" to point out the range of meaning that the term visuality proposes, noting the links that are established between external images and internal mental images, between thoughts and actions, between perceptions
and representations and the role played by images in the processes of acculturation and internalisation of social norms. In short: to point out the role of visuality formed in the constitution of subjectivities and forms of sociability, which are also forms of expression of alternative subjectivities, participating in social changes.
The world where the colonised territories were formally emancipated and liberated is the same world where many of their legacies endure in the various forms of social and environmental oppression we experience today, despite the many improvements achieved in democratic societies.
The space of visuality created by colonialism functions as a dreamlike space composed of mental images that show what is not visible in reality. Images and words, through their specificities, were and are used as legitimising forces of forms of power that oppress and crystallise representations about entire communities or people who have had their image and words stripped from them. This issue focuses on understanding and interrogating these processes, rooted in historical colonialism. To do so is also to defend democracy and social and environmental justice. This edition means to contribute to these values when we commemorate almost 50 years of the democratic process in Portugal (which took place on 25th April 1974).