Ezumezu logic as a decolonial system of order

Abstract

Logic is often taken as the study of the laws of thought such that, given certain premises and the laws of logic, certain conclusions follow necessarily. The “traditional laws of logic,” developed in European thought, have set the standard for what counts as correct reasoning and have been indispensable tools for the colonization of Africa and the Americas. In this paper, I will argue that Ezumezu logic developed by Jonathan Chimakonam and his colleagues can serve as an alternative to the received logics of Europe but can also serve as a resource to undermine the structures of the colonial system that has been imposed on Africa and the Indigenous peoples of America. To see the potential of such logics, I will argue that Ezumezu logic and the implied logics of Indigenous North America are instances of a larger decolonial system of order that frames both reason and agential action.