Decolonising Performance Methodologies: A Commentary

doi:10.1080/02560046.2026.2671730

Decolonising Performance Methodologies: A Commentary

2026-01-01

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Thomas A Mattappallil *

DOI：10.1080/02560046.2026.2671730

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This commentary offers a critical and analytical response to Gifter Ngobeni and Janine Lewis's article "Go-Itata Ritualised Theatre Performance Modes of Koma Aesthetics in a Performance as Research Production: Wela" (Citation2024) published in Critical Arts. Focusing on the methodological claims embedded in the authors' use of ukuzilanda and Go-Itata, this response examines how these concepts operate as decolonial frameworks within performance-as-research (PAR). While Ngobeni and Lewis present ukuzilanda ("fetching oneself") as a self-recovering methodology rooted in indigenous epistemologies and articulate Go-Itata as a tri-modal system of embodied commentary, intent, and expressive narrative, this essay questions how far these constructs achieve epistemic decolonisation beyond metaphor. It situates both within broader debates on decolonial methodology, embodiment, and ritual representation, arguing that ukuzilanda and Go-Itata mark an important decolonial impulse yet require greater theoretical elaboration, ethical clarity, and reflexive grounding. The response concludes by suggesting that decolonial performance research must move from symbolic self-retrieval toward dialogic, community-based epistemic accountability.

Keywords:

Decolonial methodology

performance-as-research

Ukuzilanda

Go-Itata

community

Decolonising Performance Methodologies: A Commentary

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