The zoom academic universe shows, ABOVE ALL, that the limitations of having actual voices from the Global South in conversations in the Global North has NEVER been about the limits of mobility, funds and borders. And no, brown voices from the Global North is not the same thing... https://twitter.com/SIIDgroup/status/1275365801802031104

This is just one eg of ALL the events i see with speakers ONLY from the North (esp US/US). Needless to say, these are conversations curated on what is happening in the South! Given there was so much backlash against academics from the African continent being refused visas...

To attend various conferences in the North, from development studies to annual associational conferences (important for CVs), the pandemic moment could have been a real opportunity to level the playing field, let alone transform it, which would require much more.

We have to simply accept and rest with the fact that the Global South exists for extractive purposes ONLY- we provide the raw material for development and decolonial theorising, but we can never be imagined as producing theory ourselves.

I would have never believed the depth of these geopolitical divides until I came to South Africa: from being asked by random Northern scholars to collaborate on their grants, to being told that there are no funds to invite, or that there is no 'name recognition' of non-Ivy types.