Resistance Communication: Toward a Decolonial Theory of Narrative Sovereignty from the South
This paper proposes "Resistance Communication" as a new theoretical framework grounded in Global South epistemologies. Drawing on Arab-Iranian, Latin American, African, and Chinese traditions of resistance thought, it develops four core principles: (1) narrative sovereignty as epistemic self-determination, (2) counter-hegemonic knowledge production, (3) solidarity-based communication networks, and (4) transformative praxis linking theory to liberation struggles.
The framework is developed through critical discourse analysis of resistance communication in Palestine since October 2023, archival research of Global South resistance movements, and comparative historical analysis. It challenges Western-centric communication theories that position the Global South as object rather than subject of knowledge production.
This intervention is timely as the Palestine genocide reveals the bankruptcy of liberal communication paradigms that cannot account for systematic erasure, censorship, and narrative warfare. Resistance Communication offers an alternative grounded in the lived experiences and intellectual traditions of those who have historically resisted colonial and imperial domination.