Sylvia Wynter
Sylvia Wynter (born 1928) is a Jamaican scholar, writer, and cultural theorist whose groundbreaking work spans literature, history, philosophy, and postcolonial thought. She is best known for her critical exploration of how Western humanism has historically excluded Black, Indigenous, and colonized peoples from the category of the “human.” Through her interdisciplinary scholarship, Wynter challenges Eurocentric epistemologies and offers alternative ways of understanding identity, race, and humanity. Her influential essays, such as “Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom,” interrogate the legacy of colonialism and propose new frameworks for rethinking what it means to be human. A former novelist and playwright, Wynter has also been an influential voice in Caribbean intellectual circles, and her work continues to inspire scholars in Black studies, decolonial theory, and cultural studies. Her intellectual contributions mark her as one of the most important theorists of race and humanism in the contemporary era.
1492: A New World View (1995)
Info: Wynter reinterprets the significance of 1492—not just as the year Columbus sailed to the Americas, but as a symbolic turning point in the global reorganization of knowledge, power, and being. She argues that this moment marked the birth of “Man” as a dominant, Western-defined figure, replacing the religiously defined human (based on Christian salvation) with a secular, imperial “homo oeconomicus” centered on race, reason, and capitalist utility. This new figure of the human served as the foundation of coloniality, allowing Europe to justify conquest and slavery. Wynter proposes that to confront the deep-rooted injustices of the modern world, we must unsettle and revise the very definition of the human that emerged from this pivotal year.
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The Ceremony Must Be Found: After Humanism (1984)
Info: In this foundational piece, Wynter critiques Enlightenment humanism, which replaced the religious view of man with a secular one that still retained exclusionary logics—particularly through race and class. Drawing from anthropology, literature, and philosophy, she argues that the West’s construction of “Man” as a rational, autonomous, white, European subject has marginalized other forms of being human. Wynter calls for the rediscovery of “ceremony” as a metaphor for systems of meaning-making that existed prior to and outside of Western rationalism. These ceremonies—rituals, stories, embodied traditions—offer ways of knowing that are rooted in community and spirituality, challenging the reduction of humanity to biology or economics. This essay is central to Wynter’s call to go “beyond Man” toward a pluralistic conception of humanity.
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A Black Studies Manifesto: Towards the Archipelagic Human (With Katherine McKittrick, 2015)
Info: This manifesto reimagines Black Studies as a transformative intellectual and political project that redefines what it means to be human. Wynter and McKittrick critique the colonial, capitalist “genre of Man” that underpins global systems of anti-Blackness and exclusion. They advocate for the “archipelagic human”—a term inspired by the Caribbean archipelago, which symbolizes relational, dispersed, and fluid human identities. Rather than a singular, hierarchical model of being, this new humanism embraces multiplicity, connectedness, and histories of resistance. The manifesto insists that Black Studies must not only critique existing structures but also construct alternative futures grounded in justice and shared humanity.
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Human Being as Noun? Or Being Human as Praxis? (2001/2015)
Info: Wynter questions the static, objectified concept of the “human being” as a biological noun—particularly as defined by Western sciences and Enlightenment thought. She contrasts this with the idea of “being human as praxis,” where the human is understood as an ongoing, creative, and culturally situated process. This shift allows for an understanding of humans as active agents who make meaning and culture, rather than as fixed entities determined by biology or race. Wynter draws on Frantz Fanon, Marx, and African diasporic thought to argue that this redefinition is crucial for undoing the colonial and racial hierarchies that continue to structure the modern world.
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Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom (2003)
Info: One of Wynter’s most influential essays, this piece critiques the foundations of Western modernity. She argues that the colonial project established a dominant, Eurocentric mode of being (what she calls “Man2”) that defined truth, power, and freedom in racialized terms. Drawing on Fanon, Aníbal Quijano, and decolonial theory, Wynter explains how the West’s overrepresentation of one version of humanity (white, secular, rational, male) has resulted in the systemic dehumanization of others. She calls for an “epistemic rupture”—a complete transformation of the systems of knowledge and categories through which we understand the human—to make space for other ways of being rooted in Black, Indigenous, and global South perspectives.
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Unparalleled Catastrophe for our Species? Or, to Give Humanness a Different Future: Conversations (2014)
Info: This essay, also the title of a collection of essays on Wynter’s work edited by Katherine McKittrick, elaborates on Wynter’s idea of the human as a dynamic praxis rather than a fixed state. She explores how dominant categories of the human have been constructed through colonial violence, slavery, and capitalist rationality. Against this, she proposes that being human must be redefined as a creative, ethical, and relational practice that includes all peoples and lifeforms. This concept disrupts biological determinism and opens possibilities for solidarity, ecological responsibility, and cultural plurality. The essay is a call to action: to participate in the world-making work of redefining humanity itself.
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The Pope Must’ve Been Drunk, The King of Castile a Madman (1995)
Info: In this essay, Wynter takes a sharply critical look at the religious and legal justifications for European conquest, particularly the 1493 papal bull Inter Caetera, which granted Spain dominion over newly “discovered” lands. She unpacks how such declarations were rooted in a worldview that denied the humanity of non-Christians, especially Indigenous peoples. The essay’s ironic title underscores the absurdity and moral bankruptcy of these colonial logics. Wynter critiques how such theological and legal discourses laid the groundwork for centuries of genocide and enslavement, and insists that contemporary humanity must reckon with this legacy to build a more just future.