Convene the Lokayoto Decolonial Convergence of 2025 in Dhaka

Why Are We Organizing the Convergence?

We travel through a time of deepening crises—identitarian fascisms along lines of religion, ethnicity, nationalisms are on the rise; imperialist patriarchal racial-capitalism is intensifying dispossession and displacement around the world; while climate collapse reshapes our planetary social-ecological boundaries. As dominant powers dismantle life, they also conjure visions of privatized futures—dystopian city-states cloaked in sci-fi dreams, fantasies of intergalactic resource extraction, and reversals to nationalist mythologies.

In bearing witness and enduring this conjuncture, we call for a translocal Decolonial Convergence—an invitation to gather, exchange, and imagine a world of many worlds. From Dhaka, a postcolonial river city surviving the fires of persisting coloniality and fractured by neoliberal violence, we offer a provocation: What do decolonial futures look, feel, sound like when the language and aspiration of decolonization itself is being seized by fascist regimes, patriarchal theocracies, and nationalist nightmares?

We join voices that understand that decoloniality is not a metaphor, but is an imperfect living commitment to reclaiming knowledge from the margins and frontline struggles; sharing resources and strategies across geographies; and weaving solidarity that is material, epistemic, and insurgent.

The global decolonial movement is situated, not universal. Yet, it is imperative that we map the contours of solidarity that connect us across our localities as we struggle to transform systemic realities. In order to reflect that global dimension at this event, we need the voices and perspectives of our global co-agitators, partners, friends, and accomplices.

This gathering is a political and ethical refusal of the seductions of purity, identity, and totality. Our vision is to offer a global decolonial vision with and beyond Bangladesh—not as a bounded nation-state, but as a fractal of the pluriverse: a site that reflects and exceeds the whole. It is also a commitment to dreaming otherwise—to re-worlding futures through insurgent imagination, radical care, and earthly struggles. A world beyond racial capitalism. A world beyond patriarchy. A world not yet known.

What Are We Organizing?

Refusing the format of a traditional conference, the convergence will be a carnivalesque space of collective reflection and joy. This will be the first event of its kind in Bangladesh—a space of encounter, creativity, and shared world-making.

We will minimize the “talks” and promote more “talking to each other” in small and large groups. The goal is for all participants to co-create topics, formats, logistics, prioritizing flexibility and social interactions.

The gathering will bring together: conversations and informal adda; exhibitions; cooking and healing circles; music, performances, and film screenings; shared meals and everyday rituals of care, and more.

We invite artists, farmers, activists, organizers, scholars, and communities—from Bangladesh and beyond—working on gender, food, climate, mental health, culture, agriculture, and political struggle to come together.

We are open to multiple languages and genres, multiple modalities, allowing personal narratives to drive engagements, and creating spaces of shared vulnerability, trust, and healing.

Through both in-person and digital formats, we hope to connect across borders and ways of knowing, to share resources, knowledge, and strategies of solidarity.

This is not a one-time event—it is the continuation of a journey. A journey where participants will share and develop a grounded, critical, and collective understanding of decolonization. A journey that will provoke new questions, foster new solidarities, and inspire new practices of reworlding.

Starting from 2025, Lokayoto and Nirikh will organize this gathering annually, as an evolving site of decolonial praxis.

When Are We Having this Conference?

December 2025 (exact date TBA by September 2025)

Who Is Organizing?

The convergence is being organized by the Lokayoto Bidyaloy and Nirikh community, which have been playing a leading role in advancing conversations and practices around decolonization in Bangladesh.

Lokayoto is a collective committed to anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, justice- and insaf-oriented theory, practice, and ways of living and dying. It is a philosophical, intellectual, cultural, and social movement that centers decolonization as one of its core commitments. Through research, conversation, publication, workshops, collective journeys, lifeways, and community practices, Lokayoto has made sustained interventions over the past several years.

Nirikh, on the other hand, is a decolonial community-based practice that rejects the binaries imposed by racist colonial modernity—such as religion vs. science, light vs. darkness, mind vs. matter, civilization vs. barbarism, and man vs. woman. It seeks to build ethical, respectful, and plural ways of community-making that honor diverse epistemological, spiritual, religious, and cultural foundations. In that sense, Nirikh is an experimental and reflective space for decolonial community practices.

Together, Lokayoto and Nirikh are deeply engaged in both theoretical and grounded practices of decolonization—in the Bengal Delta, and in relation to the wider world. Their work includes developing new conceptual frameworks (like Ponchobot and Janoporishor Charcha) and rethinking questions of state, society, gender, religion, history, agriculture, ecology, spirituality, climate, and time itself.

This convergence is a continuation of their long-standing commitment to imagining and enacting other ways of knowing, being, and relating.

Where Are We Organizing?

The convergence will take place at Shongskriti Bikash Kendro (SBK), a beloved cultural center in central Dhaka that has long served as a hub for radical subcultures, grassroots gatherings, and community exchange. It’s a space where people come to listen to music, see an exhibit, join a conversation, or share a meal. Over the years, it has been a home for many of our political, artistic, and community-rooted events.

Unlike elite exhibition halls or academic institutions, the SBK offers a low-budget, accessible space where people from across Dhaka—especially from middle- and lower-middle-class backgrounds—can gather.

By hosting the convergence here, we ground our gathering in a space that reflects our values: anti-elitist, open, and rooted in the cultural and political life of the city. Shongskriti Bikash Kendro is part of the collective social and political fabric we are drawing from to build decolonial futures.

How Are We Organizing?

This convergence is being organized entirely through voluntary effort—driven by shared commitment and mutual support. We are a group of artists, organizers, researchers, and community members coming together to create this gathering through collective care and labor.

To make this possible, we are raising community funds to cover essential costs such as venue rental, food and refreshments; sound and video systems; printing and publications; honorariums for performers and facilitators; travel support for in-country guests and participants; and other logistical needs.

This is a community-supported gathering. Every contribution—financial, material, or emotional—helps build the conditions for a space of solidarity, imagination, and praxis. We are co-creating a space of shared responsibility and joy.

Call for Global Support and Participation

We warmly invite you to contribute your work to this gathering. We understand “work” expansively—this can include zines, essays, visual art, videos, photographs, manifestos, books, or any other materials that reflect and enact your decolonial approaches, praxis, methods, and visions.

We invite you to support this convergence financially. We aim to raise 12 lakh BDT (~10,000 USD) to cover all costs. Even a small contribution—as little as $20, $50, $100—can make a big difference. Please donate through our gofundme link here.

You can also support us by:

/ Spreading the word within your networks

/ Connecting us to people and communities who could be part of this gathering

While we are unable to provide financial support for international travel, we will do our best to assist out-of-country visitors find affordable accommodations and other logistical needs.

For more information contact:

Lokayoto Bidyaloy

[email redacted]