The Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zululand, invites you to submit your abstracts for the 4th International Anthropology and Development Studies Conference in 2025. For all (existing) colonial structures, there have constantly been anti- and decolonial counterforces. However, coloniality has always found a way to reconfigure itself, shifting from rigid violence to more symbolic violence expressed through Human Rights in developing countries. With its legacies of colonial structures, coloniality strengthens its matrix of power through the imposition of Western human rights frameworks on African societies which has led to tensions between local and global governance mechanisms.