This article examines Brazilian higher education (HE) politics from a post-colonial perspective. The term "post-colonial" originally referred to a historical period of colonial empires established by European nations. Nowadays, the term commonly distinguishes a field of contemporary studies of "defamiliarisation of the imperial North" made up of successive acts of unlearning and re-learning. In the text I discuss the effects of globalisation on the Brazilian HE system, with emphasis on the outstanding role of evaluation and accreditation procedures. These are preparing the HE system for increasing internationalisation. Brazil, the new global player, is showing its potential in HE political acts of unlearning and re-learning. The epistemology could be called "anthropophagic" because instead of copying foreign ideas there is a tendency to create new ones and re-elaborate them with a Global North anticipatory view and an accent on Global South localism. (Contains 1 figure and 13 notes.)