Decolonization

Decolonization[lower-alpha 1] or decolonisation[lower-alpha 2] is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas.[1] The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence movements in the colonies and the collapse of global colonial empires.[2][3] Other scholars extend the meaning to include economic, cultural and psychological aspects of the colonial experience.[4]

Decolonization scholars form the school of thought known as decoloniality and apply decolonial frameworks to struggles against the coloniality of power and coloniality of knowledge within settler-colonial states even after successful independence movements. Indigenous and post-colonial scholars have critiqued Western worldviews, promoting decolonization of knowledge and the centering of traditional ecological knowledge.[5][6] Such a broad approach that extends the meaning of decolonization beyond political independence has been disputed and received criticism. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò,[7] for example, argued that it is analytically unsound to extend the meaning of "coloniality" to this extent. According to him, approaches that see "decolonization" as more than political emancipation, deny the agency of people in former colonies who have consciously chosen to adopt and adapt elements from colonial rule. Others, such as Jonatan Kurzwelly and Malin Wilckens[8] or Veeran Naicker,[9] argued that such scholarly and practical attempts at "decolonization" perpetuate reified and essentialist notions of identities.