decolonize

verb

de·​col·​o·​nize (ˌ)dē-ˈkä-lə-ˌnīz 

variants also British decolonise

decolonized; decolonizing; decolonizes

transitive verb

1

: to free (a people or area) from colonial status : to relinquish control of (a subjugated people or area)

the year the country was decolonized

The country faces international pressure to decolonize the territory.

2

: to free from the dominating influence of a colonizing power

especially : to identify, challenge, and revise or replace assumptions, ideas, values, and practices that reflect a colonizer's dominating influence and especially a Eurocentric dominating influence

To decolonise and not just diversify curriculums is to recognise that knowledge is inevitably marked by power relations. … A decolonised curriculum would bring questions of class, caste, race, gender, ability and sexuality into dialogue with each other, instead of pretending that there is some kind of generic identity we all share.

—Priyamvada Gopal

Per a statement, staff [at the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum] have removed a total of 120 human remains from display, moving them to storage as part of a museum-wide effort to decolonize the Pitt Rivers' collections.

—Nora McGreevy

Decolonizing science will also involve encouraging Western institutions that hold imperial scientific collections to reflect more on the violent political contexts of war and colonization in which these items were acquired. An obvious step forward would be to discuss repatriating scientific specimens to former colonies, as botanists working on plants originally from Angola but held primarily in Europe have done.

—Rohan Deb Roy

Decolonizing my mind has been a continual process of rethinking the values that guide my actions. It's emotional, intellectual and spiritual labor that involves centering myself as an African-American woman and not allowing my entire existence to be a performance tailored for the white, cisgender male gaze …

—JerVae (Jae Anthony)

Examples of decolonize in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The goal is to decolonize our relationship to wildfires, remove barriers to using good fire, and prepare us for a world more impacted by the effects of climate change. —Joseph Lee, Vox, 15 Aug. 2024

And collectively experimenting and working to adapt and decolonize the filmmaking process. —Kate Nelson, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 June 2024

If no music festival is available for decolonizing action, any bar or restaurant with live or recorded music will do. —Daniel Foster, National Review, 30 Nov. 2023

Below, in a conversation that has been condensed and edited, Frank and Whitewater discuss decolonizing Indigenous ingredients, minimizing waste in the kitchen, and changing our expectations around produce. —Megan Zhang, Saveur, 22 Nov. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined at sense 1