Understanding Decolonization

Recap: African Philosophy and Colonisation

Aims of Decolonization

  • Understand the concept of decolonization.

  • Understand the stages of decolonisation.

  • Learn about different approaches to decolonization.

  • Explore decolonization and education.

Decolonization Defined

  • Decolonisation is the process of undoing the violence created by colonialism.

  • It entails that the colonized finally take back the power from the colonizer and are not subjected to any outside power.

Political Decolonization

  • Political decolonization: The process by which colonies become independent of the colonizing country.

  • The Second World War dealt a serious blow to the colonial powers, depriving them of their former prestige.

  • The Netherlands, Belgium, and France had been defeated and occupied, while the United Kingdom was seriously depleted.

Undoing Colonization

  • If we are to undo this colonization, the regions need to decolonize.

  • Decolonization entails that the colonized finally take back the power from the colonizer and are not subjected to any outside power.

  • Wolff argues that decolonization should entail the abolition of parts of the colonial heritage.

Stages of Decolonisation

  • Rediscovery and recovery

  • Mourning

  • Dreaming

  • Commitment

  • Action

Action in Decolonisation

  • Action towards said unified goal, which can express itself in a variety of ways, namely through violence and reclaiming what was once a colony.

  • The fight against neo-colonialism

  • Decolonisation of education

Justice Through Decolonization

  • Thus, justice for the colonised can only be achieved through the process of decolonization.

  • Decolonization equals justice, and justice equals a happier society.

  • We cannot claim that the colonized are free unless we decolonize.

  • Some argue that decolonization will only take us back rather than give us anything that will build our society in a better way.

Decolonization as Transformation

  • Decolonisation is a the substitution of one species to the other

  • Decolonisation is an agenda of total disorder

  • The thing called a man through the process of liberation

  • Thus a black man’s personhood can only be attained by the complete change of the system

Concerns about Decolonization

  • Some argue that decolonization will only take us back rather than give us anything that will build our society in a better way.