Decolonization
WHITNEY TURRIETA
HSP 406
WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
What is decolonization?
The answer to this question is more complicated than it may seem. According to
thefreedictionary.com (2014), decolonization is defined as “the action of
changing from colonial to independent status”. This simplistic definition implies that
decolonization is limited to the political status of colonized territories. But it’s not
that simple. Decolonization is not the reversal of colonialism or imperialism,
because neither of those processes can be undone. Nor is it limited to the 17
territories identified by the United Nations as needing decolonization, or to any
geographical boundaries, for that matter.
Bamba (2013) offers this definition: “I define decolonisation as an historical
moment and process whereby the emergence of a transnational public opinion
invigorated by, yet in tension with the Wilsonian rhetoric of self-determination,
came to delegitimize colonialism” (p. 328).
But what does that mean? It means that to some extent, a movement began
following WWI and gained momentum after WWII, where people around the
world said that people have the right to govern themselves. However, many of the
colonizing countries that lost control of governments maintained a presence in
decolonize territories, often in the form of military.
There are two different types of colonies
(Tsokodayi, 2012)
Colonies of exploitation:

Also known as administrative,
conventional, or classical colonies,
were created to take the resources of
a territory and send the funds back
home. This was the case in most Asian
and African colonies. Several
countries in Africa were not
completely overpowered and have
achieved some degree of
decolonization.
Settler colonies:

Mainly established in the Americas,
Australia, and New Zealand. The
purpose of those colonies was
permanent settlement of the
Europeans who immigrated there. In
settler colonies, indigenous people
were overpowered by the numbers of
colonizers and/or their military powers,
and often exterminated.
Settler colonies have historically been highly resistant to decolonization.
The World History of Geographical Decolonization
Image #1
Decolonization in Africa
Image #3
• Independence movements began in Africa between World Wars 1 & II
• Following WWII, Great Britain was no longer in a position to maintain their colonies.
• By 1962, most colonies had regained some level of independence.
• By 1963, all of Africa had achieved independence from Great Britain, except Rhodesia.
• France also could not maintain control of their colonies; by 1960, all but Algeria had gained
independence.
• Algeria and Kenya both used guerilla warfare to reclaim their independence.
• South Africa had both Dutch and British colonizers on their soil. The system of apartheid was
abolished 20 years ago and control of the government was taken by the African National Congress.
• In many parts of Africa, including South Africa, the presence of European immigrants interfered with
negotiations, resulted in violence, and impeded transition of power. The withdrawal of resources
and lack of preparation for the indigenous people to regain control complicated matters further.
Asia and the Middle East

Great Britain granted independence to India in 1946, but conflict between Muslims and Hindus led to
the division of India into (Hindu) India and (Muslim) Pakistan. During the transition, a million people
were killed crossing borders as 12 million people migrated.

In 1948, Ceylon and Burma were also granted independence.

France refused to grant independence to colonies in Indochina but were defeated in 1954 by Ho Chi
Minh and Vietnamese guerillas.

Although Cambodia and Laos were given their independence, the division of Vietnam eventually led
to the Vietnam war.

Communism in China under the Red Guards acted as a colonizing agent by seeking to eliminate
traditional cultures and customs.

Following WWII, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan became independent.

The Arab League, formed in 1945, acts as a decolonizing agent by preserving and enriching Arab
cultures, promoting child welfare, and improving education, among other things.

Israel was formed as a state by the United Nations in 1948 and has been involved in conflict with the
Arab states in one form or another ever since, although what was once large scale fighting is now
smaller and more localized.

Decolonization in these instances came about by one of three processes: negotiation of
independence, partial withdrawal by colonizing powers, and guerilla and/or civil war.
Image #2
The United Nations and Decolonization

The United Nations has s Special Committee on Decolonization, which as of 2013 identifies only 17
territories who are not self-governing.

Turner (2013) identifies the SCD’s approach to and interpretation of colonialism as outdated and
ill-suited to address the problems of colonialism in the 21st century.

The problems faced by colonized territories and people are complex and remain long after
official independence, issues that are not addressed or even considered by the SCD, who now
faces a question of legitimacy as their role in global affairs comes into question.

The terms independence, self-determination, and decolonization are used almost
interchangeably, evidencing a fundamental flaw in the Committee’s interpretation of
decolonization and the underlying issues that are not addressed by administrative emancipation.

“Committee members should reflect on the extent to which they work in the interests of these
places, and on how this aim has been compromised and diluted by an overriding desire to see a
set of states stripped of authority over territories in which they retain a presence. These two
motivations should be consciously dislocated from one another, as the latter has frequently
precluded the achievement of the former” (p. 1203).
Source: http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/nonselfgovterritories.shtml
Image #10
Decolonization is not limited to the formal
(and usually incomplete) removal of
colonial powers from indigenous lands.
“Colonization takes many forms: from the literal appropriation of lands
to cultural globalization, from political manipulation and armed
intervention to modern versions of economic enslavement”
(DeLeon, 2010, para 8).
“
Neither is decolonization an act of self improvement for the
benefit of our own ego, a synonym for social justice, or a box
to be checked before seeking solidarity with Indigenous
people in their struggles against colonization and
imperialism. Instead, decolonization is the constant action of
turning towards life that never ends. Decolonization is vividly
alive.
(ARCHER, N.D.)
”
Although decolonization is often discussed in terms of a “world power” returning
physical and economic control of a country to its indigenous people, that is just
the beginning step. To fully understand decolonization, it has to be evaluated
through the eyes of the people most deeply affected by it, as well as in the
contexts of feminism, racialization, academia, and globalization.
Decolonization and Feminism
Image #9
Post Colonial Feminist Theory
Feminism in Western Context
Academia as a Restriction
Personal IS Political
Feminism originated with white
middle class women who were free
from racial discrimination and had
access to education and economic
resources. “Their perspective did not
leave space or allow for the
consideration of the very different
reality of women of color who
worked outside the home in blue
collar jobs due to often excruciating
economic needs, and suffered
disadvantages not only as women,
but as people of color” (DeLeon,
2010, para 2).
Expression of feminism in elite or
academic circles limited access
even further, and these
circumstances as well as the
language used to discuss
feminism served as a form of
colonization itself. These
conditions have changed as
oppressed women have raised
their voices and shared their
stories, expanding not only the
language of feminism but also the
scope.
In developing nations, women
don’t have the option to separate
their personal concerns from their
political stances. “As women of
color, their access to education
and health care, their ability to
raise their children, the
neighborhoods they live in, are all
political issues - making everything
political” (DeLeon, 2010, para 5).
Indigenous Women and Western Academia

Research methodologies have always had inextricable links to imperialism.

Western colonizers have used indigenous practices as their own while rejecting the
indigenous people themselves.

There has been a longstanding, blatant disregard in western academia for perspectives
that don’t align with standardly accepted paradigms.

Colonialism is deeply embedded in our education system and continues to affect
indigenous scholars’ abilities to participate in and get recognition of the research they
conduct.

Western knowledge of indigenous culture is often ill informed. “Travellers’ tales and other
anecdotal ways of representing indigenous peoples have contributed to the general
impressions and the milieu of ideas that have informed Western knowledge and Western
constructions of the Other” (Smith, 2012, p. 145).
“
The feminist movement as a whole has come to
be aware of the fact that sexist oppression is
inexorably related to economic, racial,
heterosexist, colonial, and all other forms of
oppression
DELEON, 2010, PARA 4
Colonialism, feminism, and
all other global issues do
not exist in a vacuum. They
are all interconnected.
Image #4
”
The Construct of Race Within
Colonization and Globalization
(Kane, 2007)
•
Recurring themes within discussion of globalization focus on economic relationships of national institutions and fail to
include race as the organizing principal that it is.
•
Color-blind racism prohibits globalization from being “transformative and emancipatory” (p. 354).
•
Economic structures in colonies are superstructures where cause IS effect; class and race are not separate entities.
•
The colonizer only exists through his relationship with the colonized, white is only such as compared to black, and
each can only exist through the other, because race is a social construct, not a biological one.
•
Schools, government, and criminal justice, as well as the loss of language, cultures, and history, are all means of
maintaining domination.
•
Change is only possible by both the oppressor and the oppressed reaching out to each other, through authentic
dialogue, an ontological shift.
•
“In the colonial world, this system of signification became a system of power legitimating white supremacy. The task
of the colonist was to replace indigenous histories and cultures and replace them with the newly constructed racial
ideologies” (p. 357).
Global Implications of Decolonization
Image #8
• The impact of colonization and the struggles of decolonization continue to manifest
themselves on a global scale.
• “The systems of power that produced colonial formations have reformulated and,
hiding behind the myth of neoliberalism, are reproducing the same inequities”
(Kane, 2007, p. 355).
• “Eurocentric analytic paradigms continue to flourish” (Mohonty, 2003, p. 229)
• The capitalist domination on Third World women workers, the continued military
presence of imperialist powers in decolonized countries, and the impact of
generations of settlers remaining on colonized lands all continue to negatively
impact indigenous cultures.
• Power and oppression disbursed by the newly formed alliance between
corporations and universities continues to inject Western presence in non-Western
nations who have historically been oppressed.
• “Financial crises, energy security, international terrorism and climate change are
among the issues which ensure that colonialism and decolonisation are now rarely
prioritized by government or other organizations” (Oliver, 2013, p. 1197).
“
From its analytical value as a category of exploitative economic
exchange in both traditional and contemporary Marxisms to its use
by feminist women of color in the United States to describe the
appropriation of their experiences and struggles by hegemonic
white women’s movements, colonization has been used to
characterize everything from the most evident economic and
political hierarchies to the production of a particular cultural
discourse about what is called the Third World.
(MOHANTY, 2003, P. 18)
”
Image #12
Decolonization and the United States

It is often easy to consider issues of a global nature without acknowledging the presence of
these issues within our own society. The United States is still populated by a majority of settler
descendants of European origin. Common issues associated with this circumstance are white
guilt, privilege, and rhetoric, including the stance that Native American ancestors sighed
treaties ceding land to the United States government.

Decolonization efforts began shortly after colonization in the Americas began, specifically in
the early 1800’s by five Native American tribes who were forcibly removed from their lands.

Native Americans, specifically the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations,
appropriated colonizer’s language and rhetoric to speak for themselves throughout the
colonization process, engaging in discourse to assert their rights and highlight the
contradictions in what was being presented as a benevolent plan to “save” Native
populations (Black, 2009).

Repeatedly, the U.S. government claimed that they only way they could protect Native
nations from being encroached on by white settlers was for them to relocate to protected
lands.
Indian Boarding Schools
In the late 1800s, a new type of genocide was
committed by the United States on Native American
youth. Tens of thousands of children were forcibly
removed from their homes, which had already been
reduced to poverty rampant reservations, and put
into boarding schools where the philosophy was “kill
the Indian, save the man”. They had their hair cut (a
sign of mourning in some cultures and shame in
others), were forced to speak English, to practice
Christianity, and were punished for any actions
related to their own language or culture. They were
often forced to perform hard labor and subjected to
physical and sexual abuse. Only when they were
completely stripped of their cultures were they
considered assimilated. This type of historical trauma
continues to impact Tribes as they struggle to bridge
the gap caused by the system destruction of their
families, homes, and ways of life.
Image #5
I was Born with Unearned Privilege on Stolen Land; What is the Next Step?
…some words for European descendants occupying colonized lands:

“Decolonization for people of European heritage is especially challenging
as we accept responsibility for the genocidal acts committed by our
people against Indigenous peoples while simultaneously seeking the
traditional cultural relationships with life necessary to reawaken our own
Indigenous understandings. There is no map for how to navigate these
murky waters of our complicated history, just the need for honesty,
understanding, deep listening, and self-reflection as we seek out this
uncharted territory of turning towards what’s alive again.

Decolonization is the process that repatriates Indigenous land and
reawakens an Indigenous lifeway for both those resisting colonization, AND
the colonizer” (Naomi Archer, n.d.)
Image #6
Suggested Readings:

Two-Spirit People: Gender Variance & Resistance in Onkwehón:we Culture by Enaemaehkiw
Túpac Keshena. https://onkwehonwerising.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/two-spirit-people-gendervariance-resistance-in-onkwehonwe-culture/

Euro-centric vs Afro-centric Analysis by Dr. Kwame Nantambu.
http://www.trinicenter.com/kwame/2006/2707.htm

Indigenous Feminism Without Apology by Andrea Smith
https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/indigenous-feminism-without-apology/

Wanting to be Indian: When Spiritual Searching Turns into Cultural Theft by Myke Johnson.
http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/wanting-to-be-indian/

Everyone Calls Themselves An Ally Until It Is Time To Do Some Real Ally Shit by Xhopakelxhit,
Ancestral Pride. http://ancestralpride.ca/?p=253

Understanding Colonizer Status by Waziyatawin.
http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/understanding-colonizer-status/
Say whaaaaaat….? Glossary of Terms:
Epistemological
Pertaining to epistemology, a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epistemological.
Hegemonic
Having hegemony, or dominance: the ruling party's hegemonic control of all facets of society.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hegemonic
Hermeneutic
The study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the bible). http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hermeneutic.
Heterogeneity
Heterogeneity is a word that signifies diversity. A classroom consisting of people from lots of different backgrounds would be considered having
the quality of heterogeneity. The prefix hetero- means "other or different," while the prefix homo- means "the same."
www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/heterogeneity
Ontological
Relating to ontology. Ontology: a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence. http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/ontology
Transnational
Going beyond national boundaries or interests: a transnational economy. Comprising persons, sponsors, etc., of different nationalities.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transnational
Works Cited
Archer, N. (n.d.). What is decolonization?. In Decolonization & reclaiming indigenous identity: Awakening the horse people. Writings
& resources for people of European heritage.. Retrieved from http://awakeningthehorse.wordpress.com/de-colonize-2/what-isdecolonization/
Bamba, A. B. (2013). Transnationalising decolonisation: the print media, American public spheres and France's imperial exit in West
Africa. Journal Of Transatlantic Studies (Routledge), 11(4), 327-349. doi:10.1080/14794012.2013.843881
Black, J. (2009). Native Resistive Rhetoric and the Decolonization of American Indian Removal Discourse. Quarterly Journal Of
Speech, 95(1), 66-88. doi:10.1080/00335630802621052
DeLeon, N. D. (2010, July 14). Common layers of oppression: Post-colonial feminist theory across borders; the first world / third
world divide . In Yahoo Voices. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/common-layers-oppression-post-colonial-feminist6375488.html?cat=9
Oliver, Turner (2013) ‘Finishing the Job’: the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and the politics of self-governance. Third
World Quarterly, 34:7, 1193-1208, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2013.825078
Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples (2nd ed.). London, England: Zed Books.
Thefreedictionary.com. (2014). Decolonization. Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/decolonization
Photo and Image Credits
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6. http://awakeningthehorse.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/practicalstepsguide.jpg
8. http://www.digitaljournal.com/img/6/9/1/0/4/8/i/4/0/4/o/globalization.jpg
9. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RT4GpfqZhIU/TUiOm2gKeI/AAAAAAAAEto/Qp8PJXe7brs/s1600/Mother%2BEarth%2BTree%2Bof%2BLif
e.jpg
10. https://faculty.newpaltz.edu/evetuck/files/2013/02/wordle-of-decolonizingfeminisms-essay.png
11. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Carlisle_pupils.jpg
12. http://awakeningthehorse.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/colonizationruin2.jpg