| dc.description.abstract | As the old saying goes, the past is never dead; it is not even past.
Every object, concept and individual has a history. When probed
more deeply, that history shines a light on the dark underbelly and
crevices of the present. No situation, concept or person can ever
be fully understood without probing their histories. Hence,
decolonization and decolonial projects demand an in-depth
appreciation of the history of colonization and all its supporting
discourses. It is only with such a comprehension that there can
be a successful extrication from the bondage of colonization and
domination. It is especially necessary to be alive and alert to the
histories of normative concepts that are presented as ahistorical,
universal and neutral, including “human rights,” “race,” “gender,”
“family” and “law.” At the same time colonialism did not mean the same thing for women and men3
; for rulers and subjects, or for
dominant groups versus ethnic minorities. It also meant different
things in different contexts; what happened under British rule in
Nigeria looks quite different from what happened in Botswana.
Although there are overlaps and similarities in the legacies of
European colonialism in Africa, there are also sharp differences
between the practices and impacts of the different colonial powers.
Fully aware of these complexities, this book largely examines
British colonialism. The term “decolonization” refers to various
processes of deconstructing colonial interpretations and analyses
of the social world. It is very much in line with Frantz Fanon’s views
in The Wretched of the Earth.4
For the colonized, decolonization of
the mind is really about returning to the annals of history to find
ourselves, to become fluent in our cultural knowledge systems, to
cultivate critical consciousness and to reclaim our humanity. | en_US |
