Decolonization of the mind is the process of undoing the internalized belief that European culture, European knowledge, European ways of being are superior to African culture, African knowledge, and African ways of being.
Colonialism was not just political and economic. It was psychological. It taught Africans to value things European and to devalue things African. It taught that European languages were sophisticated and African languages were primitive. That European history was important and African history was folklore. That European aesthetics were beautiful and African aesthetics were savage or crude.
Decolonizing the mind means rejecting these valuations. It means recovering pride in African languages, African history, African knowledge systems. It means asking what Africans would have done had colonialism not interrupted development. It means imagining African modernity, not Western modernity imposed on Africa.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o's work on decolonizing the mind has been influential. He argued that writing in African languages is necessary for true decolonization. As long as African writers write in English, they are perpetuating colonial language hierarchies. True decolonization requires asserting the power and validity of African languages.
Decolonizing the mind is work that individuals and societies must do. It is not a political project that a government can accomplish. It is personal work, intellectual work, cultural work. It requires individuals to consciously reject internalized beliefs about African inferiority and European superiority.
Kenya's postcolonial history has been partly a process of decolonizing the mind. Pan-Africanism, the recovery of African history, the celebration of African cultural practices, all represent efforts to decolonize. But the work is incomplete. The internalization of European superiority remains. Many Kenyans still assume that the best education is British education, the best business models are Western business models, the best ways of organizing society are Western ways.
Decolonizing the mind is ongoing work, possibly endless work. It is the deepest level of decolonization because it addresses how people think, not just how states are organized.
See Also
- Ngugi wa Thiong'o as Legacy Figure
- Language Politics
- Colonial Education Legacy
- The Postcolonial Body
- Language Hierarchies Kenya