Africa Must Decolonise Its Mind, Not Just Its Borders

More than 60 years after independence, have African countries truly become free? I argue that colonial rule did not only take land and resources. It also taught Africans to judge themselves through foreign standards. From Victoria Island and Victoria Falls to streets and landmarks named after colonial figures, many reminders of foreign rule remain normalised. Yet African places had names, histories and identities long before they were renamed by outsiders. The same issue appears in the language used for former slave-trade sites. Calling places where Africans were imprisoned and shipped away “castles” can hide the violence that happened there. Decolonisation must include reclaiming our names, memory and imagination.

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