Just a Thought

Decolonization vs ?

By Sankofie | Published May 28, 2026 | 1 Comment

I am finding the word ‘decolonization’ to be an insufficient and inadequate word to describe where and how we must be when we return to our identity and trajectory as African and Jamaican people. Our initial trajectory was interrupted at a certain point. With that interruption we have had certain experiences that may or may not have been in ‘our stars.’  Through that interruption we have learned some very serious lessons. We now recognize the need to return to our path, our trajectory but certainly we cannot just return to the point of interruption as if nothing had happened, which to me, is what the word decolonization suggests.

The scope of the meaning of the word seems to be limited to simply removing the colonizer, returning to the point of the interruption, seeming not to go beyond thoughts of removing colonial impacts and structures while having our agency defined as a factor of colonization determination. Decolonization as I hear it today continues to centre the colonizers and does not suggest to me a return that has moved us ahead of the point of interruption, to allow us to acknowledge the interruption and lessons learned from it.  The word does not provide for us to rejoin and continue on our initial African trajectory in a transformed way but seems to limit us to who we were at the point of interruption and nothing more.

So what am I looking for? I am looking for a word or words that allow us to return to our paths but somewhere forward of the point of interruption, that recognize the disruption and what has been learned through and from it and allow us to centre Africa and our responsibility to self determine.   Both Jamaica and Africa, where the interruptions occurred, are still suffering major loss from the conquest of mind, body, spirit which colonization occasioned.

So instead of ‘reactivly’ decolonizing today should we be proactively re-birthing Africa and Jamaica to powerfully reorient ourselves as we consciously return to our ancestral trajectory – not as we were but as we are becoming?

Just a thought.