On academics, Israel and decolonisation

What did ‘y’all’ think the word meant?

‘Decolonisation’ is a term you will no doubt have seen if you have any dealings with higher education, museums or pretty much any institution in the English-speaking world.

The National Education Union wants to  Decolonise education. The London Metropolitan University wants to decolonise. The Museums Association wants to decolonise. SOAS wants to decolonise. These are just four random examples; I could find dozens if not hundreds just in Britain, although I would probably lose the will to live in doing so.

But what does this mean? The Washington Post defines decolonisation as ‘a process that institutions undergo to expand the perspectives they portray beyond those of the dominant cultural group, particularly white colonizers.’

That is one suggestion — but why don’t we ask the decolonisation experts themselves what they mean? After Saturday’s inhuman atrocities many were keen to tell us.

Around 1,000 people, mostly civilians, were massacred in southern Israel by the terror group Hamas; about 250 of those were young people slaughtered at a peace festival. Elsewhere, whole families were murdered or kidnapped. Many of the women were most likely raped, and many bodies were desecrated on camera. The level of savagery almost defies understanding — at least to most people.