decolonize

Verb

decolonize (third-person singular simple present decolonizes, present participle decolonizing, simple past and past participle decolonized)

1. (transitive) To release from the status of colony; to allow a colony to become independent.
   • A paternal government would attempt to decolonize American literature, by forbidding the re-publication of foreign works, and offering premiums to those of home production.1860, James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson: In Three Volumes, page 84
2. (transitive) To reverse the colonization of, i.e. to grant back autonomy to a group.
   • Across Ukraine, officials are starting projects to, as they say, “decolonize” their cities. Streets and subway stops whose names evoke the history of the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union are under scrutiny by a population eager to rid itself of traces of the nation that invaded in late February.2022 June 7, Erika Solomon, “Goodbye, Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy: Ukrainians look to ‘decolonize’ their streets.”, in The New York Times
   • The arrival of Trump in the White House gave a new urgency to the idea that museums needed to “decolonize” their collections, atone for their past elitism, and become overtly political institutions rather than mere warehouses of valuable objects.2022 October 3, Helen Lewis, “The Guggenheim’s Scapegoat”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN