Decolonisation and Localisation.
Code: DCL
Decades of evidence show that much of the global development system continues to operate on inherited power hierarchies, where strategies, resources, and definitions of success are often shaped far from the communities they intend to serve. Despite good intentions, too many initiatives reinforce asymmetries between international and local actors (Peace Direct, 2021; NEAR Network, 2022).
True decolonisation begins by naming and dismantling these structural imbalances—not through symbolic inclusion, but by redistributing power, trust, and voice. This means shifting from a model of external control to one where local actors determine priorities, lead on their own terms, and are resourced accordingly.
Studies show that when local leadership is centred—rather than merely consulted—programmes become more effective, contextually grounded, and sustainable (OECD, 2020; ALNAP, 2022). Yet, as research by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI, 2021) reminds us, localisation often remains stuck in transactional partnerships, rather than transformative ones.
Genuine local leadership is not about being invited to the table—it’s about building the table. In this vision, international actors become scaffolding: supportive, flexible, and temporary. They listen more than they direct. They follow more than they lead.
The challenge is not to adjust the existing system—it is to imagine a new one—a system that values presence over dominance, solidarity over saviourism, and long-term equity over short-term wins.
🪘 Ancestral Knowledge & Memory
Code: AKM
Revives Africa’s buried wisdoms, oral traditions, and indigenous philosophies, calling attention to what colonial systems erased and what must now be reclaimed through remembrance.
DCL–AKM001
Kurukan Fuga: A Charter Older Than the Scroll.
Long before the Enlightenment thinkers penned declarations in Paris or Philadelphia, long before the ink dried on parchment scrolls proclaiming liberty and justice, there was Kurukan Fuga.
Proclaimed in the 13th century after Sundiata Keita unifies the Mali Empire, this charter laid the foundations for a society rooted in dignity, dialogue, and shared responsibility. It was passed orally, not written. It was transmitted in circles, not courts. It is held in memory, not manuscripts.
Yet, it has remained in the shadows, obscured by imported models of law and governance that proclaim universality while overlooking ancestral wisdoms.
Kurukan Fuga reminds us that human rights are not a gift of the West. They are a birthright of humanity — articulated across time and geography, in different tongues and traditions.
As we decolonise our systems and rethink our sources of legitimacy, the question is not just what we remember, but whose memory we dignify.
#KurukanFuga #DecolonisingKnowledge #AfricanPhilosophy #HumanRightsHistory #MandeWisdom #CharterBeforeTheScroll #MemoryJustice #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–AKM002
When the Drum Falls Silent.
What happens when the megaphones grow louder, and the griots fall silent?
Amadou Hampâté Bâ warned us. In Amkoullel, l’enfant peul and L’Empire peul du Macina, he chronicled how colonial systems didn’t just occupy land — they muted languages, dismantled oral traditions, and interrupted the transmission of living wisdom. The voices that once carried memory, identity, and meaning across generations were pushed to the margins.
Foreign scripts and printed truths claimed authority in their place. The griot's drum was replaced by the printing press. Elders were dismissed as backwards. Proverbs and oral stories were rebranded as folklore—decorative but no longer seen as legitimate forms of knowing.
And yet, memory resists erasure. Around fires, in stories, in music and metaphor, the drum still speaks. It speaks in silences that refuse to forget, and in voices that rise again — humble, persistent, and powerful.
Decolonisation must reach beyond structures and into the roots of knowledge. It is an epistemic act—a reparation of meaning, a recovery of ways of knowing that were never lost but only silenced.
Because when we recover our stories, we recover our dignity. When the drum sounds again, it does more than echo the past—it invites us to imagine a future that is ours to shape.
#AmadouHampâtéBâ #DecolonisingKnowledge #EpistemicJustice #AfricanWisdom #OralTraditions #IndigenousVoices #StorytellingPower #ReclaimingNarratives #KnowledgeIsPower #PeulLegacy #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–AKM003
The Mirror of Misremembered Civilisations.
Why do so many children grow up believing that civilisation began elsewhere?
For decades, history has been taught through a cracked mirror — one that reflects only one part of the world, and distorts or erases the rest. The symbols, monuments, and milestones celebrated in classrooms and museums often centre Europe as the sole cradle of progress.
Cheikh Anta Diop, in Nations nègres et culture (1954), refused this false reflection. He painstakingly documented Africa’s foundational contributions to science, architecture, philosophy, and governance, long before colonial contact. His work restored pride by illuminating a forgotten inheritance: the pyramids of Kemet, the astronomical knowledge of the Dogon people, and the scholarly manuscripts of Timbuktu.
This is not about nostalgia. It is about clarity.
It is about reclaiming the right to see ourselves in the mirror of history—whole, brilliant, and rooted. When the reflection changes, so does the story we tell and the future we imagine.
Let us not inherit distorted mirrors. Let us repair them, together.
#DecolonisingKnowledge #AfricanHistory #CheikhAntaDiop #HistoricalJustice #Timbuktu #Dogon #Kemet #ReclaimingNarratives #EducationReform #AfricanFutures #MirrorOfTruth #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–AKM004
What if the books we read about ourselves were written to keep us small?
V.Y. Mudimbe’s concept of “The Colonial Library” reminds us that colonisation was not only a conquest of land — it was also a conquest of meaning. Knowledge itself was colonised. The narratives about Africa were largely written by outsiders, for outsiders, to serve an imperial imagination.
For generations, Africans have been told who they are through borrowed lenses. Titles like “Primitive Africa,” “Tribal Logic,” “Myths” were not innocent academic labels — they were tools of reduction and control. These texts shaped not only how the world saw Africa, but also how many Africans came to see themselves.
But libraries can be rewritten. Decolonising is not just about rejecting old books—it’s about replacing them with stories that affirm, liberate, and inspire. When we fill our shelves with concepts like Ubuntu, Afrofuturism, Philosophie Nègre, and Sankofa, we shift the centre of gravity. We move from alienation to rootedness, from silence to expression.
This is not just an intellectual change. It’s a transformation of identity, spirit, and power.
Liberation begins when we change the library — not just the reader.
Inspired by V.Y. Mudimbe’s The Invention of Africa (1988)
#DecolonisingKnowledge #AfricanPhilosophy #Mudimbe #Ubuntu #Sankofa #Afrofuturism #Leadership #Identity #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–AKM005
The Mind Was the First Colony.
Colonialism didn’t begin with chains — it began with language.
In his powerful book Decolonising the Mind, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o exposes how colonial powers used language as a tool of domination, not just to rule over land, but to occupy the minds of the colonised. Children were taught to feel shame for their mother tongues. Indigenous stories were silenced. Local knowledge systems were buried beneath the weight of foreign scripts.
Writing, speaking, and thinking in one's own language is not a luxury—it is a radical act of self-reclamation.
“Decolonisation of the mind is the most powerful weapon against colonial domination.”
— Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Let us honour that truth, not only by acknowledging the violence of imposed languages but also by actively reviving and uplifting indigenous expression in our education, media, and development practices.
#DecoloniseTheMind #NgugiWaThiongo #LanguageJustice #CulturalLiberation #IndigenousKnowledge #Decolonisation #Pluriversality #AfricanLiterature #LinguisticJustice #PowerOfLanguage #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–AKM006
Chiselling Back the Truth
Colonialism was not just a moment in history — it was a long, deliberate system of erasure. It erased languages, renamed places, rewrote narratives, and fractured identities. And long after the flags came down, the machinery of forgetting kept running.
That’s why decolonisation is not an abstract debate or a purely academic task. It is labour. Painful. Messy. Necessary.
It requires us to chisel through layers of silence — to confront what was buried, ignored, or made invisible. It means acknowledging that many of the stories we inherited were crafted to obscure rather than illuminate.
But reclaiming isn’t about nostalgia; it’s not about glorifying the past. It is the courage to name what was taken, the will to restore what was broken, and the vision to reimagine what has always belonged to us.
Because power is not always seized through violence, sometimes it slips away quietly, ceded generation after generation through forgetting, silence, and shame.
To reclaim, we must remember. And to remember, we must be willing to dig deep.
What are we reclaiming — and how far are we willing to go?
#Decolonisation #ReclaimingHistory #RestoringIdentity #CollectiveMemory #TruthAndPower #Leadership #AfricaRising #HealingThroughHistory #ChisellingBackTheTruth #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–AKM007
What Power Conceals, Resistance Unveils
For centuries, colonisation not only seized lands—it covered memories, erased symbols, and rewrote histories. What is often described today as “looted artefacts” was more than just theft. It was an attempt to erase—not only to take but to make disappear—to eliminate all traces of a world deemed inferior or inconvenient.
And yet, scratch the surface — and the essence reappears. Beneath the imposed paint, the ancestral engravings endure. Alive. Waiting.
To decolonise is not just to denounce the official version of history. It is to rediscover buried lines, silenced languages, and the carved faces of collective memory. It is a slow, patient, respectful act. One that restores, honours, and reconnects.
Because what power hides… resistance, sooner or later, reveals.
#Decolonisation #AncestralMemory #Resistance #Identity #Reclamation #HistoricalJustice #Pluriversality #DecolonialLeadership #LootedArtifacts #MuseumsAndPower #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
🗣 Epistemic Justice & Voice
Code: EJV
Challenges colonial power structures in knowledge production and calls for the pluralisation of thought, reasserting the legitimacy of subaltern voices and rooted epistemologies.
DCL–EJV001
Postcolonial in Name, Colonial in Structure.
Many African countries gained political independence decades ago. Flags and anthems changed, but did power truly shift?
This illustration is inspired by Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s seminal work, “Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization.” It challenges us to look beneath the surface of postcolonial realities.
On the surface, we see sovereign nations, institutions, and systems that appear independent. But dig deeper, and you’ll find roots still entangled in:
Coloniality of Power — the inherited systems of governance, economics, and control
Coloniality of Knowledge — the privileging of Western epistemologies and education models
Coloniality of Being — the internalised hierarchies of identity and worth
The myth of decolonisation lies in assuming that ending formal colonial rule meant true emancipation. But the real work—epistemic, structural, and psychological—remains largely unfinished.
True liberation begins when we examine and transform the hidden roots beneath the postcolonial surface.
#Decolonisation #ColonialityOfPower #AfricanFutures #EpistemicJustice #PostcolonialAfrica #KnowledgeIsPower #SabeloNdlovuGatsheni #Leadership #StructuralChange #DevelopmentJustice #Pluriversality #CriticalThinking #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–EJV002
Liberation Begins at the Roots
What if decolonisation starts not with dismantling institutions, but with replanting what was uprooted — as an act of recovery, healing, and grounded resistance?
Walter Mignolo calls this “epistemic disobedience” — the refusal to think only within Western frameworks, and the affirmation of other ways of knowing, living, and relating that have long been dismissed or suppressed.
To decolonise is not just to critique the past. It is to rebuild the present on living foundations: our cultures, our stories, our ties to the land, to others, and to ourselves.
When we restore what was removed, we don’t just revive traditions—we awaken a deeper strength, one that no longer waits for permission to exist and no longer fears standing tall.
#Decolonisation #AncestralKnowledge #WalterMignolo #EpistemicDisobedience #RootedResistance #CognitiveJustice #Pluriversality #ReclaimingRoots #DecoloniseTheMind #GrowFromWithin #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–EJV003
Decolonising is Reconnecting
In The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon reminds us that colonialism is not just the theft of land — it is the disruption of memory, the fragmentation of identity, and the severing of people from their knowledge systems.
Decolonisation, then, is not simply a reversal. It is a restorative act. It means acknowledging the rupture — and entrusting the work of repair to those whose wisdom was marginalised but never extinguished.
This is not about patching over cracks with imported solutions. It is about rejoining what was broken, letting the flow of knowledge return to where it always belonged, and allowing communities to rebuild on their own terms.
#FrantzFanon #Decolonisation #EpistemicJustice #IndigenousKnowledge #ShiftingPower #Restoration #Pluriversality #LeadershipReflections #PostColonialHealing #KnowledgeJustice #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–EJV004
Can the Subaltern Speak?
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s powerful question remains painfully relevant today. In a world where platforms multiply but listening diminishes, whose voices truly count? Who gets the microphone, and who remains in the shadows?
Too often, the dominant discourse claims to “give voice” while maintaining the structures that silence. Representation becomes ventriloquism. Participation becomes performance. And the subaltern — those historically and structurally unheard — are spoken about, not with.
But there are other ways of being heard—ways that are not performative but rooted, not extractive but reciprocal. Like the fire circle, a space without a spotlight or hierarchy, where speaking and listening are shared responsibilities. A space where knowledge lives in bodies, stories, and silences—not just citations.
Decolonising voice means more than handing over the mic. It means reshaping the very conditions of conversation.
Let’s build more fire circles. Let’s move from amplification to transformation.
#DecolonisingDevelopment #Spivak #CanTheSubalternSpeak #FeministTheory #VoiceAndPower #KnowledgeJustice #Decolonisation #VisualWisdom
DCL–EJV005
Stepping Off the Grid: A Different Path to Freedom
In dominant narratives, progress is often portrayed as a straight, universal road. We move along it by ticking boxes: school, job, promotion, status. It all seems natural. Yet, by following these preset lines, many end up trapped in systems that disconnect them from themselves, their roots, and their truth.
What if the so-called roadmap to progress isn’t a promise, but a cage? A subtle form of control, crafted in the name of modernity, but deeply rooted in colonial hierarchies of knowledge, power, and identity.
Walter D. Mignolo offers us a powerful insight in The Darker Side of Western Modernity:
“To de-link is to open up to other epistemologies, other principles of knowing and understanding, and, consequently, to other economies, other politics, and other ethics.”
To step off the grid is to take the less visible path, to walk against the current, to draw from ancestral wisdom, to listen to voices long silenced. It’s about thinking outside the box and feeling instead of just performing.
This isn’t a rejection of all modernity, but a refusal of the kind that demands uniformity at the expense of diverse ways of being, living, and relating.
What if true freedom begins where the road ends?
#DecoloniseKnowledge #EpistemicJustice #WalterMignolo #SteppingOffTheGrid #DecolonialThinking #AlternativePaths #Liberation #AncestralWisdom #TruthJourneys
DCL–EJV006
Whose knowledge counts?
Boaventura de Sousa Santos reminds us that what we call “universal knowledge” is often a narrow fragment tilted toward the Global North — the product of conquest, not consensus.
“There is no global social justice without global cognitive justice.”
— Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Epistemologies of the South are not about reversing the hierarchy. They are about breaking it—creating a world where many knowledges coexist, dialogue, and build futures together.
Knowledge justice is inseparable from social justice. If some ways of knowing are excluded, then entire worlds are erased with them — cosmologies, histories, ways of healing, of governing, of dreaming.
We must listen not only to voices but also to silences—those muted by colonialism, patriarchy, racism, and capitalism. Decolonising knowledge is not a metaphor. It’s a method, a mandate, a movement.
Let us tilt the axis of the world toward dignity, plurality, and the right to know otherwise.
#EpistemologiesOfTheSouth #BoaventuraDeSousaSantos #DecolonisingKnowledge #Plurality #DecolonialThinking #VisualWisdom #KnowledgeJustice #SouthAsMethod #Decolonisation #Ubuntu #Pluriverso
🪞 Shifting Narratives & Representation
Code: SNR
Reframes the dominant storylines about Africa, deconstructing white saviourism, challenging stereotypes, and promoting self-determined storytelling.
DCL–SNR001
Freedom Isn’t Given — It’s Taken.
“Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.”
— Kwame Nkrumah (first Prime Minister and President of independent Ghana)
This quote is more than a line from history. It’s a lens, a challenge, and a compass.
Nkrumah’s words were forged in the fires of anti-colonial struggle — a call to reject dependency and assert self-determination. Independence was not a reward for good behaviour. It was a right to be seized by the people themselves, through courage and collective will.
Today, long after the colonial flags came down, the struggle continues in different forms: aid systems that centralise decision-making, development models that maintain control while promising change, and narratives that celebrate empowerment but fear agency.
Visual Wisdom is a space to explore these tensions through metaphors, symbols, and stories that invite us to look again, question what we’ve inherited, and honour the power of reclaiming, reshaping, and resisting.
Let this be our starting point: Freedom is not delivered. It is claimed — together, and on our own terms.
#KwameNkrumah #Decolonisation #Independence #LiberationNotPermission #PeoplePower #RethinkingAid #SelfDetermination #FeministFutures #AfricaRising #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–SNR002
To understand Africa, listen to all its stories.
Too often, a single narrative is repeated—one of poverty, war, disease, or wilderness. These stories are not false, but they are dangerously incomplete.
What gets left out? The music, the science, the joy, the innovation. The daily lives. The complexity. The contradictions. The laughter. The voices.
No continent, no people, no culture can be reduced to a single lens without losing truth. Decolonising narratives means opening the book fully, not stopping at the first chapter others have written for us. It means centring the storytellers who have been silenced, ignored, or exoticised. It means recognising that power lives not only in what is said, but also in who gets to speak.
“The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.”
Let’s make space for many voices, many stories, many truths.
This visual and reflection are inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s powerful TED talk, “The Danger of a Single Story.”
#DecoloniseNarratives #MultipleVoicesMatter #BeyondTheSingleStory #AfricanStories #StorytellingJustice #NarrativePower #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–SNR002
Beyond the Narrow View
We don’t see things as they are — we see them as we are.
For far too long, Africa has been viewed through a narrow lens—a lens shaped by colonial hangovers, development clichés, and sensational headlines. One story told over and over is of poverty, conflict, and despair. What’s lost is the complexity, humanity, and possibility.
But perception is not static. When we shift the lens — when we move from monocular vision to a kaleidoscope of perspectives — the picture transforms. We begin to notice the vibrant cultures, the local innovations, the layered histories, and the everyday brilliance. We realise Africa isn’t a place to be saved or solved — it’s a continent that speaks, creates, adapts, and leads.
The challenge is not Africa’s reality. It’s our readiness to see it fully.
#ShiftingNarratives #Leadership #Africa #Decolonisation #PerceptionVsReality #StorytellingMatters #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–SNR004
Two Narratives of Change
We are living through the end of an era — the slow but necessary unravelling of white saviourism in global development and humanitarian action.
For too long, the dominant narrative has placed outsiders at the centre: rescuers arriving with tools, knowledge, and solutions. Their presence often comes with the spotlight, and with it a story where local people are cast as passive recipients of help rather than active agents of change.
This model may be well-intentioned, but it’s rooted in hierarchy, not humility. It prioritises visibility over impact, recognition over relationship, and performance over partnership.
But change is happening. Across the world, communities are reclaiming their place at the centre of their own stories. They are not waiting to be saved—they are organising, leading, and building. What they need are allies who know how to stand beside, not above, who listen before acting, and who know that true solidarity is quiet, consistent, and collective.
As practitioners, organisations, and funders, we must ask: Who does our work centre? What stories are we telling — and why? And are we willing to let go of the spotlight so others can step fully into their own?
#WhiteSaviourism #DecoloniseAid #CommunityLedChange #PowerShift #SolidarityNotCharity #PledgeForChange #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–SNR005
Western Time vs African Time
Two ways of knowing. Two ways of being.
We often hear the phrase “African time” with a smirk, as if it simply means lateness. But what if it reflected something much deeper? An entirely different worldview?
In traditional African cultures, time wasn’t something you chased. It was something you moved with—not hours and deadlines, but rhythm—the rhythm of sun and shadow, the land and the community—when the cows come home, when the moon is full, at the third crow of the rooster.
Presence was sacred. You didn’t interrupt a conversation with an elder to run to your next appointment. You stayed because wisdom is not timed by the minute. It’s carried in the moment.
To many, this may appear disorganised. But in truth, it is a profound relationship with life—one that values moments over minutes, connection over completion, and spirit over speed.
Today, I’m sharing a visual metaphor that reflects this contrast. Timekeepers of Two Worlds: a two-panel illustration exploring mechanical time and rhythmic time.
Credit: This post is inspired by a powerful story told by African Folktales by MS (@AfricanFolktalesByMS), on TikTok, titled “African Time isn’t Laziness!”. Watch the original story here.
#AfricanTime #Leadership #DecolonisingTime #Presence #CulturalWisdom #Storytelling #PledgeForChange #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
🛠 Decolonising Development & Design
Code: DDD
Critiques top-down development models and promotes locally led approaches, grounded in contextual wisdom, co-creation, and structural equity.
DCL–DDD001
Beyond the Highway
What if development were not a single trajectory, but a diversity of paths rooted in local knowledge, practice, and community aspiration?
In his seminal book Encountering Development (1995), Arturo Escobar critiques the dominant belief that all societies must follow a single road to Western modernity. He argues that this linear and technocratic vision of progress has often justified the imposition of external models at the expense of local cultures, ecosystems, and ways of life.
Escobar urges us to decolonise development thinking. Rather than improve a flawed universal model, he calls for the recognition of multiple possible worlds, shaped by memory, territory, social relations, and living systems.
Rethinking development does not mean redefining it from the top down. It means letting go of the idea of a central blueprint and making space for diverse pathways shaped from the ground up.
“What we need are not new definitions of development but entirely new ways of thinking about the kinds of worlds people want to create.”
#DecolonisingDevelopment #CognitiveJustice #ArturoEscobar #DevelopmentAlternatives #PluralWorlds #OntologiesOfTheSouth #SystemicChange #EcologyAndTerritory #BeyondTheHighway
DCL–DDD002
Built for us or built by us?
In development work, the difference between imposition and integration isn’t just technical — it’s existential.
Too often, solutions are designed in distant rooms, packaged with good intentions, and delivered like flat-packed furniture: efficient, measurable, and ready-made. But like furniture designed without knowing the room it’s meant for, these solutions rarely fit. They lack context. They lack soul. They miss the subtle truths of place, people, and power.
This is the difference between a blueprint and belonging.
Real transformation doesn’t happen when communities are merely consulted. It begins when they are trusted to lead, shape, and challenge. When design is not just adapted to a context, but emerges from it, rooted in the rhythms, knowledge, and lived experience of the people it’s meant to serve.
A structure built for people may stand. But a structure built with people—built by people—carries pride, meaning, and memory. It breathes. It lasts.
Because what we build together isn’t just accepted — it’s protected, owned, and passed on.
#Development #Localisation #CommunityLed #Decolonisation #DesignMatters #PledgeForChange #CoCreation #PowerShift #VisualMetaphors #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds
DCL–DDD003
Two Funding Models: Fragmentation vs. Local Leadership
The traditional model of development funding was built in a different era — shaped by colonial legacies, distant decision-making, and a focus on control and accountability through centralised structures.
It was designed with certain assumptions: that expertise flows from the top, and that resources must be tightly managed through layers of oversight.
But today, the world is changing — and so must our models.
Locally-led development is not a rejection of the past, but an evolution toward justice, equity, and effectiveness. It recognises that those closest to the challenges are also closest to the solutions. It places trust, leadership, and resources in the hands of local actors who know their context best.
This is not just about efficiency, it's about rebalancing power, restoring agency, and reimagining partnership.
Both models tell a story. One about legacy. One about the future.
#Localisation #DecolonisingAid #LocallyLed #ShiftingPower #DevelopmentModels #TransformAid #EquityInAction #GlobalDevelopment #PledgeForChange #VisualWisdom #PositiveMinds