Decolonization

Decolonization is the work of recognizing when the assumptions of a domination-oriented worldview have been carried forward as neutral or universal, and restoring the standing of relational traditions of knowledge that it displaced. In organizational life, it means noticing which practices and standards carry an orientation toward control, extraction, and separation, so that a way of working built on those things is no longer treated as the natural measure of a healthy workplace.

The word comes from the study of how colonized societies were governed, and it has widened to name a subtler pattern: how a worldview organized around domination can become invisible, passed along as simply the way things are. The distinction that matters is one of orientation, not prevalence — traditions that keep people in relationship are a different kind of thing from a worldview organized around control and separation, however widespread either one becomes. CultureROOTS is grounded in enduring African traditions (Ubuntu, Ma'at, Sankofa), offered as ground to stand on, open to anyone, rather than imposed as a standard everyone must meet.

A concept from decolonial and liberation scholarship (Naude; Santana); structural framing per voice rule #12.