self-colonization
Adopting oppressor's mindset
Self-colonization is the adoption of a colonizer's culture, values, or worldview by the colonized—not through direct force but through internalized belief in the colonizer's superiority.
The term describes how dominated peoples may come to see themselves through their oppressors' eyes, devaluing their own traditions and languages.
It extends to any group that absorbs and enforces the prejudices originally imposed on them: The country's elite engaged in self-colonization, preferring European education and dismissing local knowledge as primitive.
Absorbing ideas as one's own
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- subordinationLower position in hierarchy
- complicityShared criminal involvement
- deferenceYielding to another's judgment
conformity · submission · adaptation · accommodation · normalization · consent · acquiescence · trauma
Adaptive resemblance to another
- assimilationAbsorbing into a whole
- WesternizationAdopting Western cultural practices
- erasureAct of wiping away
- alienationState of being isolated
deracination · hegemony · subaltern · comprador · whitening · othering · Eurocentrism · hybridity
Alternating between linguistic varieties
- diglossiaCoexisting language varieties, distinct roles
Educational program's content plan
- academiaHigher education community
- gatekeepingControlling access to something
- credentialismOvervaluing formal qualifications
- benchmarkingMeasuring against top performers
governance · modernization · dependency · technocracy · reform · standardization · certification · professionalization
internalization
Absorbing ideas as one's own
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- subordinationLower position in hierarchy
- complicityShared criminal involvement
deference · conformity · submission · adaptation · accommodation · normalization · consent · acquiescence · trauma · coping
mimicry
Adaptive resemblance to another
- assimilationAbsorbing into a whole
- WesternizationAdopting Western cultural practices
- erasureAct of wiping away
alienation · deracination · hegemony · subaltern · comprador · whitening · othering · Eurocentrism · hybridity · neocolonialism
code-switching
Alternating between linguistic varieties
- diglossiaCoexisting language varieties, distinct roles
curriculum
Educational program's content plan
- academiaHigher education community
- gatekeepingControlling access to something
- credentialismOvervaluing formal qualifications
benchmarking · governance · modernization · dependency · technocracy · reform · standardization · certification · professionalization
self-colonizationdecolonization
Ending imperial control
cultural reclamation · indigenization · nativism · heritage preservation · Afrocentrism
self, selfish, selfhood, selfless, selfishly, selfishness, selflessness, colony, colonial