Initial reflections on the campaign to 'decolonise' the history curriculum

 What does the campaign to decolonise the history curriculum mean? According to Meera Sabaratnam, a senior lecturer in international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, it is to call 'for a greater representation of non-European thinkers, as well as a better historical awareness of the contexts in which scholarly knowledge has been produced'. 

So according to my interpretation, the attempt to decolonise the history curriculum could also be described as an attempt to 'democratise' the history curriculum.

The old truism (erroneously attributed to Churchill) that 'history is written by the victors' should be challenged. For example, a purely Norman account of the colonisation of England in the late 11th Century A.D. prioritises the experiences of a minority of the population of England at the time. In order to get a more nuanced understanding of the Normanisation of England, we might refer to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which we might expect to somewhat 'decolonise/democratise' 11th Century A.D. English history for us.

Surely the experience of William the Conqueror is of more historical significance than that of some Anglo-Saxon chronicler. Maybe, but only because William affected the lives of more individuals than the Anglo-Saxon chronicler. 

I think we need to clarify that might isn't necessarily right. Just because one polity might colonise another polity doesn't mean to say that colonisation is right. However, we also need to clarify that even if the colonised are a majority, their democratic right to self-governance doesn't necessarily justify violent decolonisation of the minority oppressor.

In order to really make clear what I'm trying to communicate is that our metacognition of life impacts on our understanding of the past. If we believe in the 'survival of the fittest', we might assume that whoever succeeds between the coloniser and the colonised is the one who defeats the other.

If, on the other hand, we believe in 'loving our neighbours', then even if we are colonised, we will seek to understand the coloniser, even as we seek to decolonise.