So You Want to 'De-Colonize' Motherhood?

Then you're gonna have to pick a side, mama.

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It’s become very on-trend to talk about decolonizing spaces, places, and practices. This is a good thing. It’s a good thing because colonialism is bad. Colonialism is not an abstract notion or a vibe. It’s the very real practice of acquiring political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. Thus, decolonizing is the (often violent) liberation of one country from another’s grip.

Academics have stretched the idea of decolonizing to include the removal from any economic, cultural, or psychological practice that relates to the colonial experience. That’s ok too.

But, of course, in the diffuse, re-generating, memetic world social media, to “decolonize _____” can get a little abstract and glib. I saw a post from a well intentioned white lady saying gentle parenting was an act of decolonizing. Sure, I guess? But in motherhood there are a few but very real economic and political exchanges that YOU can actively decolonize. Not in the metaphorical sense! There are actual transnational structures based in Europe that are extracting massive wealth from poorer countries across the Global South and redistributing it to the Global North.

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