A new podcast and article series in The BMJ examines the legacy of colonialism and the progress needed to make meaningful change
There is growing demand for decolonisation, described recently by Annabel Sowemimo, author of Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare , as a desire to examine how systems of race, class, and gender have been shaped by colonial history and how we move to establish a more equitable society.1 Across the UK and Europe, for example, newspapers, museums, charities, universities, and other organisations are reckoning with their pasts born of European colonialism that sought to invade, control, extract resources, and impose western views on much of the rest of the world. Today’s world is shaped by this colonialism the wealth of high income countries was generated by land theft and slavery, establishing a legacy of power and exploitation that persists to this day. Decolonisation is thus not just about former colonies gaining political ind