The cries are getting increasingly louder to right wrongs of colonialism not previously identified as such. In particular, those wrongs that resulted from cultural imperialism. Among such cries are those which are pushing for detoxifying formerly colonized nations of colonial monuments and names.

For example, re-naming of physical infrastructure, such as changing street names from those of the colonialists to those of the first nations; and of nature assets, such as rivers and lakes, to revert back to the names the assets were known prior to colonization.

Lake Victoria @Wild Frontiers Uganda

So, for example, renaming of Uganda’s “Lake Victoria” (named after the English Queen Victoria) back to “Enyanja Nalubale” as it is called by the largest first nation of Uganda, the Baganda. And also at the same time, acknowledging the other names that the lake is known by by other first nations of Uganda, such as the Basoga, in whose territory the lake is.

It is a good start, but the voice needs to get stronger for detoxification of discourse in key fora and documents of formerly colonized nations. For example, the discourse in such documents as Uganda’s national planning instruments – narrative plans and budgets.

It does us no good to rename physical assets, while we accept descriptions of us, which falsely denigrate us, to be included in and to form the basis of our nation’s official national plans and budgets.

Such popular descriptions, for example, that we must rid ourselves of, include how our smallholder farmers are often referred to in a derogatory manner as “peasant” and or “subsistence” farmers; while they are the ones that feed the nation and beyond.