How Decolonisation is Erasing History.

Once upon a time, history was about facts, records, and the messy, complicated stories of human civilisation. But today, history is no longer about what happened—it’s about how it should have happened, at least according to modern ideological movements. Enter the grand project of “decolonising culture,” a process that, despite its lofty rhetoric, often boils down to erasing, rewriting, and distorting history to fit a new ideological framework.

The Great Cultural Rewriting

The idea of decolonising culture is based on the belief that Western civilisation is built on oppression, colonialism, and systemic injustice. According to this view, everything from literature to art to philosophy must be re-examined, reinterpreted, and, if necessary, purged. The aim? To correct historical “wrongs” by eliminating references to colonial legacies—conveniently forgetting that history, by its nature, is complex, intertwined, and rarely fits into the neat moral categories of good and evil.

The Left’s Grand Project: Rewriting History

Decolonisation of culture does not simply mean re-evaluating history with a critical eye—it often means rewriting it entirely. Here are just a few ways in which the left is actively reshaping history to fit its ideological needs:

1. Cancelling Historical Figures

The new trend of “cancelling” historical figures has taken full flight. Statues have been torn down, buildings renamed, and even foundational texts of Western civilisation are now deemed offensive.

• In 2020, activists toppled the statue of Winston Churchill in London, labelling him a racist rather than acknowledging his role in defeating Nazi Germany.
• The University of Edinburgh removed the name of David Hume, one of the greatest philosophers of the Enlightenment, from a building because of a single footnote in which he expressed 18th-century views on race.

The irony here is that the same people who demand historical nuance and context when discussing non-Western cultures refuse to apply the same principle to figures from Western history. Churchill must be erased, but Mao Zedong—who caused the deaths of tens of millions—gets a pass.

2. Rewriting Literature

Classic literature is no longer seen as a product of its time but rather as an enemy of progress. Some works have been censored or rewritten to remove “problematic” elements, despite the fact that these works reflect the historical realities of their era.

• Roald Dahl’s books were recently altered by publishers to remove words like “fat” and “ugly” because they might offend modern sensibilities.
• Shakespeare is now regularly “reinterpreted” in a way that distorts his original meanings to fit modern progressive narratives.
• In the US, even Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn has been sanitised, with words removed to make it more palatable—despite the fact that Twain was a staunch anti-racist for his time.

If the past offends, then the past must change. Who needs historical accuracy when you can simply rewrite uncomfortable truths?

3. “Decolonising” Universities and Museums

Universities and museums, once institutions dedicated to the preservation of knowledge, are now leading the charge in dismantling their own historical foundations.

• Universities across the UK have been reviewing curricula to “decolonise” them, which often means reducing or outright removing the study of great Western thinkers like Plato, Kant, and Descartes, simply because they were white men.
• Museums have begun returning artefacts to former colonies under the assumption that they were all stolen, despite the fact that many were gifted, purchased, or preserved when their countries of origin were unable to do so.

The British Museum, for example, has faced increasing pressure to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, despite the fact that they have been cared for and displayed in London for over 200 years—far better than they would have fared in war-torn Greece of the past centuries.

4. The Selective Outrage Over Colonialism

One of the most hypocritical aspects of decolonisation culture is its selective application of historical guilt. The focus is almost always on European colonialism, with little mention of the Arab, Ottoman, or Mongol empires, all of which engaged in mass conquest and slavery.

• The transatlantic slave trade is a favourite talking point, but the much larger Arab slave trade, which lasted for over a thousand years and affected millions of Africans, is rarely discussed.
• The Islamic conquests, which spread through North Africa and the Middle East, erasing local cultures and religions, are conveniently ignored.
• The Mongol Empire, which butchered millions and wiped entire cities off the map, is not subject to the same moral condemnation as the British or French empires.

If decolonisation were about a genuine re-examination of history, these empires would also be criticised. But the real goal is not truth—it is the selective vilification of the West.

Why It Matters

The project of decolonising culture is not about justice. It is about control. The power to rewrite history is the power to shape the present, and those leading this movement are less interested in fairness than in wielding cultural dominance.

The danger is that by erasing history, we lose the ability to learn from it. When we remove uncomfortable truths, we are left with an illusion—a sanitised, feel-good version of the past that serves modern ideological interests but does nothing to help future generations understand the complexity of history.

Decolonisation, in its current form, is not about making culture richer or more inclusive. It is about replacing one narrative with another, regardless of historical accuracy. And once history is rewritten, the truth becomes whatever those in power say it is.

And that should terrify us all.