self-colonize

English

Alternative forms

• self-colonise

Etymology

self- +‎ colonize

Verb

self-colonize (third-person singular simple present self-colonizes, present participle self-colonizing, simple past and past participle self-colonized)

1. To regain power (by indigenous people) after having been under colonial rule by another country, typically with the adoption of some of the culture of the former colonizers.
   • 2010, Susan G. Figge, Jenifer K. Ward, Reworking the German Past, →ISBN:

     Nazi-era Schlager are thus reappropriated as part of the FRG after 1989 and help to self-colonize the previously alien(ated) nation of Germany for the Germans.

   • 2013, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, Franz von Benda-Beckmann, Anne Griffiths, The Power Of Law In A Transnational World: Anthropological Enquiries, →ISBN:

     The legacy of colonialism continues and expands to include those who self-colonize thereby reaffirming Weber's caricatures and uncritical idealisations of Westernisation and law or even to idealisations of Islamic law.

   • 2016, Nels Pearson, Marc Singer, Detective Fiction in a Postcolonial and Transnational World, →ISBN, page 85:

     The significant distinction from Glissant in chamoiseau's novel, however, comes from the fact that the béké masters have been replaced with black policemen; the French power structure allows the various strata of Martinique to self-colonize through their language use.

   • 2017 -, Stephen B. Neufeld, The Blood Contingent: The Military and the Making of Modern Mexico, →ISBN:

     Steeped in a military lore from college and from international exposure, the subaltern promised success for shaping an army of modern soldiers from mere peasants and for advancing the schedule to self-colonize the republic's dark corners.

2. To be introduced into an ecosystem through natural processes, as opposed to deliberate introduction by people.
   • 2001, Bolsa Chica Lowlands Restoration Project: Environmental Impact Statement:

     Cordgrass will be planted, not left to self-colonize.

   • 2008, Sally Stenhouse Kneidel, Sadie Kneidel, Going Green: A Wise Consumer's Guide to a Shrinking Planet, page 95:

     If not, expect an abundance of weeds, by which we mean invasive and nonnative species that self- colonize.

   • 2016, Christophe Girot, Dora Imhof, Thinking the Contemporary Landscape, →ISBN, page 130:

     Similarly, at Fresh Kills, a closed landfill with barely any living soil or biodiversity, the task of the layers is to build a new thick surface over time—an ecologically engineered surface that will self-colonize and grow and adapt.