Introducing the 'Decolonising Global Health' 12-part blog series: Rejecting the single story
MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership student Maju Brunette introduces our new 12-part blog series titled, 'Decolonising Global Health'. This series explores critical perspectives on power, equity, and transformation in global health. The first blog, 'Rejecting the single story', reflects on the impact of narratives in shaping global health and the urgent need to move beyond incomplete and inaccurate models.
About the author
Maju Brunette is an MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership student at the University of Oxford, passionate about reimagining global health through a decolonial lens. This blog series features monthly contributions and perspectives from various scholars and practitioners committed to decolonising global health.
Introducing the Decolonisng Global Health blog series
Global health, as a field, stands at a critical juncture. While we celebrate unprecedented advances in medical science and technology, we must confront an uncomfortable truth: the structures and systems through which we deliver global health often perpetuate the very inequities we seek to address. The legacy of colonialism persists in our research methodologies, funding patterns, decision-making processes, and even in the language we use to describe our work.
This monthly blog series emerges from a place of both hope and discontent—hope for what global health could become, and discontent with what it currently is. Over the next twelve months, we'll examine how colonial patterns continue to shape global health practice and explore pathways toward genuine transformation. Each entry will feature voices from different perspectives within the field, from students and researchers to practitioners and policymakers grappling with systemic change—in both the Global South and the Global North. Bienvenidos!
january: Rejecting the single story...
A few years ago, while listening for the first time to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I felt an immediate connection to my lived experiences —first, as a girl born in an urban-poor area in Lima, the capital of Peru, and later as an international student and a global health scholar living and working in the United States, perhaps one of the strongest symbols for what the Global North represents—a wealthy, industrialised, and technologically advanced country, yet suffering from the consequences of a growing unequal society.
Carabayllo, a high Tuberculosis (TB) burden area, located in Lima, the capital of Perú.
As I began my journey to understand the decolonising global health movement, I first reflected on the meaning of 'Nkali', an Igbo word that means power. Adichie's persuasive speech was a 'jalón de orejas' to me—an instant call to action to reconsider how stories are framed by those in power and those who decide how and when to tell them. The next step was to educate myself so I could raise awareness of decolonising efforts among global researchers and practitioners.
Together, we must respectfully reject the 'single story' in global health and advocate for marginalised voices, actively working to shift power dynamics in research and practice. It is brilliantly summarised by Dr Madhukar Pai in a dashboard set in a default mode, showing the ‘magnetic pull’ of global health focused on the categories of Global North, white, men, power and privilege.
I took the liberty to add two new dimensions: the biomedical-centred and the community-centred scholarship. There is an urgent need for all of us working in global health to consider biosocial models and systemic solutions beyond the biomedical ones. The community-centred scholarship is also an essential but often overlooked element of global health. We will discuss this in greater detail in the months to come.
Now more than ever, it is critical that we deliberately work towards moving the focus in the research and practice of global health. Decolonising global health efforts requires from us—the powerful and the powerless, the Global North and the Global South—to work together towards reframing the old narratives of how research and practice is conducted in the field of global health. It is imperative that we identify and purposively choose—or rebuke narratives that are incomplete and inaccurate (eg the so-called global health ‘charity’ model).
To truly understand the full scale of our collective impact on moving the needle in the right direction of achieving health equity, we must seek opportunities to promote community-driven partnerships, sharing knowledge and power with and within the impacted communities—a real uptake of the Freirean critical pedagogy!
In doing so, we will be staying true to the core principles that guide the work of the global health community, as reminded by renowned global health diplomat, Dr Peter Piot:
- We believe that each individual life is equally important;
- We believe that we should do what we can to prevent the suffering of others; and
- We believe that everyone deserves dignity, safety, and a future that offers hope.
As we embark on this year-long journey of examination and reflection, I invite you to join me in getting into 'good trouble', a phrase coined by the late US Congressman John Lewis, working together to challenge inequities and build more inclusive, community-driven solutions in global health. Next month, we'll delve deeper into how power dynamics shape global health research and explore practical steps we can take to challenge these established hierarchies. Together, we can move beyond acknowledging inequities to actively dismantling them.
Until then, I encourage you to reflect on your own position within the global health landscape. Where do you see opportunities for transformation? How can you contribute to rewriting the single story?
¡Si se puede!
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