decolonizing data

da·ta
Noun
Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.
"There is very little data available"
 
When we hear the word “data” one of the first things that comes to mind are numbers.  For the state employee, more often than not these numbers are part and parcel of a process of performance measurement and an assessment of some kind.  However, when we look the word data up in the dictionary, we find that the word data is used to refer to facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.  I.e., data is nothing more than information that is collected for understanding what it relates to.
Data can be used in a variety of ways.  Today data is leveraged to inform and support critical decision making, as well as identifying opportunities, and evaluating the effectiveness of methodologies currently in practice, but data isn’t just about numbers and statistics. 
In a speech celebrating the life of Eduardo Mondlane, leader of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO), who was assassinated by Portuguese agents in February of 1969, Amilcar Cabral notes how, “The principal characteristic, common to every kind of imperialist domination, is the negation of the historical process of the dominated people by means of violently usurping the free operation of the process of development of the productive forces.”

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