The words we choose matter: recognising the importance of language in decolonising global health Recognition of the relevance of colonial history to the contemporary practice of global health is not new, but the recent increase in visibility and prominence given to it by global health institutions and flagship journals is welcome when accompanied by meaningful reflection and action. 1 The goal of decolonising global health is to critically reflect on its history, identify hierarchies and culturally Eurocentric conceptions, and overcome the global inequities that such structures perpetuate. 2 We must reflect on the terminology we use when we discuss global health challenges, phrase research questions, write papers, teach students, or interact with patients, research participants, and the public. Although our choice of words shapes an audience's understanding of global health, the restricted range of expressions and terms prevents us from offering more nuanced and appropriate perspectives. The conceptualisation of English terms in other languages is often limited to literal translation that struggles to reproduce the same meaning, as highlighted by recently emerging technical terms, such as social distancing. Thus, to make real progress in the process of decolonising global health in our minds and practices, awareness, reflection, and change of language are fundamental.Most global health literature is still published in English only. This Anglocentrism narrows engagement with many international readers and poses a barrier to authorship for researchers whose working language is not English, which reinforces the power dynamics of the field. 3 By contrast, it is neither generally required nor practiced for foreign researchers working in low-income and middle-income countries to learn the language(s) of the country or region they are working in. This tendency, plus the absence of mechanisms to connect research networks operating in parallel in different languages, means that an English-speaking academic has little incentive and restricted capability to engage with scientific advances being published in Mandarin, Spanish, French, Arabic, and other widely spoken languages. Finding ways to bridge these language barriers in research and bibliographic databases is a fundamental pathway to knowledge co-production and equal research partnerships.
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