What do we mean when we talk about “postcolonialism” or “postcolonial cultures”? It’s a fair question, and one we get asked fairly frequently. It’s also a key aspect to what we’re trying to accomplish with this project, and one that requires a little bit of explanation.
Postcolonialism refers to a branch of several disciplines (literature and ethics among them) which focuses on the epistemology (or the study of how we come into knowledge) of cultures and people groups who had been colonized, and are no longer subordinate to the colonizing power. For these cultures, assimilation was often mandatory, and resulted in tense struggles between the traditions, histories, beliefs, and general ways of life of the existing people, and the culture of the oppressor. Often the imperial power would try to assimilate the indigenous people by way of religious conversion, or through forced education in the colonizer’s language and in colonial schools. The methods ranged from the merely insidious to the downright violent, but the goal for the imperial power was consistent: sever the ties of the indigenous culture to their past and drag them into the perceived “future” of the colonial culture.
The result of this interaction was a generation (or more) struggling to negotiate their position between the indigenous culture of their heritage and the culture of the colonial power. This negotiation typically (though not always) resulted in the individual or community gravitating toward one of the following options:
- Nativism: A rejection of the colonial power in its entirety, and a return to the traditions and beliefs of the indigenous culture.
- Cosmopolitanism: Accepting the colonial culture as the future of the colonized people group/culture/nation, and willingly assimilating to the social mores and traditions of the colonizer because they see greater opportunities through assimilation.
- Hybridity: An attempt to blend the two cultures together to create something new.
On an individual level, people born into postcolonial cultures struggle with determining where they fit in a nation or community that is often neither fully indigenous anymore, nor fully assimilated. It is out of this liminal existence that literature like Chinua Achebe‘s seminal Things Fall Apart, Gabriel Garcia Marquez‘s lush epic One Hundred Years of Solitude, Sherman Alexie‘s unapologetic and often-banned The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and Salman Rushdie‘s sweeping Midnight’s Children has sprung, as well as countless others. These works examine and interrogate what it means to exist in a culture that is neither/nor, both/and.
The tension inherent within postcolonialism is palpable in Derek Walcott‘s 1930 poem “A Far Cry From Africa“:
[…]
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?
Another facet of postcolonial countries, and one which cannot be overlooked, is that they were largely introduced to the global economy as resource-rich, exploitable, “exotic” playgrounds, rather than as sociopolitcal or socioeconomic equals. Because of this, when the colonizer eventually left the country to its own devices (often after centuries of occupation), these countries were ill-equipped to deal with the problems of infrastructure, self-governance, and economic stability that faced them. The world watched as, like child stars growing up in the spotlight, these newly independent countries (often whose borders had been drawn with no concept of existing kingdoms or nations, splitting them in half and/or “uniting” warring groups) stumble on their way to stability. And each stumble seemed, to their former oppressors, a validation of the racism still latent in their interaction.
(Disclaimer: My tone may be harsh, but I am not sorry. As a citizen of one of these Western oppressors, I have the privilege of criticism, and I exercise it judiciously.)
(Addendum: True, the United States was colonized by Britain, but I do not classify it as a postcolonial country because the indigenous population is still not allowed to rebuild or regain independence.)
All of this to say: It’s extremely important to recognize the autonomy of postcolonial countries, the sovreignty of their governments, and also to recognize the need for resources. Providing resources and education is, in my opinion, the best way to level the playing field and unlock the opportunities and potential that are already inherent in these cultures.
