In the course of Colonization, the world was divided into binary categories of the colonizer and colonized. These binary groups were based on a division of class, gender, race, ethnicity and the oppression of cultural traditions. Traditions of language, religion, labor, and social values were based on theologies of the colonizers, enforced upon the colonized. These binaries can be associated with the Manichean binaries discussed by Frantz Fanon in his book entitled The Wretched of the Earth. In Post-Coloniality, societies gain independence either through diplomatic political transitions or violent revolutions against the occupying force. Regardless of how independence is achieved, these societies undergo a multitude of socio-cultural changes. The colonized populations struggle to rebuild their communities, individual identities and national identities. The process of this decolonization is a long-term and strenuous procedure that varies from one culture to the next. Periods of colonial oppression have negative repercussions on social structures and prohibit certain cultural growth. It is the nationalism that bonds individuals together in creating a national identity, rebuilding the state while imagining the community and representing it in the traditional cultural affiliations of the indigenous populations.
In the book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism written by Benedict Anderson the effects colonization had on Indonesia are reviewed. Decolonization of countries was induced by revolutions and the spread of nationalism after the 18th century. Independence was followed by state building based on the origin, power and function of nationalism felt in Indonesia (Anderson). Liberalism and Mar...
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...th in creating a new nationalistic identity.
Works Cited
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Print.
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back. Routledge: New York. 1989. Print.
Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. Monthly Review Press: New York and London, 1972. Print.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, 1965. Print.
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Kelly, John D. and Martha Kaplan. Represented Communities: Fiji and World Decolonization. 2001. Print.
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As the international shift towards nationalism and self-determination gained momentum in the years after World War II as a result to imperialism’s dangerous influence on the world during the war, decolonization becomes the inevitable truth for nations on both sides of the colonial relationship between an occupying country and a subjugated
Throughout the years, humans have constructed many unique civilizations; all which follow a distinct social, economic, and political structure. Even so, there is one characteristic that prevails among these societies, the concept of nationalism. In short, nationalism refers to the feelings people have when identifying with their nation. This simple notion possesses the ability to divide or unite collective groups, and has played an important role in many historical events.
The beginning of colonization also marks the beginning of decolonization. From the day the colonists start exploiting the colonized people and belittling the colonized people for the colonists' self-aggrandizement, the colonized ones have been prepared to use violence at any moment to end the colonists' exploitation (Fanon, 3).Decolonization is violent, there is a necessity for violence. This is a point that is repeated again and again throughout The Battle of Algiers and The Wretched of the Earth. Here, the focus will be on The Battle of Algiers to discuss the violence of
In the struggle for total liberation, Fanon advocated the use of any means, including violence, to achieve that objective. There can be no question that in all national liberation struggles the secret for success lies primarily in the mind, where all revolutions are hatched and nurtured. This was Fanon's message which was so effectively and powerfully transmitted in The Wretched of the Earth. His revolutionary ideas became effectively entrenched within countless anti-colonial movements; branding a central message to oppressed and exploited people, Fanon attributed great importance for the colonized to break off their chains, cleanse their politically apathetic minds, and to take up the struggle for total liberation.
Fanon start off his argument with describing how colonialism and decolonization are violent affairs. He describes the colonized and colonizer as old adversaries whose first meeting was rooted in violence and continued relationship was sustained at the point of a gun (Fanon, p. 2). He goes on to state that the colonized person is a fabricated person created by the colonizer and that the colonizer validates themselves, via wealth, through the colonial relationship. Decolonization, therefore, is the destruction of these fabrications and the liberation of ...
Nationalism at its core is the support of a country. The goal of a country is to have some sort of resonance within the individuals that reside there that call themselves citizens. If the citizens don’t feel any connection with their country, they may move to find one that they feel closer too. Once found, they may support the country over others, defend it within conversations of politics or just find groups that have the same ideals they do about the country. This papers purpose is to illustrate the pros of nationalism as well as its cons.
The concept of colonialism and imperialism both play an essential role in “The Heart of Darkness”, “Things Fall Apart”, and “The Apocalypse”. The act of colonialism comes from a strategy of obtaining partial to full political control while attempting to govern another country. Groups settle in these different countries with a scheme to develop it economically. Another significant topic being presented is the performance of imperialism. Imperialism is imposed when military action is presented to enforce domination over another country. The intention being for imperialism is to increase foreign rule in order to intensify a countries size and economical state. “Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold his government” (Achebe 176). In “Things Fall Apart” an accurate illustration of colonialism is given, by which a clan had come over and cultivated Okonkwos land. “They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force” (Conrad 107). It was not colonialism presented in “Heart of Darkness”, instead a simple form of imperialism was demonstrated. Force was used by military in order to take over the land from the weaker country. The perceptions of colonialism and imperialism are both distinctive and with examples from the text, it will display the differentiation between the two.
As the children grow older they realize a crucial point of Fanon’s theory, that decolonization “implies the urgent need to thoroughly challenge the colonial
Only recently has Ireland been included in the extensive study of postcolonial societies. Our geographical closeness to Britain, the fact that we are racially identical, the fact that we speak the same language and have the same value systems make our status as postcolonial problematic. Indeed, some would argue it is impossible to tell the difference between Irish and British. However, to mistake Irish for English to some is a grave insult. In this essay, I would like to look at Ireland’s emerging postcolonial status in relation to Frantz Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth’. By examining Fanon’s theories on the rise of cultural nationalism in colonised societies, one can see that events taking place in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century bear all the hallmarks of a colonised people’s anti-colonial struggle through the revival of a culture that attempts to assert difference to the coloniser and the insistence on self-government.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s This Earth of Mankind is an allegorical novel describing the growth of protagonist Minke during the pre-awakening of colonized Java. Set in 1898 during the period of imperial Dutch domination over all aspects of Javan life, the novel provides a clear image of the political and social struggles of a subjugated people through the point of view of a maturing youth. Using several of his novel’s major characters as allegorical symbols for the various stages of awareness the citizens of Java have of Indonesia’s awakening as a modern nation, Toer weaves together an image of the rise of an idyllic post-colonial Indonesia with modern views of Enlightenment ideals.
Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon explores the roles of violence, class, and political organization in the process of decolonization. Within a Marxist framework, Fanon theorizes and prophesizes the successes and failures of independence movements within colonized nations. He exalts the proletariat as a revolutionary class that is first to realize the necessity of violence in the removal of colonial regimes. Yet the accomplishment and disappointments of the proletariat are at the hand of men. Fanon neglects women in terms of the proletariat’s wishes and efforts. In spite of this exclusion, Fanon nonetheless develops a theory that could apply to the proletariat as a whole, women included. For although Fanon failed to acknowledge women’s role in a post-colonial society, his theory of the revolutionary proletariat applies to Egypt’s lower class women.
Today colonialism is still active, known as Neocolonialism, which has devastating effects on global cultural groups. To begin, the term colonialism is defined in the dictionary as “control by one country over another and its people”. Throughout history colonialism has confounded and damaged numerous cultures and people. Indigenous people have undergone a series of massive modifications to their culture as well as spiritual beliefs and morals and obligations they’ve held since before the first coming of Western cultures. In regards to this, there are many concerns of loss of culture among several different groups.
The definition of decolonization differs from person to person, from nation to nation, and from past experience to past experience. In my opinion decolonization is a thought out active resistance of colonial forces with a goal of eventually obtaining indigenous liberation. Colonialism has brought forth many problems with it. As more time passes the problems keep getting worse. Problems such as crimes being committed on Natives and loss of tradition.
The nature and meaning of the term ‘nationalism’ has many different facets and dimensions. At times, deconstructing the different theoretical literature can become confusing and complicated process. These ambiguities arise from the different meanings scholars attribute to the term, while also the nature and meaning of nationalism is constantly being contested. To Primordialists, the *path to nationalism
Every human being, in addition to having their own personal identity, has a sense of who they are in relation to the larger community--the nation. Postcolonial studies is the attempt to strip away conventional perspective and examine what that national identity might be for a postcolonial subject. To read literature from the perspective of postcolonial studies is to seek out--to listen for, that indigenous, representative voice which can inform the world of the essence of existence as a colonial subject, or as a postcolonial citizen. Postcolonial authors use their literature and poetry to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which they have taken on the responsibility of representing. Surely, the reevaluation of national identity is an eventual and essential result of a country gaining independence from a colonial power, or a country emerging from a fledgling settler colony. However, to claim to be representative of that entire identity is a huge undertaking for an author trying to convey a postcolonial message. Each nation, province, island, state, neighborhood and individual is its own unique amalgamation of history, culture, language and tradition. Only by understanding and embracing the idea of cultural hybridity when attempting to explore the concept of national identity can any one individual, or nation, truly hope to understand or communicate the lasting effects of the colonial process.