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African American Colonialism

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Colonialism
According to Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin in Post-Colonial Studies- The Key Concepts (2000) colonialism is ‘‘the specific form of cultural exploitation that developed with the expansion of Europe over the last 400 years’’ (p. 45). It is the implanting of settlements on a distant territory (p.122). Ania Loomba defines colonialism as the conquest and control of other people’s land and goods (p. 8).
The African continent has experienced direct European colonialism from the 1880s. According to A. Adu Boahen ( 2000), the period 1890-1910 represents the conquest of Africa by whites and the period after the World War 1 up to 1935 is called ‘‘high noon’’ (p. 13) of colonialism. It was conquest from 1880 to 1900 and …show more content…

One woman named Mayotte Capecia even feels proud that her grandmother was white (Fanon, 1952: 32). The Negro women suffer from neurotic orientation as they hate black men as savages and live in an illusionary Cinderella like world. Because of all these gaps, both races suffer from neurosis according to psychoanalytic study.
In ‘‘The man of Color and the white Woman’’, black men marry white women, the emblem of white culture, white beauty, white whiteness (Fanon, 1952: 45). It is not love but a way to elevate oneself and to get statuesque to the white man’s level, the master illustrious race. It is a ritual of initiation into manhood (Fanon, 1952: 52) and a way to be subject, not the other (Fanon, 1952: …show more content…

Firstly, Fanon upholds the thesis that decolonization which means the replacing of a certain species of men by another species of men is always a violent phenomenon (Fanon, 1961: 27). He believes that as the colonized states were maintained through genocide and extermination it would take violence to reverse this power relationship. To the natives, their land is their survival and through rebellion they will free their land from the foreigners. Fanon adds ‘‘Europe is literally the creation of the Third world’’ (Fanon, 1961: 81). Secondly, Fanon thinks that within the natives there are the elite intellectual bourgeoisie who dress and speak like Europeans and they betray the national heritage by not putting their theoretical knowledge to the service of the Africans. These betrayers promote internal civil war to strengthen their power. Decolonization does not end the problems of the proletariat as bourgeoisie looks down upon their own race. Anti-democratic regime can be sorted if, Fanon counsels, policies are made for the masses. The party should be the direct expression of the masses as the land belongs to those who till

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Between 1750-1914, Imperialism spread throughout Africa. There were several driving forces for this. One of the motives for imperialism were the Natural Resources available in Africa. In the early 1800’s, the triangular trade in slaves between Africa, the Americas, and Europe exploited Africa’s population. Resources in Africa were also proven to be very valuable to the European’s.

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Amadou Hampaté Bâ is extremely detailed throughout the book, The Fortunes of Wangrin, in explaining the colonial world in West African societies. He provides multiple examples in this work of fiction that precisely describe the factual aspects of African colonialism that we have discussed in class. I will point out a few of the examples that Bâ uses such as: limitations colonial governments set on Africans, the Métis relationships within colonies, and issues that arose, not only between Europeans and Africans, but within the native African communities as well. I will then point out certain details from the book that do not perfectly reflect the components of colonialism that we have studied in lecture.

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In the same vein, the literary work “Love and Theft” contends that the blackface minstrelsy shows both disrupted and at the same time embodied the racial tendencies of the dominant male, white and working class people. Moreover, the envy, fear, repulsion and the sympathetic identification exemplified in the literary text “Love and Theft” consistently alludes to the fact that the minstrel show primarily transgressed the racially or rather the color defined boundaries. In a similar regard, as Lott contends, the show gave room to the formation of a self-conscious white Woking class, undermining the

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In the essay, “A Genealogy of Modern Racism”, the author Dr. Cornel West discusses racism in depth, while conveying why whites feel this sense of superiority. We learn through his discussion that whites have been forced to treat black harshly due to the knowledge that was given to them about the aesthetics of beauty and civility. This knowledge that was bestowed on the whites in the modern West, taught them that they were superior to all races tat did not emulate the norms of whites. According to Dr. West the very idea that blacks were even human beings is a concept that was a “relatively new discovery of the modern West”, and that equality of beauty, culture, and intellect in blacks remains problematic and controversial in intellectual circles

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However even with Countries such as Africa some what succeeding in the act of decolonization, the fact of the matter is that African Governments still required funds to manufacture; streets, schools, dams and plants. The main genuine option was credit loans from Western Governments. Yet, the advances accompanied strings appended: no duties, quantities or other conventional governments defensive measure were permitted. Therefore, the African industry was bound from the beginning and these advances couldn’t be paid, rather accumulating interest until they were ordinarily the GDP of the African Nations. As stated by Martin Shipway in ‘Decolonisation and its impact: A comparative approach to the end of the Colonial empires.

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So Europe invaded Africa, took possession of Africa, and divided Africa into colonies of Europe. The period of invasion, lasting some twenty years, was more or less completed by 1900. There followed a longer period, between sixty and ninety years, of direct European rule, called colonial rule. This was a time of profound upheaval for all of Africa’s peoples. It brought irreversible changes” (4).

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The Western Europeans gain power over Africans, however the way they controlled their power, with inhumane, racist and selfish actions mean’t the colonies were bound to failure. In the conquest for colonies racism and ethnocentrism played a role in how the Europeans went about with their Imperialistic conquest, however it wasn’t the original

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The European neo-imperialism differed from previous empires in the way that it was driven solely driven by nationalism and pride. Europe’s conquests continued around the world, their extreme ability to colonize countless territories was called into question. The idea arose that colonization was not only a competition, but also a duty for Western

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The term ‘decolonized’ is popular among activists of colour, yet is very loaded and hard to pin down. It has been used to free minds but it also has divided communities. The process of “decolonized’’ should not place colonization as the central point of our culture, nor should it romanticize our indigenous past .These trains of thought perpetuate the point of view of the dominant culture of today. Rather “decolonization’’ should be a process of changing a way we view the world. Frantz Fanon

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Moreover, Western civilization became the ideal civilization, and became way superior to African “civilization.” As a consequence, African tradition became perceived as primitive, outmoded, and sadly not welcomed by the rest of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of Africans experienced a trend of a dying out culture. (2) It can be implied that even the Africans’ self-perception dropped because the only lifestyle they knew was suddenly taken away from them and they were taught that it was substandard. Therefore, the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies, the Africans, had to adapt to a new, “superlative” culture and view it as more sophisticated than theirs.

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Written by Frantz Fanon, “Black Skin, White Masks” documents his observations of the colored race living in a white world, specifically racism and how it is internalized by its victims. The author emphasizes the adoption of the white man’s language as an indication of a split from one’s own culture to adapt into the white culture. He also presents chapters examining the relationships of a woman of color and a white man as well as a man of color and a white woman. Fanon further dedicates a section detailing the inferiority of the colored man and the superiority of the white man. Based on his collection of research, observations, and opinions, I believe he was able to convey his topic of study powerfully.

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Following the end of WWII and the formation of the United Nations in 1945, there was a renewed view of European colonialism - that is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically by several European states. This changed outlook came from the ‘new’ perceived global notion of racial equality and national self-determination born out of the now discredited ideology of Nazism, i.e. ‘Inferior nations who are unable to govern themselves’. There was no longer to be a justification for the political hierarchy of colonialism. The ‘success’ of the decolonisation of European colonies is not something which can be easily determined, as this ‘success’ is one which can only be evaluated once the definition of what it means to successfully decolonise a nation is established.

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Continuing to intermingle Freudian with Jungian elements, Fanon contends that the source of this colour symbolism and the negative stereotyping of the Negro lie within the psyche of the white person. In the collective unconscious of white European, he suggest, the Negro plays the role of the shadow, that part of our personality which, because it embodies all that is reprehensible in human beings, must at all costs be repudiated. Involved in all this, on the part of the white European is the phenomenon of

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