Rise and Spread of Colonialism The lies and misrepresentation that Cesaire sees as part of European claims that support colonization
The rise and spread of colonialism are crucial topics in world civilization. Colonialism is an old phenomenon that started during the ancient era in Europe. It can be categorized into old imperialism and new imperialism. The old imperialism took place between the 15th and 19th centuries. European powers such as France and Britain conquered small European nations during this period. New imperialism, on the other hand, started after 1870 as a result of the emergence of capitalism in Europe. The Europeans claimed that they colonized Africa, Asia, and America to solve the region’s economic, political, and social challenges. Nevertheless, they aimed to attain their economic ambitions. Rise and Spread of Colonialism
Cesaire presents his course on colonialism with a severe indictment of Western Civilization. A civilization that seems incapable of solving the issues it establishes. Like most of his radical literature published during his epoch, discourse places the colonial discussion front and center. A civilization that closes its eye to most of its vital issues is a civilization. He describes it as a civilization that applies its principles for deceit and trickery and is a failing Civilization. He criticized European colonization and its impact on the victims of colonization. According to him, Europeans used misrepresentation lies to justify their actions during colonization. and
Césaire claimed that European superiority was based on lies and misrepresentations. He states that European colonization led to myriad problems that it could not solve. The Europeans applied imperialism when penetrating other nations. Therefore, they conquered the whole world based on their superiority concept since they believed they were more civilized than other nations. She believed that European colonialism originated from imperialism due to capitalism as a way of complete world order. Rise and Spread of Colonialism
The Europeans offered a principal justification of moral and technological superiority for colonizing Africa and Asia. They thought that their occupation of the countries would substantially increase the colonized’s living standards. While in the real sense, they were exploiting the resources and labor of the individuals for their gain. European colonizers rejected the cultural compromises and imposed their policies to show superiority(Hrituleac et al., 14). They believed that they were improving the natives’ standards of living besides saving their mortal souls by introducing Christianity. Nevertheless, colonialism encouraged conflicts and competition between different ethnic groups.
Why colonization is dehumanization and thingification
Discourse on colonialism brings out the idea of thingification and dehumanization. In proletarianization and perplexity, Césaire suggests Marxist terms to communicate the penalties of the nuisance of labor relationships, Eurocentric values, and the endless pursuit of the fetishized modern future. The Europeans felt entitled to every land they identified and conquered, becoming superior to the natives. He states that colonization is based and vindicated on disrespect for the colonized and that it transforms the colonizer (Césaire,41). The colonizer perceives the other differently, becoming a similar version. Mostly when individuals are together, one individual tends to transform into the other person’s habit. According to Cesare’s book, the individual gets used to the other person and sees him as an “animal .”Colonization interfered with several things, and its impacted several individuals.
Césaire states that colonization’s had many implications for the lives of the colonized. Many men were drawn from their lands, habits, gods, and lives. Most of the men were scared, and they would attempt to do anything they could. Individuals were rendered malnourished since the economy had been adapted to indigenous individuals, leading to the destruction of food crops. Agricultural advancement during that time only benefited the metropolitan nations, which entailed looting raw materials and products. Césaire criticizes the ideology that colonization leads to Civilization. When he claims that the colonizer is implicated by colonization, he is overturning the European idea of considering the Indigenous individuals and the native Africans as less than humans or savages. He contemplates that the real savage is the colonizer who destroys and dehumanizes the livelihood and bodies of the people and the communities. Rise and Spread of Colonialism
Furthermore, colonization led to de Civilization, savagery, and brutalization. The colonizers used violence toward the colonized nations in exchange for luxuries and powers. Césaire says that a poison has been distilled in the Europeans’ veins. The poison, in this context, describes the colonizers’ greed and ambition. The greed statement provokes in them savage and violence, like assassinating individuals of different ages, violating residents’ rights, and torturing innocent individuals. Racism, open or veiled, is used to validate a hierarchy of states within the new world order and to weaken opposition or outrage to the inhumane treatment of non-whites. Césaire stresses that individuals identify how and why race matters (Kelley,151). According to Césaire, race hatred was a result of colonization. This results in white supremacy and racism. Nobody colonizes innocently, and a nation that decides to colonize another knows what it is doing. The colonizers were usually clear on their vision and aim and lacked morals. Colonization was dehumanizing since the colonizers were granted a license to murder and to be overwhelming barbarians. Colonized individuals are brutally pushed to adjust to foreign standards and are not given a choice.
The implications of colonization are still being felt currently. From the millions of individuals massacred, religion altered, and loss of culture to the stealing of land and execution of institutions, Césaire states several results. He talks about how colonizers instilled fear in the colonized and most of them developed an inferiority complex. In many regions of the world, colonialism’s effects are still evident. Many post-colonial cultures continue to be characterized by the exploitation of natural resources, the extraction of labor, and the imposition of European cultural norms and values. However, there are still concerns about the dehumanization thingification of oppressed populations worldwide, including refugees, immigrants, and indigenous peoples.
Cesare’s Discourse on Colonialism expresses Henry’s “Caliban’s
.” To characterize the various tactics the colonized used to dispute and reject their oppression, Paget Henry, a Caribbean philosopher, created the phrase “Caliban’s Reason. Paget Henry states in a conversation with Fanon how the colonial context interfered with the Afro-Caribbean psyche and “switched the Afro-Caribbean in an antiblack environment from which she or he must be extracted.” Colonial subjectivity was based on dehumanization.
Cesaire’s” Discourse on Colonialism” criticizes colonialism on how the colonizers treated the colonized. His idea is an expression of Caliban’s reason by Henry Paget. In order to expose the lies, inconsistencies, and violence of European colonialism, Césaire draws on his experiences as a Martinican and those of other colonized peoples.
Both two ideologies on colonialism are grounded in the historical and cultural realities of the natives. Afro-Caribbean philosophy is a complicated, subtextual, multilayered discursive formation. Henry states that the dissolution of European colonials has not formed the end of antiblack or imperial constraints and values (Soufrant and Kalumba,27). The mainstream Eurocentric narrative that portrays colonization as a mission of Civilization is also contested by Cesare’s discourse. He demonstrates how colonialism is a dehumanizing and cruel endeavor that salvaged and interfered with the colonizers’ cultures and religions cultures. It led to racism and maintained disparities between the colonizers and the colonized. He also exposed the absurdity of European claims to supremacy. He referred to supremacy as” a misrepresentation and lies” since the colonizers used the opportunity to gain and acquire resources for their economic growth. Rise and Spread of Colonialism
Distinctive characteristics of Afro-Caribbean found in Discourse on Colonialism.
Paget Henry’s book fills a crucial rational void. Within the larger context of African, European, and Afro-American philosophical traditions, it expresses the distinct Afro-Caribbean philosophical consciousness. African-derived narrative styles, which emphasize the performative nature of interpersonal communication, have altered his work. He analyses the Afro-Caribbean experience during colonialism besides identifying the distinctive features that Césaire shows in his work.
Cesare’s work offers a strong phenomenological and rhetorical representation of the complications of black human subjectivity. Césaire selects the linguistic form of poetry to inform on the linguistic arrangement of poetry to convey information on the murders of the colonized human subjectivity to a universal audience. Cesare’s decision to apply this form of language as a way of communicating lived experience shows his desire and attempts to master the linguistic code of the colonialist so he would manage to work in denunciation of the same system that oppresses him. Césaire actualizes and grasps the fundamental, immutable truths of his existence by using the poetic language form to declare and show his capacity to accomplish totality in being human in the real world.
Paget and Headey identify the idea of double consciousness in Cesare’s work. The page focuses on Afro-Caribbean historicism. The Afro-Caribbeans had both European and African images for themselves. The contradictory self-images left the Afro-Caribbean vulnerable to ego collapse, open to experiences of the “zone on nonbeing,” Their psyche was divided into values (Soufrant and Kalumba,93). Cesare’s writing emphasizes the significance of recognizing and honoring African cultural history while addressing the particular experiences and difficulties encountered by Caribbean people, reflecting this dual identity.
Furthermore, they compare the general characteristics of Afro-Caribbean philosophy with those of Afro-Caribbean dance, music, literature, and other cultural means. The incorporation of Afro-Caribbean music and dance rhythms in Cesaire’s poetry emphasizes the significance of creativity and expression in the face of colonial oppression. These rhythms are fundamental to the culture. Paget and Headley stated that Afro-Caribbean philosophy is distinct in the extent to which it has resisted a similar creolizing of its recognition. Cesaire uses language, imagery, and cultural allusions in Discourse on Colonialism. The duets’ idea of Afro-Caribbean philosophy states that it is a raid on mainstream philosophy’s totalizing, ontologizing, and hegemonic discourse, besides rejecting the enforced universalism of this culture(Headley,4). The Afro-Caribbean people struggled during colonization, and it was significant for them to recognize and honor their cultural heritage in the liberation movement.
Works Cited APA
“Caliban’s Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy by Paget Henry.” Philosophia Africana, vol. 5, no. 1, DePaul University, Apr. 2002, pp. 59–63, doi:10.5840/philafricana20025117.
Cesaire, A. Discourse on colonialism(1995). New York. Monthly Review Press.
Headley, Clevis. “Rethinking Caribbean Culture: An Opportunity to Rethink Afro-Caribbean Philosophy.” Shibboleths: A Journal of Comparative Theory 1.2 (2007): 91–105.
Hrituleac, Alexandra, and JØRGEN ULFF-MØLLER Nielsen. “The Effects of Colonialism on African Economic Development.” Business and Social Sciences (2011): 1-65.
Kelley, Robin Kate. “Classic Texts: No. 15.” Community Development Journal, Oxford UP, Jan. 2012, doi:10.1093/cdj/bsr065.
