CU-MA-SEM-III-Specialization I – Post Colonial Novel- Second review

In her role as the female priest, Chielo tells Ekwefi who Okonkwo’s second wife is that Agbala (the Oracle of the Hills and Caves) needs to go to see Ezinma.Though both of them protest; Chielo takes Ezinma on her back and does not want anyone to follow her. She carries her to the 9 villages and finally enters the cave of the Oracle.Ekwefi is following her despite her mentions not to follow as he waits at the entrance of the cave. Okonkwo gives a surprise to Ekwefi by coming to the cave and waits with her.The next day: Chielo takes her to Ekwefi's hut. There he puts her on the bed. Okonkwo is worried when OgbuefiEzeudu is about to die as when he visited him the last time, he had told him not to participate in the killing. Ezeudu who was among the leaders in the village, and he had got the three names for the sect which was very rare. In the last funeral, his guns were off and his Ezeudu's 16-year-old son was killed by accident. The killing of the leader is the wrongdoing against the goddess of the earth. He and his family were sent to exile for seven years. They move to the maternal native village of Mbanta.After they leave the village, a group of villagers destroy his compound as well as kills all the animals in order to clean the village from the sin he has committed. Obierika has stored yam in his barns and keeps on wondering about the tradition of Igbo cultures. Okonkwo is given a welcome in Mbanta by his uncle, Uchendu, who is an elder in the village. He gives him a piece of land to do farming and build a house for the family. He is depressed and for which he blames his spirit for his failures for not becoming great. It was during his second year in exile, he gets a visit from his friend, Obierika. He recalls about the sad news which happened in the Abame village. A white person had come into the village on the cycle, the elders there consulted the spirits which advised them to kill the person along with the other persons. Hence, and the people killed the white individual. But after few weeks, group of people had come to kill all the villagers in revenge. The village is now empty and deserted. Okonkwo as well as Uchendu agreed that the people of the village were foolish to kill the man whom they knew nothing about the same. After that, Obierika had given money that he had got from selling yams and its seeds and he promised to do the same till he returned to Umuofia. There were six Christian missionaries which included the white person who arrived in the city of Mbanta.The white person talks to the people regarding Christian religion. He believes that what the white person is speaking is not relevant. But in turn his son is captive and thereby gets converted to Christianity. The missionaries build a church on the place given to them by the villagers. But the land is in the part where there is an Evil Forest. So according to traditions, they believe that the missionary will be dead as they are building it on a curse land. But nothing happens to them. 101 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The people there start thinking that the missionary have extraordinary powers. The first few people recruited by them include efulefu who are the weakest and useless men of the village. After that others and a woman get converted. Then the missionary go to the town of Umofia in order to start a school. Nwoye leaves his father’s place so that he can go to school. Okonkwo exile period is over, and so the family is arranging for return to Umuofia. Before leaving the place, they are preparing a huge dinner for their relatives in order to express their gratitude during the years in exile. When he returns to his village, he sees that the village has changed when he was not there. Many people removed the titles and converted them to Christian religion. They also built a prison, government and the laws. Those who break the laws are taken under captivity. He wonders why the people had taken up violence in order to get against the churches and the governments. Some members of Igbo community like the changes in the place of Umuofia. Mr. Brown who was the white missionary respects traditions of Igbo. He tries learning about the culture as well as gets friendly with the leader of the community. He is encouraging people from all age groups to get educated. Mr Brown tells him that Nwoye who is now named as Isaac is going to teach in college. However, he is not happy with the changes in Umuofia. After Mr Brown was unwell, he was sent back home. At that time Reverend James is appointed as the new head of the church. He is not like Mr Brown as he is highly intolerant towards the traditions and is also very strict person. There is violence after Enoch, gets converted to Christian religion and he shows the reality of an egwugwu. In return, the people burn the compounds and thereby destroying the church. The missionary had caused the village people many difficulties. When the Commissioner of the place returns, he gets to know that the church is destroyed. A group of six leaders including Okonkwo go to meet him. They are jailed till they pay fines of 250 bags of cowries. The people collect the cash to pay the fine so as to free the people. The very next day of the meeting of the leaders, there are five messengers from the court who are intended to put a stop to the people approaching the particular group. He suddenly, Okonkwo leans forward and then beheads the person in charge of the messenger with his weapon. When no one of the leaders attempted to stop them from escaping, he realized that they won’t go to war again and they will be surrendering. Everything is gone for Okonkwo, so he hangs and commits suicide. 5.3 MAJOR THEMES For authors, the theme is the main motive which drives the novel during the making of the book. The author does not find themes identical to the main themes. The creative ideas are 102 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

shown in one idea, concepts, principles, beliefs or the purpose which is relevant to the writer. The themes or several themes are the guiding principles the author has been controlling wherever the story is going. What the character is doing, the moods which are portrayed, the styles and the emotions that is affecting the stories created for the readers. Igbo Society Complexity From his statement, we are getting to know about one of the main themes in the complex society of Igbo in the societies before the Europeans came. In order to support the themes, he included the detailing of the codes of justice and the process for trials, society rules, family traditions, marriages, producing food, process of production, sharing leaderships for the communities, beliefs and the opportunity given to every person to climb the ladder of success with his own efforts. The novel might have been written for studying the Okonkwo’s character degrading in the no sympathizing and incompatible atmosphere. But what has to be considered is what he had been losing as Achebe had not emphasizing on the complexities and the dynamic improvement of the community in the place of Umofia. Clash of Cultures It was going against the theme of the Igbo’s cultural complexity was his topic for clashing of culture. This colliding of the culture is happening at the individual and society level, cultural and misunderstandings were cut in both the ways. Just as the Reverend Smith thinks Africans referring to them as “heathens,\" the Igbo community initially criticizes the Christian, and the missionary were termed as \"foolish. “For him, the perception of them as well as people of Europe needed to be realigned as the misrepresentations of the African by the western people. Writing as the African who was part of the European culture Achebe had written about Things Fall Apart as an act of attaining with the pasts, returning rituals as well as homage’s to the son. By the acts, he had encouraged others to follow western education so as to realize that they had misconceptions about the home culture. Destiny It is related to the themes of the cultural clashes is the issues of how much flexibleor rigid the characters are and how they are contributing towards their destinies.It was due to Okonkwo and his inflexibility; he was seemed to be destined towards his destruction of himself even before the colonizers from Europe had come. The new culture only haste’s his tragically fate of life. There were two other people other than Okonkwo.First it was Mr Brown who was the first missionary. The other was Obierika who was his friend.While he is a not working man, the other two are more open as well as adaptable persons of thoughts.Mr Brown wins and gets people converted by respecting their traditions and beliefs of the Igbo community. He allows them to be accommodated in the converting process. Just like Brown, Obierika is a 103 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

reasonable as well as thinking individual. He is not advocating the use of forces in order to counter the colonizing people as well as the opposition. But instead, he has an open mind towards thinking of change of value and the cultures abroad. He says that who will know what is going to happen tomorrow, he is commenting on the foreignersarrivals. Obrieka is more welcoming as well as adapting closer to the spirit of the land. There were contrasts in his Okonkwo's nature. .For instance, the country had initially not resisting the coming of the new religion in the middle. With the deepest roots in the heritage of the tribal’s where the community did not stand going against the leaders as per the newer laws in the new religion. What is accounting for lack of the community opposition? Was Igbo community more receiving and adapting than it is appearing to be? There is lacking proper resisting which will also come from the facts that the society does not fostering strong leadership skills. The quality is encouraging people to have initiatives towards recognising and achieving but limiting the decisions making process as well as the authoritative backing of actions which need a short period of time to maintain integral and welfare relationships. Whateverbe the reasons or combinations of the reason, the cultures of Britain along with its culture and its codes of behaviour have greater goals for enlightening.They began encroaching on the Igbo cultures along with its codes of behaviour. There was a factor that will be hastening the declines of the society in Igbo. Their custom was built by removing some of the persons as they used to outcast their being as well as keeping the womenfolk restricted only to the household. They were treated as the property for abusing them mentally and physically. When the missionaries of the religion of Christianity arrived at the Igbo territories, they were side-lined as people with twin babies only at the value. The leadership was traditional which was not able to find control in its population. There was no clarity, authority centre in the society of Igbo. It was the inherent qualities which made Achebe write the poem titled “The Second Coming”. The important phases of the poem said that \"Things will be falling apart when the centre cannot hold it.\" By the above given themes is the most important of them being fate known as destiny. This particular theme is being played at the personal as well as society level. In this novel, the person reading is always being reminded about the same while referencing to chi, personal spirit of god who has the most capacities and can decide the destiny. Okonkwo is the best when the spirits support his own ambitions. He says, “When a person says yes, his chi spirits says yes too\" (Chapter 4).In the worst situations, he feels that the spirit has let him down. He says “his own chi was not for great things. Every person cannot rise beyond the destinies of his true spirits. There was a person whose spirits did not confirm his own fate” (Chapter 14). At the level of societies, there is Igbo community’s lack of uniting in the self-imaging as well as central leaders as the weakness while treating their own population as discussed earlier. 104 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

They have become victims of the colonising by the powers eagerly waiting for their exploitation. Apart from the themes discussed above in the essays, the readers are able to identify the others in the story. For instance, the universal motives of human beings and their emotions are cutting across different cultures, there needs to be a balance between the individual needs as well as community. The Struggle between Change and Tradition The story is between cultures as it is on the way of changing. Things falling apart deals in how the prospects and the realities of changes that are affecting different character. The tensions about whether changes are getting more privileges over traditions that are involving the questioning about the status of a person. Okonkwo, for instance, is resisting the newer political and religious order as they feel so as they are considered not manly, and he won’t be a man if he does not consent to join or even to tolerate them. For some extent, his resistance towards the changes in cultures is also due to changes of status in society. The sense of self worthiness is fully dependent on standards of traditions by which society is judging. The systems of evaluation are the self-inspiring as many of the communities have embraced Christian religion. Those who were outcaste find themselves in the value system as the refugees from the culture of Igbo than anybody else. In the newer communities, these coverts are enjoying a better status. The villagers are caught in between resistance and embracement of the changes they are facing. They are in confusion whether to adapt to change or not. Many of them are excited about the new opportunity that the missionary are bringing to them. The European influencers are threatening to extinguish the need of mastering the methods of doing farm activities, harvest, and building of houses as well as cooking. These methods which were once necessary for survival are now an indispensable part. It is through the book; he shows dependence on tradition as telling stories and the languages. As to how easily the abandoning of the language of Igbo could lead to eradication of such tradition. Varying Interpretations of Masculinity Okonkwo’s relations with his late father tells how much of violence as well as inflexibility. He wanted to rise above his father and his legacy of spending, intolerant behaviour, which according to him are as weak and effeminising.This kind of association is prevalent in the language of the community. The narrator gives a name called agbala to a person not having expensive and costly titles, referring to as a woman. But, for most of the part, Okonkwo’s idea of being a man is not the sects. He has associated masculine nature with aggressiveness, and he feels that anger is the emotion that one should display. In order to do this, he frequently beats his wives by threatening to kill them from time and again. We are being told that he will not think about things, and we see him by acting rash and impetuous. Yet there 105 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

are others who are in no way of effeminising who do not behave in that way. Obierika is different from Okonkwo, “was a person who thought about different things.” There is Obierika who is refusing to go with the men on the trip that was to kill Ikemefuna. He did not only volunteer to join the party that was executing his surrogate son but also violence while stabbing him with his weapons simply as he was afraid of showing his weakness. Okonkwo in his seven-year of exile from the village only confirms the notions that men are stronger than women. While being in exile, he is living with his relatives of his motherland but is presenting the period entirely. The exile was his only opportunity to get in touch with his female side and to give some recognition to the maternal ancestors. He kept on reminding him that the relatives are not as warlike as the villagers of Umuofia. He finds faults in negotiating, compiling as well as avoiding the anger and the war. In his understanding, his uncle was the most pacifying in the modes. Language as a Sign of Cultural Difference Languages are also an important topic in the novel at various levels. In showing the imagination, often formal language like Igbo is used. Achebe has emphasized that Africa is not the silent or quiet country that novels like Heart of Darkness has shown. It is rather by going through the words in Iqbo, he shows that the language was far too complicated for translating into English. Similarly, the cultures are not understood by the frameworks of the European values. He points out that the country of Africa has various languages/: the villager of the city of Umuofia had made fun of translator of Mr Brown as his language was different from their language. On the macro level, it becomes extremely important for the writer to choose the language apart from the English language. He had clearly intended to read the minds of the westerns at the least, as he feels for his fellow people. His only goal was to criticize and make changes in the portrayal of Africa that has been given by many of the writers during the colonized era. In doing so, he was required to know the use of English as the other writers. He uses proverbs, stories and songs in the Igbo language. He has managed to convey as well as capture the rhythm, structure, cadence as well as beauty of the language. Generational Divide Things Fall Apart puts lights on two of the most significant generational divides. The first being Okonkwo separated from his father, Unoka. Different from his son, Unoka was never a warrior, nor has he been distinguished in some way. But he prefers drinking and playing music along with friends. . But for a masculine man like Okonkwo, his father was shameful, and so he dismissed his father to a coward. . Just as Okonkwo has been separate from his father, he is also separated from his eldest son; named Nwoye He has things which are in common with his granddad Unoka, especially with regard to his lacking interests in war and his love for the art. He resisted his father who was expecting him to become a well- 106 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

knownwarrior. He was more drawn to the stories told by his mother. Okonkwo felt that as a waste of time. At the end, he ran away from his father’s home and got converted to Christianity. Hence, Okonkwo starts feeling ashamed of both his own father and his son. The book has drawn the anomalies between both the characters. Pride Okonkwo’s great flaws is the pride, which is always under threats from both within his communities as well as from without. He is taking pride in the achievement. This pride is justified as he has achieved a lot. He has not only proved that he is among the fierce warrior but also climbing the social ladders faster than his fellowmen. But his pride makes him quick to disapprove of others who are not living up to his highest standards. For example, his son’s lack of manly qualities is leading him to get worried about his own clans and the aggression towards his son. His exile in Mbanta was a serious blow to his pride. While returning to his homeland, he wants to defend his own pride by fighting against the European influences. Okonkwo is explaining his position with analogies: “If there is a man who comes into the hut and is defecating in the floor, what am I supposed to do? Should I shut my eyes? He said I will take the stick and break his heads Okonkwo henceis resortingto theviolence for defending his prides and this violence will beleadingto his tragically downfalls. Repression It is through the novel, Things Fall Apart; Okonkwo is struggling with playing with his emotions. He is suppressing his emotions as he fears to appear weak and emotionless. Over and over again in the book his inner struggles are getting crushed leading him to expressing about him with the cruel nature of others. The writer is commenting on the internal wars happening always. In chapter 4, for example, the narrator is explicating in addressing the themes of oppression: “He has never shown such emotions openly, unless it is the emotion of anger. In order to show the affection as a sign of weak people, strength is the only way to show the strengths.” His belief that anger is only right kind of emotion for a man to show has caused lots of problems for himself, his family, and finally his own community. For instance, when he kills Ikemefuna going against the advice of old man, he does it as “He was getting afraid of being thought to be weak. “But the killing of his son who was adopted breaks his heart of his own son. The wounds between him and his son never get healing. It is throughout the story, there is oppression leading to damages like out busting of sudden anger as well as violence. Drum Language Drums are playing a significant role in city of Umuofia Throughout the novel, the writer is emphasizing on the drums’ ability in generating excitement as well as even communicating certain information. They are a signal of imitation for a particular ceremony. For instance, a continuous beating of the drums sets the city of Umuofia’s annual wrestling match in action, 107 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

and the sound fills the whole of village until “their sounds are no longer a separate sound from the living villages. It is just like the pulseof the heart. “The writer speaks that drums have their own language. The villagers learn this very early in their lives. In one of the example, the writer has transcribed the drum language in a phonetic way: “Go-di-di-go-go-di- go. Di-go-go-di-go. It was the leader talking to the people “The writer waiting for translating of the language until he learns it is for the dead. It is far more important as a medium. By translating the drums, he is elevating the language of the novel to other language such as English and Igbo. Ethnographic Distance The term refers to methods of studying anthropology. The anthropologists study cultures from a distance. They look at giving meaning to the cultures. At different times in the story, the writer is fully getting immersed in the culture of Igbo which takes time to explain the aspects to the readers. For instance, when Okonkwo’s wife is calling out to Ekwefi in fifth chapter, she calls her back in asking whether it is me from the hut. This reaction is strange for people not from Igbo. Hence the narrator is explaining the logic behind the response. The people in whom people are answering the questions.They never give an answer if there is spirit calling them outside. The Igbo’s world is full of evil spirits which is having such intentions. It will invite you to the spirit inside. Throughout the novel the writer talk about ethno-geographical distances in order to get clarity about the Igbo to the non-Igbo cultures. The writer says that there are two world one being from Africa and the other from Europe. 5.4 CHARACTER ANALYSIS Okonkwo The main character of the novel is being considered a tragically hero. He is holding the positions of powers as well as attitude by choosing his attitude, flows of the weakness and the circumstances gaining power leading to his failure. His main flaw is fear of being weak and failing. In his thirty years, he became the leader of the community of Igbo in the town of Umuofia. They describe him as tall as well as huge with his thick eyebrows having a strong look. He was going barefoot even without touching the feet. It was like walking on the springs like some person. He stammers a bit with heavy breathing. Okonkwo was a well-known as a wrestler, warrior, and a su farmer of yam. He had three wives and children in the compound.All through his life he was having battle with status and his life was dominated with fears of failure and the weaking.He used to get angry soon specially with men with who are lazy as well as debtor like his father. . But he is overcompensating for his father’s weak ways, of which he is ashamed of, because he does not tolerate idle or gentle nature. Though he has affection inwards at times, but he never shows it 108 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

someone. He is isolating himself with anger through violence, stubbornness as well as irrelevant behaviours. He demands that his family give more time in spite their age sand stamina. He keeps on criticizing his wives as well as soon. His son Nwoye thinks that he was like his father Unoka. He was very impulsive as he acts before he is thinking. Resulting, he gets offended by the people of Igbo and their tradition and the gods in their clan. He is advised not to take part in the murder, but in fact takes part of it. He does not want to think as weak. When the white person gets Christianity religion to the place, he is opposing the new ways. He has the feeling that change is destroying the culture of Igbo. He could not compromise on his accommodating as he was finding it in tolerating.He wastoo proud and inflexible as he isclinging to traditional beliefs and mourns the lossesof the past. When he in anger killed the messenger of the British and his people were back with fear. He realized that no one would support him, and he would not be able to save his village from the Britishers.He gets defeated. In the shoe he become shamed and died a disgraceful death just like his father. Unoka He was a tall and thin man with a little bit of stoop was Unoka who was his father. He was appearing to be mourning and haggarding in times other than drinking and playing the instrument. The favourite time was when he played music with the musicians. His priorities were to enjoy life in full. He felt at peace while playing his flutes. The loss was shown in the music. He was lacking responsibilities. He was poor, lazy and neglecting has wife and was unplanned about his future. In his life, he never got a title and never got respect from status and respect from the villagers. He was called a loafer as people made fun of him in his community. When he got money, he used it to buy the wine of the palm. He was in debt as well as a failure. He was a coward and never was a warrior. He could not stand the sight of blood. His nature was opposite to the traditions of Igbo as he was never taken seriously and treated well by his people. He was not well treated by his father or by his son. Evil fortune followed him till his death. He died of serious illness, by swelling of his stomach as well as limbs. He was left to die in the forest. Obierika Okonkwo’s friend named Obierika always was a cover for his friend. His personality is different and unique from his friend’s. He is a reasonably good person who is thinking before acting. His friend was very impulsive in nature. He does not advise the use of violence in order to take revenge from the British. He is an open-minded person as he is appreciating the 109 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

change in values as well as foreign cultures that are intruding the traditions. He is accepting the new ideas and is adapting to the changes, but his friend is narrow minded and not able to accept the changes in the Igbo cultures and the beliefs. Even though the personality of Obierika and his friend Okonkwo are different from each other, Obierika is supporting his friend Okonkwo at all times. He gives comfort to his friend when he is depressed on Ikemefuna's death, in spite of the fact that he is not approving of his role in the murder. When he goes into exile, he sells yams and seed yams in order to get profits. He questions Igbo traditions and value system and their laws. He is thinking about the changes for improving in the society of Igbo. His solution is the use of violence against the Britishers.He has understood the rise against them was late for the community. He says that the white person has put his knife on the things that was once held together has fallen down. Mr. Brown Mr. Brown was among the first Christian missionary in the cities of Umuofia and Mbanta. . He is having lot of patience, kind as well as an understanding person. He is of an open-mind and always willing to have respects and understanding of the beliefs of the Igbo. He restricts overenthusiastic members of the church for inciting the members of the sect. It is shown in the beliefs which are shared among the people of Igbo in the maintenance of peace. He is friends with members of the community as they clearly understand the messages. He discusses his beliefs with three leaders of the sects. Neither of them gives up on the belief that they learn to respect the religions of one another. He builds a school as well as hospital in the city of Umoufia. He tells the people there to send their children to school. He gives them gifts such as singlet as well as towels to children and their parents for attending school. He tells the people there the leaders of the future will be educated. He is aware of the British ways for doing away from the traditions of the people of Igbo for forming the governments. He tells them that they need to adapt themselves or they will lose their autonomies and the beliefs of tradition. Reverend James Smith Reverend Smith is a missionary who has replaced Mr. Brown as the head of the Christian churches. He is very strict and not compromising as to what Mr Brown who was kind, accommodating as well as compassionate. .He is a stereotype fire and brim kind ofpreacher.He sees things in black as well as white. The black is evil nature. He is not tolerant as well as not giving respect to its traditional customs and beliefs. Igbo has come out from the prophets of the old testaments which are considered the beliefs of the evil. He wants the heads of the sect to get converted to Christian religion as 110 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

he does not believe in their religion. He does not let a lady enter the church as he believes in following the tradition of the dead child. Reverend is expecting to convert as well as stick to all the sects of Christianity and values in a narrow-minded way. He is inciting and converting the overenthusiastic, fanatics about new beliefs. After Enough, an over enthusiastic converts, creates the conflicts in the ceremony of Igbo, the spirits of the ancestors in the sect burning the compounds and proceeding to the church. Reverend has no idea as to why the spirit is not happy with him, but he is not harmed because of the compassions shown towards the people of Igbo and their understanding of belief. The spirits have destroyed Reverend’s church. Nwoye Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son who is struggling in the shadow of his powerful, over demanding and stressing father. His likes are different from his fathers. He shares common values with his grandfather. He has gone through beating on the loss for failing to make his father happy. This happens tillIkemefuna arrives and becomes like his elder brother and he teaches his father gentleness to be part of masculinity So as a result, he backs off and his son never respects him. He always is conflicting as though he disowns female things to make his father happy. He liked listening to the stories told by his mother. After murdering in Ikemefuna, there is change in his personality. He is not willing to accept his father and his masculine qualities which turn embracement for him. When the missionaries come to city of Mbanta, Nwoye is hoping, and his faith is rekindled, and he joins force along with them. But his father curses him for being a useless son and disowns him. He finds peace at last before leaving the oppression done by his father. Ezinma Ezinma is the favourite daughter of Okonkwo as well as the child of Ekwefi.She has different approach than his father and contradicts him also. His father at lots of times tells her that she could have been a boy as she had the manly powers. She alone gets her father’s attention, affection and his respects. She is kind spirited who boosts her confidence and nature. She grows into a young lady who cancels her marriage till her family came back from exile to help her father get back his powers in the political circles. In doing it, she shows the approach similar to her father. She puts strategies in front of the emotions. Ikemefuna Ikemefuna comes to the village of Umuofia early in the novel in order to settle a dispute with a nearby village. Not knowing what was going to happen he lets Okonkwo lets him to live with his first wife. He becomes a beloved member of the family. He is the role model of the Okonkwo eldest son, Nwoye, and over a period of time he also earns his father’s respect. 111 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Butthe roles he plays in Okonkwo’s family is the effect of his death happening on the family and the events which are unfolding in the book. When the elders decide to kill Ikemefuna and settle the disputes with the neighbouring villages, Okonkwo is insisting on taking part in the executing the fact that the boy called him his father. He commits suicide by killing himself out of fear for failing to take responsibility that he is weak. His son’s death harms the relations with Okonkwo as well as Nwoye.It is his death which is considered as a bad sign in connection to his exile to Umoufia. The death of Ikemefuna is signalling that the things are falling apart. 5.5 CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF THE NOVEL The novel named Things Fall Apart is taking place in the final decades of the nineteenth century in the city of Igbo known as Nigeria. The missionaries of Europe who arrived in Nigeria had a historical past. According to the geographies of the book, it is dictated by the precolonization rules of the socio-political organisation.Igobo is a cluster of villages build together in order to protect one another as well as guaranteeing their safeties. The action taking place in the Things Falling Apart novel is a village of fiction known as Umouofia which is a part of bigger political set up made up of nine different villages. In Igbo land the gender geographies are dependent on where the individual’s parents are born and brought up. For example, Umuofia is Okonkwo’s father’s village which is called father’s land. When he was sent to get exile for doing crime of man slaughtering his family went to group of nine other villages known as Mbanta.It is his mother’s place. There his mother was born. The gender of geography is an important aspect as Okonkwo sees the exile in the mother’s land as an act of harming his prestige. Just as geography has its meaning in the novel, and so does the time. It is set up in the 1890 where there was incursions done by the British in the country of Igboland.The book takes place in the moments of the rupturing of the old traditional ways of the colonized period. It came under threat from the buckled weight of the European people. It is dramatizing the beginning of the imperial British colonies in the region who were taking guns in place of the Bible. Just as Achebe is describing in the book, it is the missionary who are coming first, giving ways for governments in order to take full political controls at the points of pens not the guns. Though there is very less direct form of violence used against the Igbos, he is implying the bloodshed comes at the end. It is when the District’s Commissioner gives his book’s progress titling it to be The Pacification of the Tribes of the Lower Niger. As any person reading about the history of Nigeria, it will know about pacifying the achievement with greater deal of war and death. Okonkwo is the main character in the book. He is a born athletic and a great warrior. He is having leadership qualities for driving others. But his drive is leading to the aggression and champions of the inflating interpretation of masculine nature. His personality gets him into 112 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

fights with others. For example, his excess of commitment to manly nature is coming to heads when is taking the responsibility for killing his own adapted son Ikemefuna.The killing of his son has become familiar along with the communal affects. It breaks the heart of his eldest son Nwoye.He used to love him like his elder brother, and he is feeling betrayal by the actions of his father. The death of Ikemefuna has symbolic relevance to the events leading to Okonkwo going to exile. The events affected the whole community in a larger way. Just before the event, the old man had warned him not to participate in the killing. He does not follow the elder’s word. After the death of Ezeudu, the protagonist shoots himself and kills his grandson during the funeral. The ongoing man slaughtering is representative of the crimes going against the goddess earth which is getting cleaned by burning. He is forced into exile. Okonkwo, the arrest is the last straw, and he wants the villages go to war. But when Okonkwo draws first blood by killing a British messenger, Okonkwo’s peers reject the act, signalling that Okonkwo and his values are no longer relevant. Sensing his final defeat, Okonkwo takes his own life. In the course of the book, Okonkwo is growing up by picking up fights with the other members of the town as well as the rest of the 9 villages. Themissionary from Europe along with civil servant begins to infiltrate the regions. He wants to protect his country Igbo land against foreign people. As heist longing for maintaining the values as well as defending the pride of the country as well as other members of the 9 villages are feeling attracted towards the Europeans offering. He is not able to accept the sense of frustration when it comes to the invasion of the Europeans. He also becomes angry when the villagers group together at the missionary in order to take advantages of the health care facilities as well as education system. The book reaches the finale after the bloodshed. He gets arrested along with other villagers. His arrest is the last resort before the villages go to war against each other. Point of View The book named Things Fall Apart is taking a third-person’s perspective meaning that the writer is known as well as communicating the thoughts and feelings about all the character. The writer is refusing to judge by their action. For example,Okonkwo resolve the rejection of his father as the narrator shows Unoka story is about neutralism. He was never as happy when it comes to war. It changes the subjects and talking about music, his face always brightened. Though he is getting diverted from the norms that are dictating the people who are the warriors, the writer will not be judging him from deviating instead of loving the music. Similarly, being harsh outside explaining the disagreeing character with more sensitive nature. He was a bad person at heart. He is extending the same thoughts to the characters of Europe such as missionary and the Commissioner of the Districts. However, giving the bulk of narrations on the perspective of Igbo; the readers are having a difficult time sympathizing with the perspectives of Europe. 113 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Another aspect of point of views in the book Things Fall Apart is the ethnographical perspectives spread throughout the book. Many times, the writer is inserting comments in order to explain elements about the Igbo culture. Take for instance, in the beginning of the bookman orator called Okayed asks Unoka to repay the debts taken. He says that among the Igbo’s the art of talking is regarded highly and telling him about the proverbs in which palm oil is taken. But instead of giving the exact terms, Okoye is requesting him to pay back by informing about the importance of the history. The readers are learning that proverbs are functioning in difficulty where the talks cannot be applied while encountering them in the chapter. There are similar examples of the geographical ethnicity in the book which is self- explaining for the narrations. Where the writer is are explaining the dark nature of the people. The uses of the sentences these people create the distance outside the Igbo world. The writer is functioning as a mediator in the book. Foreshadowing Foreshadow in the book Things Fall Apart, it is indicating that the story does not end well. He is simplifying the doom by preface of the first part with the epigraphy containing in the quotes from Yeats poem The Second Coming from where the book gets its name. It gives the deep vision of the mystery of the future events which are the speaker’s visions about the chaos and the anarchies that is the character of the present. It is not clear whether the future events will be well or ill. The speaker is asking how the slouches are born towards Bethlehem are born. His use of Yeat's poems is important. Yeats has written his poem at the starting of the Irish War, when Ireland had sought its freedom from British colonialization While his visions are restricting the futures beyond the horrors of colonization. He uses poems for signalling the colonization of Nigeria. The Arrival of the British There are titles and pictures used from the Yeats poem. He uses other strategy to show the arrival of the British. Example the coming of the locust. The writer is explaining as to how the swarms of the locus that come out were smaller. There were bigger people sending the surveying of the lands before the rest of the others came. The locust are prefiguring that the missionary, who are in turn figuring out the coming of the colonizing governments. The narrators make the connections explicitly later in the book, when she informs that the oracle supremacy which was followed by the appearance of the white person in the nine of the villages. It is said that other people are on their way. There was locust, he said, and the first man was sent to explain the terrains. The writer also proves than proverbs also give the same effects. For example, after the accidents that resulted in the exile, the narrators take nods to give wisdom of the proverbs. As the elders are saying if one finger is brought oil it will spoil the other. The sentences appear at the end of the first part as well as suggesting the challenge that arises from the rest of the part two and three. 114 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Nwoye’s Conversion Nwoye conversion to Christianity was a surprise to Okonkwo. The writer’s shadows frustration between the two of them. It is questionable along with Igbo’s culture practices. On insistence of him, the stories were coming from his mother. Okonkwo dismissed these as stories of women and forced him to listen about the stories of blooding and war instead he listened to stories about religions. It is captivating him with his story of his mother and laid the foundation for his conversion. Apart from that, traditions of Christianity gives description about the culture of Igbo that is troubling Nwoye.For example, the songs about the brother in the darkness and the fear which seems to be the answers to the vague and frequent question about the twin crying as the question of the brother who was killed. These types of questions were haunting him earlier which was taken away from him which casts shadow of what is within him as to cast the shadow of abandoning the customs. Okonkwo’s Suicide As the clues given can predict the conversion of Nwoye, so can they predict the Okonkwo’s suicide? The first of the clues came very early in the book where the farmer is succumbing to disparity following devastating harvest of yams. The man had tied himself to the cloth and hanged him similar to Okonkwo at the end. The second clue is coming much later, when Okonkwo is sent to be exiled in Mbanta and Obierikahis friend comes to deliver the profits from his friend’sharvest.He does not have words to thank his friend. He had indicated that he would kill one of his own sons in the gratitude. She gave him an alternative by dying killing yourself. It was meant to be a joke but later after about ten pages in the story, When Break is returning to Mbanta for informing about his son’s conversion to Christianity. There is a sense of being let down by his son. Okonkwo felt at one point of time to commit suicide himself. Genre Tragedy Things Fall Apart is fitting the meaning of tragedy as it shows both the personal downfalls of Okonkwo as well as erosion of the Igbo culture that he wished to defend. Right from the beginning he has clarified to the extent of the self-worthiness depending on the narrations of the ideas of the male gender. He struggles to get himself free from the father’s legacy and get a place in the elder community in the place. In his zeal to get name and fame, he picks up fights with others. Life is getting very tough for Okonkwo just before the invasion of Christian missionary and British colonels, but the foreign arrivals in the nine villages marks the end of Igbo cultures along with the possibility for him to earn honour as a sect elder. Not able to bear the double blows in his life, in despair of not being able to take care of things properly, he kills himself. It is an act formidable in the Igbo Culture. 115 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The novel titled Things Fall Apart has got a tragic title. The title has been taken from quote from. Yeats’s famous poem titled The Second Coming. The reference given to Yeats has been provided in the novel with a sense of tragic events. Achebe then is underscoring the sense of inevitable by echoing the languages of the poem through the story. Achebe keeps saying the line at all times “My anarchy is lost upon the world. “The refraining in the two important parts of the story makes the things fall apart. The first being when the Ekwefi disobey’ the priest command of not following to the cave. In the terrible darkness he is recalling that the evils which are loosened by the tribe are the spirits in control now. The second incident is when Okonkwo is exiled to Umouofia for committing manslaughter.If the man does not get punished for the act the goddess will get loosed on the land and not do justice to the offenders. In both the cases, yeat’s poem has lost upon the whole world thinking it to threats of the ultimate tragedy. Historical Fiction Historical fiction comprises of any narrations that takes place at a given time in the past. Achebe in his novel is fitting into this broad idea as it is telling about the story set in the pre- colonial past, leading up to the first contacts with the Britishers.He does not make a set time period for the novel, which is making sense of the precolonized Igbo Population as they did not use the systems for a long time. The story takes back to the middle of the 19th century where the British forces were gaining influences on the area of the lower deltas of the Niger River where he relocates the village of Umoufia. Achebe offered a detailed portrayal of precolonized Igbo traditions, as he carefully avoids showing an ideal picture of what life in the village was like before the arrival of the Europeans. Written just years before Nigeria got Independence; his vision carried some political weightage. In spite of being a fiction story, the novel Things Falling Apart is insisting on three histories which Europeans wanted to wipe out. 5.6 SUMMARY  The novel titled Things Fall Apart is claimed to be the greatest novels written about the life of the country of Nigeria in the 19th century.  Achebe has received many awards right from the Margaret Wrong Memorial Prize in the year 1959 for the novel Things Fall Apart and includes many doctorates.  The novel is talking about the tragically failure of the hero Okonkwo as well as culture of Igbo.  It is from Achebe’s statements we come to know that one of the main topics is the complex society of Igbo with the arrival of the European people.  As against Achebe’s themes on the Igbo cultures complex theme about the clashes of the culture. The colliding of the cultures is coming at the individual as well as society level. There are misunderstandings both the ways. 116 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 .Relating to the themes of the cultural clashes is the issue of flexible nature or rigid nature of the characters where both the Britishers and Igbo contributor to the destiny.  The underlying feature of the cultural themes is fate otherwise called destiny.  At the society levels, the Igbo Community is lacking image of its own and the weakening in the treatment of their own. It is suggesting the fate of the victim in the hands of the colonizer who is exploiting the resources.  As the story talks about cultures on the verge of changing. The novel is dealing with prospects and the realistic change efforts from the different characters.  The people of the village are caught in between adapting or taking the change. There is confusion trying to determine as to how to adapt to the change.  Okonkwo relations with his father are shaping his violent and ambitious demands.  Language plays an important part in the novel. Things Fall apart at different levels. In showing the imagination, formal languages of the Igbo cultures. Achebe is emphasizing that Africa is not quiet or uncomprehending country such that novels as Heart of Darkness have shown. Rather it is preparing the book with words of Igbo. He shows Igbo language is far more complex to translate into English language.  The novel shows two different generational divides.The first division is separating Okonkwo from his father Unoka.Similarly, Okonkwo is separated from his elder son Nwoye.  His great flaws remain to be his attitude, which is caught in between threatening from inside and outside the community.  It is through the novel that the protagonist is struggling to suppress his emotions. 5.7 KEYWORDS  Chinua Achebe: A writer, poet, professor as well as critic from the country of Nigeria.  Things Fall Apart: A book written by Chinua Achebe.  Novel: A fiction narration which is as the length of a book showing characters as well as their actions with some reality.  Africa: The second largest and densely populated countries in the whole world.  Postcolonialism: Happening even after the end of the colonization era.  Colonialism: The policies or practices of taking full or some political controlling over some other country with population as well as taking advantage of them in an economic way. 5.8 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. There are issues involving fate over the destiny of a person. For instance, Father of Okonkwo is made accountable for his own acts, while sometimes he is referred to as 117 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

unlucky as well as victims of the evils in fortunes. Which belief according to Okonkwo is true? What does Achebe think about what is true? What do you think about the perception of truth? ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2. There are connections in the novel which are in relation with each other in a conventional linear way. How does it affect the story of Ikemefuma? How does it affect the story of Ezinma? ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. What was Okonkwo famous for? 2. What makes Okonkwo most unhappy about his son Nwoye? 3. What did Chielo want from Ezinma? 4. What was Okonkwo doing before he was leaving to Mbanta when his exile had come to an end? 5. Who was the last to strike on Ikemefuna and what is the reason? Long Questions 1. Describe the novel Things Falling Apart as a fiction of history. 2. Discuss a critical review of appreciating the book. 3. How are the cultural as well as identity themes shown in the story? 4. The ideas of masculine nature are clashing with in the background of the story Things Falling Apart. Explain in detail. 5. Describe in short on the language usage by the author Achebe. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Write the name of motherland of Okonkwo? a. Mbaino b. Mbutu c. Mbanta d. Mantra 118 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

2. Which animal does Okonkwo, and his community are suspecting the Christian people must have killed as well as eaten? a. locust b. python c. monkey d. Tortoise 3. Name the first person of the missionaries who had come to Umoufia? a. Mr. Brown b. Reverend Smith c. Mr. Jones d. Missionary Man 4. How many villages are included in Umoufia town? a. One b. Four c. Nine d. Seven 5. Who has Okonkwo beaten in the legendary wrestling match held in the village? a. Ekwefithe Rooster b. Ogbuedi the Snake c. Isaac the Toad d. Amalinze the Cat Answers 1-(c), 2-(b), 3-(a), 4-(c), 5-(d) 5.10 REFERENCES Textbooks  Whittaker, D., & Msiska, M. H. (2007). Chinua Achebe's things fall apart: A Routledge study guide. Routledge.  Dorsey, D. (1978). Chinua Achebe. Morning yet on creation day: Essays. Garden city, New York: Doubleday, 1975; and Wole Soyinka. Myth, literature and the African world. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1976. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 17(2).  Achebe, C. (2012). Hopes and impediments: Selected essays. Penguin.  Ball, J. C. (2003). Satire and the Postcolonial Novel: VS Naipaul, Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie. Routledge. References 119 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Achebe, C. (2012). There was a country: A memoir. Penguin.  James, C. L. R. (2015). Chinua Achebe’s The Education of a British-Protected Child and African Cosmopolitanism. Chinua Achebeís Legacy: Illuminations from Africa, 41.  Churchill, W., & Orelus, P. (2012). Confronting Western Colonialism, American Racism, and White Supremacy. Counterpoints.  O’Reilly, C. (2001). Post-Colonial Literature, Contexts in Literature, Editor: Adrian Barlow, Cambridge University Press. Websites  https://www.studocu.com/  https://colloquialharmony.wordpress.com/  http://www.postcolonialweb.org/ 120 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT-6LITERARY TERMS Structure 6.0 Learning Objectives 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Magic Realism 6.3 Discourse 6.4 Essentialism 6.5 Nation/nationalism 6.6 Other 6.7 Imperialism 6.8 Negritude 6.9 Neo-colonialism/neo-imperialism 6.10 Decolonisation 6.11 Summary 6.12 Keywords 6.13 Learning Activity 6.14Unit End Questions 6.15 References 6.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, student will be able to:  Describe the context of the novel.  Explain various literary devices used in the novel.  Criticize the novel. 6.1 INTRODUCTION How literary terms are related to literature and postcolonial words that are coined by the writers 121 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Postcolonial literature using postcolonial terms has paved way to looking at the binary of the colonized and the colonizer in a different perspective that the world had never had before. Postcolonial literature has been monumental in bringing to the limelight those communities that were previously ridiculed, overseen, or never paid heed to. The usage of postcolonial terms through various writings of fiction and non-fiction under postcolonial literature has achieved this feat. Let us look at a few areas and ways in which postcolonial literary terms have brought about this different worldview. The Goal of Postcolonialism The goal of post-colonialism is to undo the residual effects that the colonial era has had on its former colonies. Post-colonialism is not focused on retrieving what happened in the past but on finding ways by which people can move away from the impact of the colonial era, towards a world of shared respect and acceptance. According to post-colonial thinkers, the forces that determine the logic of colonialism are still very much active. One of the major issues that post-colonial thinkers wish to raise is to provide space and recognition to multiple voices, particularly those that have been silenced by dominant ideologies. And academia was the first place that post-colonial thinkers believed the change needed to start with. Edward Said, in his book Orientalism, stated that Western scholars who studied the area known as the Orient, which was mostly Asia, disregarded the voices of those that they were studying, instead wanting to rely on their supposed intellectual superiority, a perception that was further moulded by the period of European Imperialism. According to Said (1978:208), Orientals or Oriental culture were thought to be as silent shadows to be animated by the Orientalist, brought into existence by them, or as a cultural or international proletariat useful for the Oriental’s grander interpretive activity. There has been a lot of debate on how to incorporate the subaltern narrative effectively and fairly into social studies. As a result of the huge flak surrounding the idea of studying the ‘other’, many social scientists have felt ‘paralyzed’, dismissing the idea as impossible. However, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, an Indian post-colonial thinker, believes otherwise. In Spivak’s words, “To refuse to represent a cultural Other is salving your conscience and allowing you not to do any homework”. Spivak understands that the project is problematic, as the presentation of a subaltern voice would most likely essentialize the message, which would then end up negating the heterogeneity of the subaltern people. To overcome this problem, Spivak suggests ‘strategic essentialism’, which implies representing a given section of society through a comprehensive 122 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

identification to battle suppression. With this perspective, bell hooks address the average white reader on part of the subalterns while concluding her writing on ‘Marginality as a site of resistance’. This is an intervention. A message from that space in the margin that is a site of creativity and power, that inclusive space where we recover ourselves, where we meet in solidarity to erase the category colonized/colonizer. Marginality is the space [site] of resistance. Enter that space. Let us meet there. Enter that space. We greet you as liberators. (hooks, 1990: 152) A few theorists of post-colonialism believe that studying the dominant and subaltern as two separate entities gives validity to their identity as homogeneous groups. Homi K. Bhabha believes that the generation of postcolonialism must provide importance to places of socialization, such that whatever has been perceived as gospel truth till now gives way to ambiguity, as this space poses the greatest challenge to colonial thoughts. The critique for Bhabha’s statement is that he ignores Spivak’s effectiveness of essentialism, as an organized protest poses a bigger threat to dominant education and groups that perpetuate it. Frantz Fanon provided a solution perceived as violent to overcome the prevailing colonial psyche. Fanon, being a psychoanalyst, suggested violence as a ritual that had the potential to cleanse or eliminate the male-dominated outlook, weighed down by colonialism, from the violent or more traumatic aftermath resulting from colonialism. This is also the reason why Fanon was such a staunch supporter of the brutal contingent of the FLN in Algeria. Violence also forms an important basis on why it is important to read Fanon’s views on revolutionary terrorization in the exchange of views on psychoanalysis. Overall, postcolonialism can be said to be a hopeful discourse, as it indicates that people can and is moving away from the ramifications of the colonial times and is willing to usher a ‘post’ colonial world. According to Mbembe the proposition of humanity in the post-colonial era provides him \"hope in the advent of a universal brotherly [and I would add sisterly] community\". Upon asking what it means to collectively be a human, Mbembe argues that post-colonialism is one of the major mechanisms of decolonizing our future generations. The critical definition of postcolonialism indicates destabilizing and undoing the Western manner of thought, creating a space for marginalized sections, and find alternatives to the prevailing or dominant ways of discourse. However, this definition is often termed as problematic since the former colonies are often filled with ‘contradictions, half-finished processes, of confusions, of hybridity, and liminalities. Hence, we must first accurately define the meaning of colonialism. Postcolonialism does not merely imply the period following the colonial rule. By other definitions, colonialism may indicate a perpetuation of colonialism through different relationships that concern authority plus the reproduction of knowledge. Postcolonialism, in terms of literature, mainly focuses on literature written in territories which were former colonies of European countries, particularly Britain, France, and Spain. In 123 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

some ways, it also mentions countries that are still under colonial arrangements, as well as the writings produced by the citizens of colonized states, depicting colonial people as the subject matter. In Dutch language, the literature focusing on the Dutch East Indies colonial and postcolonial area is referred to as Indies. Another sub-segment of literature focuses on the postcolonial identity and heritage of the Indo-European faction with origins emerging in Indonesia, with Tjalie Robinson as its main author. Colonized people, who had access to quality education and had attended British universities, built this new criticism. Post the fall of the Soviet Union, its previously constituent commonwealth countries also became a part of the postcolonial literary narrative. Often, the West classifies former colonies under an auspices label, known as ‘Third World’. By referring to colonial nations as the Third World, colonies have often been homogenized and assumed to have had similar repercussions due to colonialism. Postcolonialism, however, aims to prove that every former colony had varying after-effects of colonialism across people, cultures, and places. Additionally, postcolonialism acknowledges the fact there still lingers a resistance to the West, mostly by the servile and marginalized groups. Furthermore, colonialism focuses on acknowledging one’s cultural background in former colonies, including the dilemmas faced by people living in ex-colonies in terms of creating an identity of their independent state identity, how knowledge has been reproduced that serves the colonizer’s interests, and ways in which colonizer’s literature has been used to justify colonialism by depicting the colonized as inferior and uncivilized human beings. These struggles have often been found in metropolitan cities, and interestingly, with the backing of institutions of higher education, which are known to be postcolonial power structures. Since universities are considered to be postcolonial institutions, one can now comprehend why many postcolonial writers live in cities such as London, Madrid, New York, and Paris. The existence of twofold structures helped change how we view other people and cultures. In terms of colonial theory, for example, the Oriental and the West were perceived to be polar opposites. The Oriental were perceived to be as emotional and static, while the Westerners were depicted as principled and progressive. This difference justified several ideas, including the ‘white man’s burden’ and the colonizer’s self-perceived ‘destiny to rule’ subordinate people’s dream. Postcolonialism, on the other hand, seeks to undo this thinking and aims to look at spheres of hybridity and trans culturalization, an aspect that is particularly relevant for globalization. In one of their most prominent works on postcolonialism, writers Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins have quoted as follows, \"the term postcolonialism – according to a too-rigid etymology – is frequently misunderstood as a temporal concept, meaning the time after colonialism has ceased, or the time following the politically determined Independence Day on which a country breaks away from its governance by another state. Not a naïve teleological sequence which supersedes colonialism, postcolonialism is, rather, an 124 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

engagement with and contestation of colonialism's discourses, power structures, and social hierarchies ... A theory of postcolonialism must, then, respond to more than the merely chronological construction of post-independence, and to more than just the discursive experience of imperialism.\" People who had been colonized have answered back to their colonizers, although the native population has written its own narrative using the language of the colonizer, which can be English, French, or Dutch, for their convenience. Indigenous decolonization can, therefore, be defined as the cognitive repercussion that postcolonial theory has had on the indigenous communities, which has helped them generate their own postcolonial literature. Notable Theorists Edward Said Edward Said, a notable postcolonial writer, used the phrase ‘Oriental’, a subject dedicated to the study of the Orient people, to subvert it into the twofold partition of the Orient and Occident. This binary division is known as East/West binary and is a critical subject in postcolonial theory. Said stated that the Orient did not have an existence without the Occident, and vice-versa, implying that the two terms were mutually constitutive. The notion of the Orient was created by Western scholars, to depict the those from the East. The Orientals were described as irrational and uncivilized, while the Orient as an impoverished land. This idea enabled the people of the West to develop a superiority complex and consider themselves as rational and higher in terms of academic and intellectual capabilities. Said, following Foucault’s footsteps, also mentioned that knowledge and power go hand in hand. The West’s supposed ownership regarding knowledge of the East handed more power to the West to gain a stronghold, an idea that is critical to understanding colonialism and recognizing postcolonialism. While Said is of the opinion that the West coined the term ‘Orient’ to classify all of East as a homogeneous entity and give Europeans a more cohesive identity, certain postcolonial theorists have raised questions regarding Said’s distinction between the Orient and Occident, stating that multiple definitions of ‘Orientalism’ exist within the West, while several others are in progress. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Spivak’s most important contribution to postcolonial theory was the coining of the word ‘subaltern’. She also coined the terms ‘essentialism’ and ‘strategic essentialism’. While essentialism refers to the hazards of reviving marginalized voices, that may simplify heterogeneous groups and stereotypes diversified groups. Spivak, however, argues the strategic use of essentialism by such groups can make it less difficult for subaltern voices to 125 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

be recognized so that a coherent idea of individuality can be created and normalized by the masses. Strategic essentialism, on the other hand, does not imply forgoing diversity and views of the indigenous, but the fact they are being looked down or oppressed to temporarily support the essential elements of the marginalized groups. Spivak also recalls the phrase ‘epistemic violence’, which indicates the systemic manner of demolishing non-Western ways of thinking and emphasizing on Western ways of understanding. This concept can be connected to Spivak's \"Subaltern must always be caught in translation, never truly expressing herself\" because of the tearing down of and side lining her way of thinking. Spivak has also criticized those who choose to overlook ‘other’ or the suppressed classes and suggested ways for the West to move beyond its prevailing cultural standing via self-criticism of Western ideals of understanding and exploration of alternatives offered by postcolonial theory. Dipesh Chakrabarty Dipesh Chakrabarty, an Indian scholar who studied postcolonialism in the nineties, made a substantial attempt at charting the subaltern’s quest for freedom. In his book Provincializing Europe (2000) Chakrabarty aims to contradict the generalized Eurocentric perspective by stating that the European continent should only be considered one region among many, rather than the representation of the entire world. Frantz Fanon Frantz Fanon is one of the primary authors associated whose name comes up when discussing postcolonial theory. In his book The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon has conducted a deep analysis of the colonial rule, with the subjects oppressed by colonialism as the focal point of the writing. In the book, colonialism has been explained as a source of violence rather than the consequence of reacting violently against the colonizers, which was the typical point of view for many. Fanon’s delineation of the constructed equation between colonialism and its utter refusal to acknowledge ‘all attributes of humanity’ to those it suppressed by it laid the basis for similar assessments of colonial and postcolonial systems. Earlier Writers Although Fanon is mostly described as one of the foremost intellectuals in the area of colonialism, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule) already had mentions of strong postcolonial hypotheses in 1909. Apart from Gandhi, Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887–1949) had written several books along the same lines. Vladimir Lenin's work ‘Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism’, (1916), is also considered to be among the most authoritative figures in the advancement of postcolonial postulation. 126 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

6.2 MAGIC REALISM Magical realism a category of literary fiction that illustrates the real world existing in sync with magic or fantasy. Magical realism blurs the difference between fantasy and reality, as the world is described as rooted in the real world, but fantasy and imaginary elements are a commonplace occurrence in such literature. The genre of magical realism differs greatly from pure fantasy as it depicts people as ordinary human beings, and their lives as that of normal people. It is synonymous with dual perspectives, one on the perception of reality as we see it, and the second one is the perspective of the supernatural as a natural occurrence. The goal of magical realism aims at seizing and exploiting the incongruity of two things that are polar opposites, such as reality versus fiction, or colonialism versus postcolonialism. In the words of Angel Flores, magical realism comprises of blurring the gap between the real world and the imaginary or the fantasy world, or in his words, “an amalgamation of realism and fantasy”. The existence of the supernatural element in magical realism is often attributed to the primeval or magical “native” mentality, which is present in antagonism to European sense of being rational (See Myths of the Native). According to Ray Verzasconi, as well as other critics, magical realism is “an expression of the New World reality which at once combines the rational elements of the European super-civilization, and the irrational elements of a primitive America.” Gonzalez Echchevarria is of was of the belief that the universe of magical realism was not based on objective reality, or the natural law. Nevertheless, the world of fiction in magical realism is not depicted to be in opposition to reality as well. Background The German art critic Franz Roh first used the term ‘magischer realismus’, which translates to ‘magic realism’, in the year 1925, in his book ‘Nach Expressionismus: Magischer Realismus’ (After Expressionism: Magical Realism). Roh applied the term in the explanation of “Neue Sachlichkeit,” or New Objectivity, a style of painting that was popular in Germany which presented an alternative to the romanticization of expressionism. Roh used the term ‘magischer realismus’ to stress how mythical and fanciful objects and phenomenon in stories based on magical realism can appear to be ordinary when you stop to look at them. The class of magical realism had been slowly becoming popular in South America when Nach Expressionismus: Magischer Realismus was translated in Spanish in the year 1927. While staying in Paris, French-Russian-Cuban critic Alejo Carpentier was inspired by magical realism. Carpentier further developed Roh’s concept into what he called ‘marvellous realism’, a concept he felt was quite relevant to Latin America as a whole. 127 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

In 1955, literary critic Angel Flores coined the term ‘magical realism’, rather than ‘magic realism’ in English in an essay, stating how the former is a combination of the elements of magic realism and marvellous realism. Floresa quoted Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges as the first magical realist, based on his previously published collection of short stories ‘Historia Universal de la Infamia’, translated in English as ‘A Universal History of Infamy’. Although Latin American authors made the genre of magical realism popular, several other authors before had written stories and novels of adding fantasy elements to everyday, mundane situations. For example, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis—a novel with themes that today’s critics would consider to be magical realism—was published in 1915, almost a decade before Roh wrote about magic realism and well before the genre became known in Latin American literature. What Are the Characteristics of Magical Realism? Every magical realism novel is different, but there are certain elements common among all of them, such as: Realistic setting: Each story or novel written along the lines of magical realism happens in a world inhabited by human beings. Magical elements: From objects that talk to dead people to telepathy, imaginary objects that cannot be visualized in reality are presented as normal in novels based on magical realism. Limited information: Stories based on magical realism deliberately present the fantasy world or imaginary objects as a part of daily lives in the novel, so that they do not appear to be out of place or something from another realm. Hence, authors do not provide much explanation as to how these things work, or their origin. Critique: Authors have often used the magical realism genre to criticize and critique the elite. This trend can particularly be found among Latin American novels, where stories have depicted a distaste for the Western elite and American Imperialism. Unique plot structure: Unlike other literary genres, magical realism does not follow a specific narrative; beginning, middle, or ending. Hence, a story based on magical realism makes for an intense and unpredictable reading experience, as the reader does not know when or how the story will end or what is going to happen next. Hybridity: Magical realism authors incorporate several elements of postcolonialism in their works, such as hybridity. Magical realism is described in the discordant arenas of urban versus rural and Western versus indigenous. Authors employ these tactics to disclose crucial perspective of magical realism; a deeper and truer reality than what a typical realist author would illustrate. 128 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Irony Regarding Author’s Perspective: The writer must ensure to keep an ironic distance from the world of fantasy to not distort reality. At the same time, they should ensure that imaginary elements appear as part of normal life and not as separate entities that are from another realm, or else the magic dilutes into simple folklore or a fantasy novel, in a world far away from reality instead of being synchronized with it. Authorial Reticence: Authorial reticence refers to the lack of clarity regarding the accuracy and authenticity of the how the world works as expressed in a text. This technique enforces affirmation in the genre of magical realism as the technique of describing the supernatural elements would reduce its validity, leading it to being perceived as a false testimony. The Supernatural and Natural: Since in magical realism, the supernatural is not depicted as something false or questionable, even if the reader identifies the difference between fantasy and reality, they are unperturbed, since the elements of the supernatural are well integrated within the world depicted by magical realism. Themes The theme of terror overpowers the idea of rejuvenation or resurrection in the world of magical realism. In such stories, soldiers, police, or those considered as sadists, all have the power to kill or harm others. Time is another evident theme in such stories, which is typically shown to be following a non-linear timeline. In other words, what happened once will take place again in the future. Characters in such stories rarely hope to see things improve in the foreseeable period. As a result, irony and paradox stay grounded in repetitive social and political aspirations. Another particularly interesting theme in magical realism is the carnivalesque. The carnivalesque is the reflection of carnivals in literature. The postulation of a carnival celebrates the body, the senses, and the relationships between humans. ‘Carnival’ refers to cultural manifestations that take place in varying shapes in North and South America, Europe, and the Caribbean, and often include a specific language and dress code, as well as the presence characters such as that of a madman, a fool, or clown. Moreover, people in carnivals are shown to either organize or actively take part in dance, music, or theatre. Latin American magical realists, for instance, explore the bright life-affirming side of the carnivalesque. The reality of revolution, and continual political upheaval in certain parts of the world, especially South America also relates to magical realism. 6.3 DISCOURSE The term ‘discourse’ much-used word in contemporary theory and in postcolonial criticism, the word is mostly employed in such terms as colonial discourse, which is specifically derived from Foucault’s application of the concept. Discourse was originally used from about the sixteenth century to describe any kind of speaking, talk or conversation, but became increasingly used to describe a more formal speech, a narration or a treatment of any subject 129 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

at length, a treatise, dissertation or sermon. More recently, discourse has been used in a technical sense by linguists to describe any unit of speech longer than a sentence. However, the Foucauldian sense of discourse has little to do with the speaking in its traditional sense. For Foucault, a discourse is a strongly bounded area of social knowledge, a collection of statements within which the world can be known. A crucial feature of discourse is that the world is not just ‘there’ to be discussed or debated about, it is through discourse that the world is brought into existence. It is also through the language of discourse that individuals can create and arrive at an identity for themselves and others who have characteristics or demographics similar to them. It is the ‘complex of signs and practices which organises social existence and social reproduction’. There are certain unspoken rules controlling what can be said and what cannot be within the discourse, and these rules determine the nature of that discourse. Since a virtually limitless number of statements can be made within the rules of the system, it is these rules that characterize the discourse and that interest analysts such as Foucault. What are the rules that allow certain statements to be made and not others? Which rules order these statements? Which rules allow the development of a classificatory system? Which rules allow us to identify certain individuals as authors? These rules concern such things as the classification, the ordering and the distribution of that knowledge of the world that the discourse both enables and delimits. A good example of a discourse is medicine, in mundane terms we simply think of medicine as healing sick bodies. But medicine represents a method by which statement can be made about bodies, about sickness and about the world. The rules of this system determine how we view the process of healing, the identity of the sick and, in fact, encompass the ordering of our physical relationship with the world. There are certain principles of exclusion and inclusion that operate within this system; some things can be stated, and some things cannot. Indeed, we cannot talk about medicine without making a distinction between different kinds, such as ‘Western’ and ‘Chinese’ medicine. For these are two discourses in which the body and its relationship to the world are not only different but virtually incompatible. This explains the very great resistance in Western medicine to ways of healing that do not accord with its positivistic perception of the body. Until such practices as acupuncture or herbal remedies could be incorporated into the positivistic framework of Western medicine, by being incorporated into other ‘scientific’ statements, they were rejected as charlatanism or superstition (they did not concur with ‘truth’). It is only very gradually that such rules of exclusion, which keep a discourse intact, can be modified, because the discourse maintains not just an understanding of the world, but in a real sense the world itself. Such incursions, when not controlled, may represent a very great threat to the power of discourse. Discourse is important, therefore, because it joins power and knowledge together. Those who enjoy power have control of what is known and the way it is known, and those who enjoy such knowledge have power over those who do not. This link between knowledge and power is particularly important in the relationships between colonizers and colonized and has been extensively elaborated by Edward Said in his discussion of Orientalism, in which he points out that this discourse, this way of knowing the ‘Orient’, is a 130 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

way of maintaining power over it. Said’s work lays more emphasis on writing and literary texts in the process of constructing representations of the other than does Foucault’s, whose concern is more widely distributed across a variety of social institutions. Said’s insistence on the central role of literature in promoting colonialist discourse is elaborated in his later work (Said 1993), where he argues that the nineteenth-century novel comes into being as part of the formation of Empire and acts reflexively with the forces of imperial control to establish imperialism as the dominant ideology in the period. This emphasis has made Said’s work of especial interest to those concerned with post-colonial literatures and literary theory Foucault’s view of the role of discourse though is even wider, and more pervasive, since he argues that discourse is an inseparable part of modernity. For the discourse of modernity takes place when what is stated, the ‘enunciated’, becomes more revered than saying, let’s say the ‘enunciation’. In classical times, intellectual power could be maintained by rhetoric, by the persuasiveness of the speaker ‘discoursing’ to a body of listeners. But gradually the ‘will to truth’ came to dominate discourse and statements were required to be either the truth or a lie. When this occurred, it was no longer the act of discourse but the topic of discourse that became important. The crucial fact for post-colonial theory is that the ‘will to truth’ is linked to the ‘will power’ in the same way that power and knowledge are linked. The will of European nations to exercise dominant control over the world, which led to the growth of empires, was accompanied by the capacity to confirm European notions of utility, rationality, discipline as truth. We can extend our example, therefore, to talk about ‘Eurocentric discourse’, or the ‘discourse of modernity’, that is, a collection of phrases that be used to talk about the world that involve certain assumptions, prejudices, blindness’s, and insights, all of which have a historical provenance, but exclude other, possibly equally valid, statements. All these statements and all that can be included within the discourse thus become protected by the assertion of ‘truth’. 6.4 ESSENTIALISM Essentialism is the presumption that people across a specific group, class, or a given homogenous group of objects have one or multiple defining properties unique to all participants of a given category. Some studies of race or gender, for instance, assume the presence of essential characteristics distinguishing one race from another or the feminine from the masculine. Under cultural analyses, it is a given assumption that individuals share a common cultural congruity, and it has been a topic of vigorous debate within post-colonial theory. The Cartesian claim Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) was the basis for the stress on the individual consciousness and the centrality of the idea of the human subject in the dominant intellectual discourse of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The displacement of this Enlightenment concern for the individual by poststructuralist views of subjectivity put considerable pressure on contemporary cultural theory to revise this dominant way of conceiving of human behaviour. Colonial theory and literature stressed this also when it brought notice to the ways of speaking and thinking that colonialism employed 131 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

to create the idea of the subjugation of the colonial subject and to exercise hegemonic control over them through control of the dominant modes of public and private representation. Drawing on the critiques of language by post-structuralist theorists such as Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault, colonial discourse theory contended that essentialist cultural categories were flawed. This criticism was extended by various writers to the institutions through which individual subjectivity achieved a sense of identity, for example ideas of race or nation. The political purpose of this critique was, in part, to expose the falsity of this mode of representing the colonial subject as another to the Self of the dominant colonial culture. Ironically, then, the very process of displacing the essentialist modes of identity ran counter to the pragmatic use of such concepts in various local agendas designed to recover a sense of self-worth and difference. The foundations of the National Liberation Movements of the 1960s and 1970s was a recognition of the need to recover or develop a local identity and a sense of distinction damaged by imperial and colonizing discourses. At the same time, theorists warned of the dangers of simply reversing the categories of oppressed and oppressor without critiquing the process by which such simple binaries had come into being in the first place. They also warned of the dangers of creating a new indigenous élite who would act merely as neo-colonial puppets for the old forces of the colonizing powers. Theorists such as Gayatri Spivak drew attention to the dangers of assuming that it was a simple matter of allowing the subaltern (oppressed) forces to speak, without recognizing that their essential subjectivity had been and still was constrained by the discourses within which they were constructed as subaltern. Her controversial question ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ (Spivak 1985b), was frequently misunderstood to imply that the subaltern or marginalized sections of the society could never attain their own agency or narrative. Such negative misreading of Spivak’s position inevitably produced counter-claims from critics such as Benita Parry who asserted the political necessity of maintaining the idea of oppositionality between the binary divisions such as black–white, colonizer–colonized, oppressed-oppressor (Parry 1987).In fact, Spivak’s essay is not an implication of the subaltern being incapable of having a voice, but only a warning to avoid the idea that the subaltern can ever be isolated in some absolute, essentialist way from the play of discourses and institutional practices that give it its voice. In response to this negative interpretation of her earlier work, perhaps, and in an attempt to reassert the political force resident in her theory, Spivak spoke of the need to embrace a strategic essentialism, in an interview in which she acknowledged the usefulness of essentialist formulations in many struggles for liberation from the effects of colonial and neo- colonial oppression. She remarked, ‘I think we have to choose again strategically not universal discourse but essentialist discourse. I think that since as a deconstructivism ...I cannot in fact clean my hands and say I’m specific. In fact, I must say I am an essentialist from time to time (Spivak 1984–5: 183). And, again in the same interview she remarked, ‘I think it’s absolutely on target . . . to stand against the discourses of essentialism, . . . [but] strategically we cannot’ (184). In the statements made in the argument, in different periods, 132 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

the application of essentialist ideas may be a critical step in the process through which colonizers achieved a unique sense of value and respect for their pre-colonial cultures and through which postcolonialism asserts itself. However, critics like Edward Said have argued (Said 1993) that early National Liberation theorists such as Fanon, Cabral and James always had full knowledge of the dangers of essentialism and were always critical of the application of essentialist discourses as nationalism and race during the modelling of the modern post- colonial state. 6.5 NATION/NATIONALISM The definition of a nation is now so strongly fixed in the eyes of the public, and the form of state it signifies so widely accepted, it has now become difficult to believe how recent its invention has been. In 1882, the French Orientalist Ernest Renan, addressing an audience at the Sorbonne in a lecture entitled ‘What is a nation?’, felt it necessary to remind his audience of the initiation of what a nation is: “Nations . . . are something fairly new in history. Antiquity was unfamiliar with them; present-day Egypt, China and ancient Chaldea were in no way countries. They were flocks led by a Son of the Sun or by a Son of Heaven. Neither in Egypt nor in China were their citizens as such. Classical antiquity had republics, municipal kingdoms, confederations of local republics and empires, yet it can hardly be said to have understood the term ‘nation’”. (quoted in Bhabha 1990: 9) Renan traces the shaping of idea of a nation-state to the division of the classic and mediaeval empires, locating its cultural provenance in a specifically European socio-political environment. That nations were and are profoundly unstable formations, always likely to collapse back into sub-divisions of clan, ‘tribe’, language or religious group, is nothing new, and the false tendency to assign this unstable condition to specific regions or conditions (‘balkanization’, ‘the Third World’, ‘underdeveloped countries’) is reflected in contemporary discussion of national questions. Thinkers as early or even before Renan were aware, nations are not ‘natural’ entities, and the instability of the nation is the inevitable consequence of its nature as a social construction. The misconception of the purpose of a nation, hidden behind ideology, helps perpetuate nationalism, where specific features are used to build enclosed and uniform practices and rituals regarding national traditions. Such representations of homogeneity often fail to consider the heterogeneity of the community, or the nation that the wish to speak for, and usually only care about the interests of the most dominant groups within any national formation. Therefore, the birth of a nation-state is a potent site for control and domination during modern times. This is further proved by the truth that a ‘national tradition’ is employed not only to legitimize a general idea of a particular section of society but also to build a modern form of a nation-state, in which all the instrumentalities of state power (e.g., military and police agencies, judiciaries, religious hierarchies, educational 133 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

systems and political assemblies or organizations) are authorized as the ‘natural’ expressions of the union of national history and culture. Timothy Brennan comments on this modern collapsing of the two concepts of nation and nation-state: As for the ‘nation’ it is both historically determined and general. As a word, nations refer to something that is a modern nation-state as well as something that is ancient, yet vague at the same time – the ‘natio’–a local community, domicile, family, condition of belonging. This distinction is often blurred by patriots who try to place their nation in an ‘immemorial past’ where its ambiguity cannot be disputed. (Bhabha 1990: 45) The confusion of surrounding the definition of a nation with the practice and power of the nation-state makes nationalism one of the most powerful forces in contemporary society. It also makes it an extremely contentious site, on which ideas of self-determination and freedom, of identity and unity collide with ideas of suppression and force, of domination and exclusion. Yet for all its subjectivity, and how to theorize it adequately, it remains the most implacably powerful force in twentieth century politics. Its displacement has proved to be exceedingly difficult even within internationally oriented movements such as Marxism, at least in the Stalinist form in which it emerged in the Soviet Union and its client states. It is, perhaps, not insignificant that Stalin himself was an expert on the so-called Nationalities Question, and that he was one of the most ruthless advocates of the suppression of ‘national differences’, despite his own minority origins as a Georgian rather than a so-called Great Russian. The powerful ideation of a nation is most reflective in the emergence of globalization in the twentieth century, where the unfolding of a ‘free market’ symbolized in the growth of multinational firms, maintains a complex and problematic relationship with the idea of nations as a natural and inevitable formation based on shared beliefs and values. Modern nations such as the United States, with their multi-ethnic composition, require the acceptance of an overarching national ideology (in pluribus unum). But globalization also expects that people should be free to work and operate across borders, and they should not pose any barriers to them. The dispute between these two impulses, increasing rapidly as modern communications make global contact a daily reality, are amongst the most important and as yet unresolved forces in the modern world. 6.6 OTHER In simple terms, the ‘other’ refers to anyone who is different or separate from oneself. The existence of the ‘other’ is important in defining what is ‘normal’ or acceptable in the world and searching for your own place or identity. Colonizers usually considered the colonized subject as ‘other’ through discourses such as primitivism and cannibalism, as a method for establishing the binary separation of the colonizer and colonized and asserting the naturalness and primacy of the colonizer’s culture. Although the term ‘other’ has been used often in existential philosophy, notably by Sartre in Being and Nothingness to define the relations 134 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

between Self and Other in creating self-awareness and ideas of identity, the usage of the word ‘other’ in postcolonial hypothesis can be located back to the Freudian and post-Freudian analysis of the how subjectivity came about in existence, especially in the writings of the psychoanalyst and cultural theorist Jacques Lacan. Lacan’s application of the ‘other’ includes differentiating between the ‘Other’ and the ‘other’, which can result in some confusion, but it is a segregation that can be very crucial for postcolonial theory. In Lacan’s theory, the ‘other’ refers to those who resemble the self, which the child discovers when it looks in the mirror and becomes aware of itself as an independent human being. When the child, who is an uncoordinated collection of limbs and thoughts sees their image in the mirror, that image must bear sufficient resemblance to the child to be recognized, but it must also be separate enough to ground the child’s hope for an ‘anticipated mastery’; this fiction of expertise will give birth to the ego. This other helps to shape the individuality of the protagonist. In postcolonial theory, the other indicates the subjects who have been colonized or those who have been side-lined by imperial literature, recognized by their difference from the centre and, perhaps crucially, becoming the focus of anticipated mastery by the imperial ‘ego’. The Other, or the one with the capital ‘O’, has been termed the ‘grande-autre’ by Lacan, the great Other, under whose perception, the subject forms an identity of itself. The Symbolic Other is not a real interlocuter but can take shape through various forms such as the mother or father that it may epitomize. The Symbolic Other is a ‘transcendent or absolute pole of address, summoned each time that subject speaks to another subject’ (BoonsGrafé 1992:98). Henceforth, whenever a writing has broached the Other, it can indicate the mother whose separation from the subject places her as the focal point of desire, or it can mean the father whose quality of Otherness locates the subject in the order of the Symbolic. The Other can also be the unconscious itself because the unconscious is structured like a language that is separate from the medium of the subject. At its core, the Other is crucial to the matter being discussed because the subject exists in its gaze. Lacan says that ‘all desire is the metonym of the desire to be’ because the first wish of the subject is to become a part in the gaze of the Other. This Other can be juxtaposed with the colonial centre, imperial discourse, or the colonial reign itself, in two ways: primarily, it provides the procedures through which the oppressed or the colonial subject develops an identity as somehow the ‘other’, or the one dependent on the subject; secondly, it becomes the ‘absolute pole of address’, the ideological bodywork by which the colonial subject may arrive at an understanding of the society. In colonial discourse, the subjectivity of the colonized is continually located in the gaze of the imperial Other, the ‘grand-autre’. The subject in question, which are the territories conquered by imperialists, may be subsidized by the doctrine of the maternal and caring qualities of their colonial masters, which is congruent with phrases such as ‘Mother England’ and ‘Home’. Father, on the other side, may be representative of the Symbolic Order. The growing significance and weightage of the language of the elite or the imperialists may be inducted 135 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

into the minds of the subjugated, which would then give them a clear understanding that the stronghold ultimately lay with their colonizers, a situation corresponding metaphorically to the subject’s induction into the Symbolic order and the realization of the Law of the Father. The ambiguity of colonial discussion and debates was underlined the fact the process of ‘othering’ transpire simultaneous to when the colonial subject or the citizens of a colonial state are treated as the ‘child’ of the imperial rule and degraded together. The build-up of the commanding imperial Other materialized in a manner similar to the way by which the idea of the colonial other took birth. 6.7 IMPERIALISM Definition In postcolonial theory Imperialism is almost indicative of the doctrine that promotes a worldview in where a certain section of people or a nation assumes a superiority complex to other people or nations and hence has the right, or obligation, to bring their civilized behaviour or etiquette to the so-called ‘inferior’ or ‘primitive’ cultures. While the term Imperium comes from the Roman system of imperial government, in most postcolonial studies only the 19th and 20th century imperialism are studied, as it collides with the growth of mercantile and later industrial capitalism. The conception of imperialism today is close to Wallerstein's world system with the perception that there are centres and peripheries and a method of control from the centre. This world system perspective was particularly important in the formation or reform of political territories in the 1980s. This approach has been criticised by Jacobs because these theories constitute a global structure of Eurocentric diffusion to which otherness is only an addition. The structural dimension does not have any clarity in world system theory. Blunt et Wills dans Dissident Geographies: An Introduction to Radical Ideas and Practice publié en 2000 distinguent deux significations: temporal significance: the period after colonialism. The problem is that colonial power persists a critical significance: a pattern of approaches to the analysis of the colonial era and its aftermath. The problem is that (a) these approaches focus more on culture than on materiality and (b) these approaches focus more on history than on the contemporary. The objective that postcolonial literature is a critical movement emerges since the way colonization and imperialism is described by scholars who are mostly European or American does not leave an alternative future for former colonies. This is associated with Said's work. The postcolonial approach brings a deconstruction, a risk undertaken to go beyond the binary approaches, it is a postulation that advances notions rather related to hybridity involving a deconstruction of the binary that demonstrates a possibility of the occurrence of space for an alterity of the colonized to develop. II. Postcolonial and imperial studies, geography, and 136 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

political geography. The first works date from the 1960s to the 1970s, without using the term through letters. Some emphasize the consequences of colonialism via the concept of unequal relations between former colonies and colonial powers, along with the features of these relations in the capitalist world system. For others, the inspiration comes from the theories of dependence, suggesting the idea that all resources emerging out of developing countries enrich industrialized countries, a reaction against the postulation that modernization is defined by. In the 1990s, the notion was broadened with the unveiling of geographical complicity in the colonial domination of space, geographical representations in colonial discourse, the dissociation of the local geographical enterprise from metropolitan theory and its system of representation, the regeneration of unknown spaces occupied and invested with their own meanings by the colonial subclass. The contemporary focus pays attention to the critical history of colonialism through representations. In Postcolonialism published in 2009, Gilmartin speaks of \"precarious statutes\" referring to political conflicts following colonialism and the rare engagement with postcolonialism theories. Nevertheless, the potential is recognized. For Chakrabarty in Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference which had been published in 2000, there is a provincialization of knowledge produced in Europe and North America. In the Colonial Present, published in 2004, Derek Gregory approaches the \"war on terror\" as a series of space stories taking place elsewhere. He takes the example of Afghanistan as the site of conflict between the United Kingdom and Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries, between the Soviet Union and the United States from 1979 to 1989 and as the site of the war on terror after September 11. Post-colonial Spaces In Edge of Empire: Postcolonialism and the City published in 1996, Jacobs became interested in the deconstruction of binaries and began to criticize the representation of imperialism. His argument is connected to the inner heterogeneity of the imperial doctrine. The evolutionist logic that legitimized colonialism and hierarchized people by producing radicalized classifications. Colonization could induce large-scale elimination of the local communities (wanted in Australia) or keep indigenous society \"intact\" but reoriented (wanted in India). According to Jacobs, imperialism of space is the concretization of imaginary territorial annexation through political subordination, economic dependence, imposed forms of architecture and changing of the current landscape. Cartography (and baptism of places) implies that maps are an inseparable constituent of the territorial essence of a given political order, especially for the colonial reign. The infrastructural growth and naming of urban municipalities are performed by transmitting European architectural and designing techniques that are in accordance with the imperial rules. Such places played a pivotal in the 137 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

transmission of modern capitalism to different cultures. However, Jacobs stresses that \"the use of peripheral territories for primary production and resource extraction facilitated, even implied, the growth of industrialised and commercially equipped urban centres at the heart of the empire”. Where to find the postcolonial? Structures of neo-colonialism were a prerequisite for decolonization movements. Diaspora groups, indigenous population, and residents of newly- formed independent countries are still confronted with the power of neo-colonialism. Some countries are as \"metropolitan\" as they are \"postcolonial\", as is the case in Australia, Canada, or Ireland. The Political Geography of Land Grabbing This geography is linked to postcolonial approaches even if they are not quite prominent in the perusal of this trend. Nevertheless, it is a phenomenon often cited as an accurate portrayal of the imperial or neo-colonial period. Moreover, it showcases an example that the postcolonial in temporal meaning should not be understood as a strong temporal dimension. It is also an example that shows that, in principle, political geography could address contemporary and material phenomena, not only critical history and representations. The circumstances by which land grabbing took place is a focal point in comprehending the global food crisis of 2007 and 2008, when there were poor harvests, speculation, a lack of reserves coupled with a surge in prices creating political and economic instability with strong mobilizations creating nationwide instability. There is also the global financial crisis 2008 with the liquidity crisis, the real estate crisis, and the Eurozone crisis. Food security refers to the purchase of agricultural land by countries dependent on food imports such as Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, India, Korea, Libya, Egypt, Uganda, Somalia, Brazil, Cambodia, Sudan, Pakistan or Kazakhstan. With the food crisis, benefits can be derived from financial returns creating financial instability with investments in land by investment firms, private equity funds, but also grain traders. Grain shows that it is an exclusive control with public complicity: \"Did someone say colonialism was a thing of the past\". China meets the needs of 40% of humanity with 9% of agricultural land and has 1800 billion dollars in forex reserves. It is a \"Go Abroad\" investment policy with the purchase or lease of land in Kazakhstan, Queensland and Mozambique, but also the Philippines to grow rice, soya, maize and produce biofuels. The Gulf States lack fertile land and potable water but have abundant oil. They are States with a high vulnerability to food and economic shortages and a low-wage migrant labour population that provides political stability. The joint objective of the Gulf Cooperation 138 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Council is to outsource food production through purchase and food-for-energy swaps in other Islamic countries. There is an internal variability that shows to rethink classical binaries. Governments do not have any faith in the markets; only direct control of land can ensure access to food products and the elimination of middlemen lowers prices. Workers, families, and indigenous communities will lose their food sovereignty, or access to their own land for the cultivation of crops and grains. Investment in agriculture (\"beyond imperialism's reach\") is an asset, but agricultural sectors need to be restructured in terms of consolidation and exports. While colonialism can be said to be the propagation of the colonial movement, a chronological perspective poses problem with what is \"post-\" or \"neo-\". Postcolonial and imperial studies demonstrate the problematic nature of binary as \"centre - periphery\", \"self - other\", \"first world - Third World\" and \"North - South” and advance to their place’s stereotypes such as \"hybridity\", \"diaspora\", \"creolization\", \"transculturation\", \"frontier\". Political geography has only just begun to integrate postcolonial and imperial perspectives and dominates critical history approaches to colonialism through representations. 6.8 NEGRITUDE Negritude, is a compound word, enjoining the French terms ‘Negre’ and ‘itude’. Negritude is a condition that can be roughly translated into ‘Blackness’. Negritude is a category of literary theory which took birth during the 1930s by francophone scholars, intellectuals, and politicians to generate ‘Black awareness’ among the African diasporas. Négritude came into existence thanks to the Martinician poet Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor (the first President of Senegal), and Léon Damas of French Guyana. Negritude intellectuals staunchly criticized colonialism and colonial culture and wanted to inculcate a Pan-African belief of oneness among Africans living in various corners of the Earth. These intellectuals and writers employed a radical Marxist ideology in the context of Black culture and were heavily encouraged by the surrealist style of literature. Negritude writers commonly shared stories about the African diaspora, the feeling of belongingness, and the notion of what ‘home’ is. Négritude gave rise to several movements across the Afro-Diasporic world, including Afro- Surrealism, Creolite in the Caribbean, and black is beautiful in the United States. Frantz Fanon has often referred to Négritude in his writing. Etymology Négritude is a noun created out of the French word ‘negre’ from the 1930s. Like its English language counterpart, the word Negritude was derogatory and degrading in nature. The usage of the term ‘negritude’ by the imperialists was a way of re-framing the word as an emic form of empowerment. The term ‘Negritude’ first came into existence thanks to Aime Cesaire, who mentioned it in the third edition of L'Étudiant noir, a magazine he had launched in Paris 139 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

in collaboration with his peers Léopold Senghor, Léon Damas, Gilbert Gratiant, Leonard Sainville, Louis T. Achille, Aristide Maugée, and Paulette Nardal. L'Étudiant noir also has mentions of Césaire's first published work, ‘Conscience Raciale et Révolution Sociale’, with the title ‘Les Idées’ and the rubric ‘Négreries’, which is famous for its repudiation of incorporation as a process of resisting the colonial rule and manoeuvre of the noun ‘negre’ in a positive manner. The logic behind why assimilation into the African culture was outright rejected by Cesaire due to the view of the African culture being illiterate and uncivilized. If assimilated, it would have implied an acceptance of the inferiority of Africans and their traditions. Since the word ‘negre’ had always been used in a defamatory manner, Cesaire deliberately incorporated the term in his philosophy. Influences During the year 1885, Haitian anthropologist Antenor Firmin published a work called ‘De l'Égalité des Races Humaines’ (On the Equality of Human Races), which was a clapback to the French writer Count Arthur de Gobineau's Essai sur l'inegalite des Races Humaines (An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races). Firmin then inspired Jean Price-Mars, the originator of Haitian ethnology and developer of the notion of ‘Indigenism’, and twentieth century American anthropologist Melville Herskovits. Historically, Black scholars have always revered Haiti due to its revolt against the slave tradition, spearheaded by Toussaint L'Ouverture during the 1790s. Césaire thus, described Haiti as the one ‘where négritude stood up for the first time’. While studying about diversity, some other thinkers that come to mind include Charles Baudelaire, André Breton, René Maran, and Arthur Rimbaud. The Harlem Renaissance, a genre that grew in the Harlem neighbourhood of Manhattan in the 1920s and 1930s, further leveraged the Negritude philosophy. Some of the Harlem Renaissance's writers, namely Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, wrote extensively about ‘noireism’ and relations among different races. Development during the 20th century In the 1920s and 1930s, young students, primarily from French colonies, used to gather in the streets of Paris, where they became familiar with the critics of the Harlem Renaissance movement by the sister duo Paulette and Jane Nardal. The Nardal sisters had greatly subscribed to the Negritude movement in their work, and were proprietors of the Clamart Salon, a tea-shop venue where Afro-French scholars frequently gathered. Here, they often conducted discussions and debates on Négritude. The discussions also gave birth to the abstraction of La revue du Monde Noir. Paulette Nardal and Haitian Dr. Leo Sajou launched La revue du Monde Noir (1931–32), a journal that was produced both in English and French, in order to cater to the African and Caribbean masses in Paris. The Harlem association 140 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

developed in parallel with the growth of the ‘negrismo’ in the Spanish-dominated Caribbean region. Although each initiator had their own ideas and perceptions regarding Négritude, the Negritude ideology was mainly identified by revolting against the colonial period, condemnation of Europe's inhuman behaviour towards the colonized, and dismissal of Western suppression and practices. The lobbying of the Negritude also had vestiges of Heideggerian strands in the way that the Blacks had a history of their own, and that their culture was separate from that of their colonizers and could stand at an equal footing with other traditions and cultures across the world. However, what was more importance was the acceptance and embracing of African cultures and traditions as one’s own, rather than something to be ashamed of, as was dominant in imperial literary theory. Authors who wrote about the Negritude had a realistic outlook towards their literary approach, and they respected Marxist ideals. The determination for undertaking the Negritude movement took birth due to Aimé Césaire’s, Leopold Senghor’s, and Leon Damas’s dissatisfaction, and contempt over the plight of the Afro-French people in Paris. All three of them shared an emotion of repulsion regarding the racism and unjust practices faced by the Blacks, and the impact it had on their education. Senghor rejected the idea that his academic qualifications were intended ‘to build Christianity and civilization in his soul where there was only paganism and barbarism before’. However, it was not all smooth, as Césaire's disgust became an issue of mortification when he was summoned by the Caribbean people as having to do nothing with the Africans, who were often seen as savages by them. Those native to the Caribbean Islands distinguished themselves from Africans, whom they looked down upon as less civilized, and were of the belief that they were more well-mannered than the latter. Cesaire condemned Caribbean authors as \"intellectually... corrupt and literarily nourished with white decadence\". Damas believed this because of the pride such writers would have when a white person read and understood their book and could not or did not know their complexion or race. Césaire was a playwright, poet, and a politician from Martinique, who had completed his education from Paris, where he rediscovered the Black population, and in the process understood all about Africa. In Cesaire’s eyes, Negritude was a word that was indicative of optimism, since it implied the understanding and acceptance of Black culture and being Black. According to Cesaire, the embracing of ‘Blackness’ was how decolonization could be achieved. In Cesaire’s words, Western Imperialism was to be blamed for perpetuating an inferiority complex among the Blacks. Since Cesaire’s theory aimed at understanding Imperialism via the Black population in terms of slave trade and exploitation at plantations, his ideology helped in the shaping of la Negritude. Neither Césaire, who upon his return to Martinique became the mayor of Fort de France, the capital, and a representative of Martinique in the French Parliament, nor Senghor in Senegal 141 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

could foretell political independence from France. Négritude would, in the words of Senghor, provide agency to the Blacks in the French regions to have a \"seat at the give and take the [French] table as equals\". Nevertheless, Senegal and other colonies finally gained independence from the French. A poet, and later becoming the first President of Independent Senegal, Senghor used the idea of Négritude to achieve a global value of the African population. Senghor stood for having a modern outlook of African traditions and perspectives. This elucidation of Negritude was the most common among all, particularly in the years to come. Damas was a French-Guyanese poet and a member of the National Assembly. He used a militant manner of protecting ‘black qualities’ and turned down any peace-making exercise with the Caucasians. Two anthologies were vital and served as manifestos for the Negritude revolution. One of them had been written by Damas in 1946, Poetess d ‘expression franchise 1900–1945. Senghor would then go on to publish Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française in 1948. Although Damas’ anthology was intended to serve as the introduction to the manifesto, Senghor’s anthology ultimately took the responsibility. Nevertheless, the manifesto’s preface would written by French philosopher and public intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre and help propel Négritude into the broader intellectual discourse. In a manifesto created for the Negritude revolution, Damas’ introduction was highly politicized and culturally influenced. A unique feature of Damas’ anthology and beliefs was that he felt his message was directly meant for the colonizers and had quotes of poets from Indochina and Madagascar. This pronouncement was in complete opposition to that of Senghor’s which would be published two years later. The introductory section of Damas’ manifesto proclaimed that the time had arrived when \"the colonized man becomes aware of his rights and of his duties as a writer, as a novelist or a storyteller, an essayist or a poet.\" Additionally, Damas had precisely laid out his anthology’s themes. He quoted that, \"Poverty, illiteracy, exploitation of man by man, social and political racism suffered by the black or the yellow, forced labour, inequalities, lies, resignation, swindles, prejudices, complacencies, cowardice, failure, crimes committed in the name of liberty, of equality, of fraternity, that is the theme of this indigenous poetry in French”. Henceforth, Damas’ welcome message can be considered a signal and validation to create a distinct and unique identity for the Blacks and Africa as a whole. Reception Jean-Paul Sartre further undertook a thorough analysis of the négritude theory in the year 1948 in an essay called ‘Orphée Noir’ (\"Black Orpheus\") which became the introduction for a francophone poetry named Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache, that had been by Léopold Senghor. In this poem, Sartre portrays the négritude as an opposite to the idea of colonialism in a Hegelian dialectic. Using this them, Sartre helped bring to attention 142 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Négritude issues to French academicians. From Sartre’s point of view, négritude was an anti- racist movement (racisme antiraciste), with the final mission of union between different human races. Despite its optimist and anti-colonial outlook, the idea of Negritude received a lot of flak from a couple of Black writers in the 1960s for being insufficiently militant. Keorapetse Kgositsile stated that Negritude was heavily bogged down by the idea of Blackness according to a European aesthetic and failed to develop a unique sense of African-ness that would result in the autonomy of the Black people and Black art from Caucasian conceptualizations altogether. One of the most prominent Black intellectuals who opposed Negritude was Wole Soyinka, a poet, writer, and dramatist from Nigeria. Soyinka believed that by being outspoken and deliberate about their ethnic origins, Black people were automatically on the defensive. In the words of some, Soyinka proclaimed: \"Un tigre ne proclame pas sa tigritude, il saute sur sa proie\" (French: A tiger does not proclaim its tigerness; it jumps on its prey). However, the truth was that he had written an essay in the year 1960 for the Horn, \"the duiker will not paint ‘duiker’ on his beautiful back to proclaim his duikeritude; you'll know him by his elegant leap.\" After a long period of silence there has been a renaissance of Négritude which was fuelled by scholars such as Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia University), Donna Jones (Berkeley University), and Cheikh Thiam (Ohio State University) who all continue the writing and practices of Abiola Irele (1936–2017) . Cheikh Thiam's book is the only comprehensive study of the Negritude philosophy. The book further progresses on Diagne's thinking of Négritude as an art-based philosophy, and Jones' showcasing of Négritude ideology as a lebensphilosophie. 6.9 NEO-COLONIALISM/NEO-IMPERIALISM Neo-colonialism Neo-colonialism is defined as the residual effects of the acts committed by agents of colonialism in a society. Postcolonial literature has proved that despite having achieved independence from colonial rule for more than a century, the influences of colonialism continue to linger on in the minds and practices of former colonies. Practically, every aspect of the ex-colonized society still harbours colonial influences. Neo-colonialism aims to study and understand the aftermath of colonialism and how it continues to persist in former colonial territories. Jean Paul Sartre’s Colonialism and Neo-colonialism (1964) has the first reported use of the word ‘neo-colonialism’. The phrase has become a common theme in African philosophy, particularly in the African political philosophy. In Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism, Sartre 143 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

argued that the French must withdraw its influence and interference in the policy-making process of its formerly ruled African states, particularly Algeria. However, it was only at one of the All-African People Conferences’, which took place in Accra, Ghana, where various movements taking place in the African continent, that the term neo-colonialism had its first official use. At the AAPC’s ‘1961 Resolution on Neo-colonialism’, the phrase was granted a structured definition. Neo-colonialism was the continued domination and subjugation of the African states, that were former European colonies, at the hands of their colonial masters, by leaving them at the mercy of the Imperialists indirectly in terms of different aspects, however, not including direct rule or violence. With the publication of Kwame Nkrumah’s ‘Neo- colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism’ in 1965, neo-colonialism became more well- known. Since then, neo-colonialism has become an innate part of African philosophy, as an entire body of literature has been designed around it by Sub-Saharan authors. As a theme of African philosophy, neo-colonialism requires a deep reflection and thought about the present socio-political and economic scenario in Africa, in terms of whether these nation-states are independent in the real sense or not, and how imperialists continue to enjoy a stronghold over their ex-colonies, albeit indirectly. Introduction Another important clarification regarding neo-colonialism is the process by which colonizers continue to propagate and perpetuate their practices in African countries through beliefs such as capitalism, neo-liberal globalization, and cultural subjugation. In a neo-colonial state, former colonizers ensured that their once colonies, although having gained independence, remained dependent upon them for social and political direction. The continued reliance and manipulation of the socio-economic and political lives of the now free colonies were mainly conducted for the advantage of the colonizer’s own state. The custom, as usually conducted through subtle control of the former colonies’ economic and political climate, instead of direct martial rule, as was commonplace during the colonial period. The idea of neo-colonialism can be said to have taken a firmer shape through the work of Karl Marx (1818-1883) in his noteworthy bashing of capitalism as a stage in the socio- economic advancement of human society. Still, the relevance of Marx’s theory regarding the socio-political and economic structures for contemporary society cannot be ruled out. The model of society as structured by an economic basis, legal and political superstructures, and a definite form of social consciousness that Marx presented both in The Capital (1972) as well as in the Preface to the Critique of Political Economy (1977) remains crucial to socio- economic theory. In the writings, Marx has described theories villainizing capitalism. One of the by-products that capitalism has produced are multinational corporations that can assemble far more advanced intelligence behind their often-nefarious designs than any nation’s government can assemble to attempt to hold these organizations at bay. As the world largely operates within the capitalist framework, signals point to crucial foresights in some of Marx’s 144 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

prognostication. As the world continues to turn a blind eye to the massive ownership of the Earth’s economic and political resources by the wealthiest 1%, there is no hesitation in realizing that Marx’s prognostications have been proven true in more ways than they have been refuted. Sartre too, used Marx’s theory of anti-capitalism along with his own philosophy, to declare his disapproval of the economic colonization by the French in Algeria. The appropriate coinage of the term neo-colonialism in Africa, however, can only be credited to Nkrumah who used it in his 1963 preamble of the Organization of African States (OAU) Charter and later, as the name of his 1965 book, ‘Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism’. In simple words, neo-colonialism indicates the active continuation of all those policies, infrastructure, and agents that were prevalent during the colonial era. The fundamental ideology behind neo-colonialism is the fact that although formerly ruled colonies may be independent on paper, but their socio-political, cultural, and economic climate is still under the control of external forces, which are mostly their colonizers. (Nkrumah1965, 7). The loss of autonomy of state machineries to neo-colonialism lays the foundation for Nkrumah’s discourse on the same. In his article ‘Philosophy and Post-Colonial Africa’, Tsenay Serequeberhan explains the nature of neo-colonialism in Africa as to how despite having left everything behind, Europe continues to dominate its former colonies in Africa, through the socio-political and economic policies. From the point of view of Serequeberhan, neo-colonialism in Africa is like colonialism, with the only difference being that colonial-rule policies are now being implemented in a disguised manner. This hidden nature constitutes the control of the African continent’s resources and policy-making aspects by the colonialists despite decades of independence. (Serequeberhan 1998, 13). With this, we can conclude that the general nature of neo-colonialism as a divergence in national power; political, economic, or military, is used in a rather unfair manner by dominant states to compel less-developed countries to do their bidding, and in turn, remain subordinate to them. The tactic applied by neo-colonialism lies in its guise to enjoin leaders of the now independent nations to accept developmental aids and support through which the imperial powers continue to reign supreme over their former colonies. Under the disguise of offering developmental, technological, and scientific assistance, former colonial masters have enabled their hegemonic political and cultural control in the form of neo-colonialism (Serequeberhan 1998, 13). In these circumstances, the leaders or ruling heads of now-independent states are still at the mercy and whims of ex- colonizers and multinational corporations, all of which help to enforce colonial era practices, particularly the exploitation of labour. On first impression, the neo-colonial state appears to be independent of all imperial rules, however, the truth is, previously colonized territories are still very much under the control of colonialism and its agents. Being under the deception of the supposed superiority of colonial masters in terms of the latter being more educated and 145 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

sophisticated, the current heads of state of these former colonies continue to enforce and encourage their citizens to follow the rules and practices of their colonizers. Hence, it can be said that despite gaining freedom, many former colonies have the prevailing mentality of being inferior, or ‘less than’ than their colonizers, who are still revered and looked up to. With a neo-colonial scenario, therefore, imperialists still tend to maintain control and dominance over many sectors in the economy of their previous colonies. Consequently, formerly ruled colonial states still seek inspiration from their colonizers for framing and implementing policies, rather than looking inward and improving upon their indigenous practices. Through the process of neo-colonialism, industrialized and technologically advanced nations continue to have a stronghold over less developed countries, such that their capital gains keep mounting, while the scope of development in their former colonies is eliminated. (Parenti 2011, 24). In Post colony, Achille Mbembe further analyses the prevalence of neo-colonialism in Africa and postulated that the underlying hypothesis upon which neo-colonialism rests has no reasonable arguments to support it. In Mbembe’s opinion, despite having won independence, the West continued to perceive Africans as incompetent in terms of creating a firm political and economic system. Mbembe supported his statement by stating that Africans were always viewed as lowly, irrational, and intellectually incapable. As he quotes, the feasibility for Africans to rationally organize themselves is “understood through a negative interpretation” (Mbembe 2001, 1). This exposition tells that Africans can never possess characteristics that are considered an ordinary function of people, and even if they did, it would be deemed of an inferior quality (Mbembe 2001, 1). In simple words, since those belonging to the African diaspora and the rest of the world were observed to have intelligence levels different from Westerners (Mbembe 2001 2), the West has considered that these people cannot be expected to conduct themselves rationally in any aspects of their lives. In a retortion to this shallow assumption, Mbembe clapped back saying that the West has always had a tough time on accepting the African theology on the ‘experience of the Other’, or on the issue of the ‘I’ of others as to them, it seems to be an alien postulation. To put it simply, the generic Western practice has always been the denial of any “self” but its own. It has always ignored the idea of a shared set of moral values, such that, “a humanity shared with others, long posed, and still poses, a problem for Western consciousness” (Mbembe 2001, 2). Nevertheless, this attitude of repudiation is not limited to the context of neo-colonialism. The history of the West refuting any existence of the ‘self’, besides itself, can be tracked to the period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. In his book, ‘The Invention of Africa’, V. Y. Mudimbe posits the three characteristics prompt one to recall the colonial infrastructure of Africa: the domination of physical space, the reformation of natives’ minds, and the assimilation of native economic histories into the Western perspective. This structure constitutes the three complementary aspects of the colonial organization which acknowledges 146 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

the physical, human, and spiritual elements of the colonizing experience (Mudimbe 1988, 2). This has helped in emphasizing a historicity that promotes discussions and debates on African primitiveness, which is used in justifying why the continent needed to be conquered and colonized in the first place (Mudimbe 1988, 20). Quoting what Ignacy Sachs calls ‘Europocentric’, Mudimbe is of the view that this purpose of colonialism is to “dominate our thought and given its projection on the world scale by the expansion of capitalism….it marks contemporary culture imposing itself as a strongly conditioning model for some and forced deculturation for others” (Sachs 1971, 22). Hence, Mudimbe believes that, Europocentric is based on repudiating that the “Other” exists in European consciousness. The practice of denial continues to persist in spite of repeated assertions that the ‘existence of the other’ in Paul Ricoeur’s meditation on the irruption of the other: “when we discover that there are several cultures instead of just one…be it illusory or real, we are threatened with destruction by our own discovery. All of a sudden, it becomes possible that there are just others, that we ourselves are another among others” (Ricoeur 1965, 278). To this end, if one accepts Ricoeur’s assertion on the existence of cultural pluralism one would be able to affirm the foundation of Mudimbe’s submission in his The Idea of Africa that in each continent, for example Africa, “there are natural features, cultural characteristics, and, probably, values that contribute to its reality different from those of, say, Asia and Europe” (Mudimbe 1994, xv). It is on the cornerstone of the clear-cut customs of each state that William Abraham in ‘The Mind of Africa’ pays attention to the hurdles which a post-colonial Africa has to encounter in its daily interactions with Europe. Although Abraham acknowledges the existence of the trend of neo-colonialism in Africa, he says that certain positive Western conventions can be combined with the African customs to establish a shared bond (Abraham 1962, 83). He however, notes that while there is currently an upheaval of social, economic, and political conventions upon the conclusion of the colonial era, Africa’s culture must be sheltered from being demolished by Western influence and civilization, or what he refers to as “the externality of an outsider” (Abraham 1962, iv) The chronicles of how neo-colonialism operates, and its varying dimensions only sporadically throws light on the tropes of subjugation and supremacy mostly in the semblance of consolidating of trade relations and development aid made available by the imperialists. The obvious implication of this phenomena has proved that independent African states have mostly failed to be self-reliant, on how to address issues plaguing them. Neo Imperialism While imperialism is characterized by conquering and ruling territories, and colonialism by ruling through migration and residence, neo-imperialism is defined as domination and enjoying hegemonic rule over others through legal treaties and cultural dealings. Neo- imperialism is a noun with multiple weaknesses, in contrast to the form of socio-political and economic domination undertaken by the US in the twentieth century. Some other concise 147 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

definitions of neo-imperialism describe an informal empire, imperialism without an empire, empire of liberty, and Pax Americana. Nevertheless, neo-imperialism is the most quotidian term, and thus, we will be postulating the hypothesis through the name ‘neo-imperialism’ only. Neo-imperialism, although more recurrent post the Second World War, is not a novel phenomenon that is only limited to the US or only initiated in the twentieth or twenty-first century. However, the United States is history’s strongest and creative deployer of neo- imperial power strategies, as opposed to direct colonial or imperial strategies. In the latter half of the twentieth century, neo-imperialism became the typical mode of international political assertion. The essence of neo-imperialism became a fodder for discussion once the Cold War ended. Journalists, opinionators, poets, and academicians, made efforts to understand neo- imperialism, and place US as the world’s most ‘indispensable country’ (as U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once put it). In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, discourse on how the US can manifest its stronghold globally as the nation turned far more aggressive in its military intervention and returned to doctrines of nation-building and democratization. However, the consolidation of neo-imperialism by the United States was not merely the result of its military power, as it did not do so right after the Cold War. To understand US’ neo-imperial policies, it is of primary importance that we first understand the foundations on which the state lays on, since it is a nation that had consistently been dominated by the imperial reign. The British public first embraced the idea of a British Empire, something that would rival the great Roman Empire, after they emerged victorious in the Seven Years’ War in 1763. When the 1776 Rebellion led the British Atlantic colonies to gain independence from the nobility, the former colonists used a Roman and Whig political vocabulary to build a republic whose foundations lay on the principles of democracy, equality, citizenship, freedoms, and strict legal limitations on governmental agency. The newly created United States had a military style that was more suited for direct militia rather than territorial annexation. However, the former was done more out of obligation, and the US did not show any mercy while grabbing land from the Native Americans. Nevertheless, in the initiation of the nation’s newly formed political philosophy, the US slowly inculcated an interventive military style and self-confessed ideology of anti-imperialism, particularly in the year 1812, when the defensive war occurred and the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Thereafter, the US continued its mediation ensuing the evolution of the New World political order. The intermediation style intended to be segregated from that of European conquests, however, its goal was to assert dominance in the Americas, and aimed at indirectly controlling the continent’s socio-political, economic, and resource framework. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Alfred Thayer Mahan’s rationalization for the growing value of naval power and international perspective led to the main exceptions to this developing pattern of U.S. militia. The country then incited a battle with Spain that 148 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

sanctioned the annexation of dominions like the Philippines, Guam, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, along with developing naval bases in Guam, Guantanamo Bay, Puerto Rico, and Manila Bay. Although the US did not warrant colonialism the way Europeans did, wasting the opportunity to conquer lands such as China or Mexico, it stressed its power by planting defence bases wherever possible. These included the strategically crucial Pearl Harbour and ultimately the remainder of Hawaii, plus, the only island feasible for holding a coal station, which was a steamship route from Hawaii to Guam, renamed ‘Midway’. At the time World War II was adjudicated, the US had slowly consolidation its goal of transforming into the world’s military power and was capable of domineering over other nation-states and dictate terms to them. Under the New World Order the terms were largely outlined and governed by the United States, colloquially called Pax Americana. Collective memory of the setting up of Pax Americana was largely not paid heed to due to the immediate contingency of the Cold War, a brimming set of diplomatic conflicts and wars by proxy, since the former Soviet Union contested and disputed the New World Order sanctioned at the United Nations (UN) thanks to the United States. But the sagacity and reality of Pax Americana is a necessity in understanding US neo-imperialism, which has greatly conquered its mission of ‘making the world safe’ and sustaining international harmony, notwithstanding the regular conflicts and hostilities between countries during the course of and post the Cold War. While the years between 1850 and 1900 witnessed the human race below two billion suffering almost twenty million deaths due to skirmishes, between 1900 and 1950 a world populace under three billion suffered over sixty million war casualties, while between 1950 and 2000, bloodshed due to wars was a mere ten million, in contrast to a world population that grew to well over five billion. Thus, the Pax Americana phenomenon was a genuine spectacle and was an implicit knee-jerk reaction to a saga of European imperial strife and intermittent warfare, with the application of even more menacing defence weapons, commenced in the eighteenth century ultimately led to the Second World War. The answer to neo-imperialism, and how it sets itself apart from former princely states, is the restrain towards stately resolution. In an UN-commanded era though, annexations or take overs of domains by another dominion would not be tolerated. The brand-new United Nations and a blooming web of universal pecuniary supervisory consortiums monitored the largely amicable division of the European empires, encompassing the USSR, into what transformed into the nation-state, the only lawful constitutional form. Henceforth, the UN membership increased from 50 members in 1945 to greater than 150 in the 1970s and exceeded 175 by the early 1990s. That Pax Americana was US’ technique of neo-imperialism became even more concise at the close of the 9/11 terror attacks, especially which was followed by the United States’ unsettling overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the antagonistic domiciliation of Iraq. Now one can ask, ‘Is the United States really, in the last analysis, another imperial power?’ While some ‘realists’ endorsed that the outlook of all Great Powers was uniformly congruous, one 149 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

cannot afford not overlook to the key deviations. As was once pointed out by Frantz Fanon, it was without fail, requisite for European princely reigns to not be clubbed together with their colonized subjects, to keep up with the appearance of a culture that was transcendent and act that their lives lay with the European ‘homeland’, even if the continents of Africa and Asia were their land of subsistence. The European theology of the ‘civilizing mission’ created a delusion that the Europeans were more consummate as far as cultural and intellectual advancement was concerned, compared to those who they had colonized, as the latter were categorized as ‘savages’. In the era of the United Nations, a vastly different hypothesis took birth. According to this hypothesis, all nations were at par, independent, territorial, and sovereign, and every nation-state was a ‘melting pot’, and not the inherent ‘homeland’ belonging to any given ethnic or racial group. Economists and economic modelling, not historians and cultural education, were professed to be critical to the decision-making and implementation of the annihilation of destitution and discrimination. Although the UN-era has advocated for the obstruction regarding the stately and military stronghold of nation-states, not many efforts have been undertaken to tone down the assertions of ‘other Leviathans’, or the massive corporate conglomerates. In specific scenarios, the affluent and dominant nation-states lawfully restrain, and rarely even divide, corporate consortiums (from Standard Oil to Microsoft) whose magnanimity can pose a legitimate threat to state sovereignty. The same high ground is not offered though, to the weaker and impoverished dominions, that come under immense pressure to quietly accept whatever the major ruling powers have to offer them. Similarly, the under-developed or impoverished states cannot place constraints on the United States, Europe, and Japan from incorporating unfair tariff sanctions in international trade treaties, that would prove to be advantageous to them at while leading to losses of the former. Thus, it is not shocking that in the Pax Americana era, the wealth and inequality gap between the industrialized and lesser developed nation-states continues to widen. Other socio-political and economic upheavals that have occurred in the Pax Americana period have been more astonishing, and unanticipated by the engineers of the New World Order. The Elites and the financially privileged from backward nations have emigrated to economically wealthier places in large numbers, building a section of wealthy and elite diasporas. The exodus of the well-educated from unprosperous countries towards centres of wealth are often persuaded by their local governments immigrate and contribute to the multicultural growth of the centres of wealth. Numerous ex-princely nation-states have deserted democracy, either ad interim or for the foreseeable future, with the proclaim of the martial rule to better represent a nation than divisive and ideologically driven political parties, an arrangement has left organizers of the New World Order in a fix, who had foreseen countries to embrace democratic rule after colonization had ended. Moreover, states in certain nation-states have crumbled altogether, leading to civil wars and long periods of instability 150 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)