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LITR / CRCL 5734: Colonial &
Postcolonial Literature Sawsan
Sanjak
The Impact of Colonial And Post-Colonial Rule on African Women What
is colonization? Who colonizes whom? It has always been the same old story; the
big fish eats the smaller fish. Man is always anxious to seek power and
authority. Since the beginning of the world, man has been in a continuous
struggle to survive. In the past, authority took the form of tribes attacking
other tribes, either seeking water or food. Later, authority entered another
phase in which, people who owned more advanced weapons were able to have the
heavy weight of control. 'In the late 19th and early 20th
century, we notice that the British Empire had spread to encompass about one
quarter of the world's population' (British Empire/encyclopedia.com). The
primary purpose of this imperialist empire was to control foreign lands in order
to provide wide markets for British exports, and to gain additional wealth to
expand the empire. Britain tried to legitimize the existence of its empire by
civilizing and Christianizing primitive societies. I think that colonization
served only the interests of the colonizing powers. I'm
going to explore and explain the empire's policy of colonization, for example,
the empire imposed its own policy and ideas through the different British
institutions that were established in the colonized regions. English language
was also used as a strong weapon to erase the colonized mother tongue (British
Empire). Apparently this policy was a successful one; at that time, Britain
ruled the world's trade through India, central parts in Africa, the Far East,
the Pacific, and lands on the eastern part of the Mediterranean (History of
British Imperialism/findarticles.com).The
empire followed an expansion policy that was of benefit to no one, but the
empire. What they called a transfer of technology was only a mask to hide the
plunder of resources and the destruction of the structures of less developed
societies. However, Africa would be a good example to reveal the issues that the
imperial impact helped in raising such as, race, class, and gender. Post-colonization
is the period that would probably give us a close picture of national culture
before and after colonization. After World War I and I I the European imperial
powers deteriorated as a result of their reduced presence in the colonies around
the1950s, where at that time the colonized maintained strong self-defense
(Postcolonial Literature and theory 870). Africa benefited from World War I I
because there were great demands from the European side for its exports. As a
result of this, Africa experienced economical and social growth. Prosperity was
seen in having a great number of exports, building big roads, and moving towards
the cities. In 1951, Britain's Gold Coast colony enjoyed an increase in its
Cocoa exports, about 1,000 tons more than in 1901. Through this economic growth
in some African colonies, the Africans sought independence. In South Africa,
some African leftist dreamers made great efforts to gain their country's
independence. Kwame Nkrumah, one of the leftist intellectuals, returned to the
Gold Coast after earning his bachelor's degree in sociology and economics from
Lincoln University. He joined the independence movement there, and formed a
political party, called ' The Convention People's Party' (Smitha/Africa and
Independence, Into the Sixties). In
the late fifties, Britain became certain that the Gold Coast should earn its
independence, and so Britain started preparing the Gold Coast to gain its
freedom. Hence, the Gold Coast became an independent authority in 1957. Later,
the Gold Coast became Ghana, a parliamentary democracy. Nkrumah, the leader of
this independence kept good ties with the British; he also supported his
policies with British advisors. However, with Ghana gaining its independence,
other African colonies demanded for their independence too (Smitha). I believe
that what the British did here was an intelligent attempt, to give authority to
the natives, but at the same time to hold control of the country through the
institutions and factories that they established there. In other words,
colonization took another aspect, which is the overseeing of the weak while
pursuing its own economic benefits. After
the decline of the European imperial power, there have been certain attempts to
distinguish between the colonial period and the post-colonial period. Walter
Rodney believes that " To be colonized- is to be removed from history
". This removal from history brought great
psychological pain to the colonized. They had no clear past to refer to,
except the " European-made history". This urges theorists to examine
the culture, history, literature, and politics of the past European colonies,
and the effect of the imperial power in raising issues such as, racism, complex
relationships, precisely, the position of women under the colonial impact and
gender oppression. Through what I read for researchers tackling this point, it
seems that the problem of identity between the present and the past was most
clearly recognized when postmodernism questioned the category of history, and so
there was a great need to construct national literary histories. Linda Hutcheon
in her essay, "The Pastime of
Past Time", suggests that postmodern novels regard the interaction of
historiography and fiction as an issue that deserves a detailed study. Both of
which problematize the entire notion of subjectivity, and thus, there isn't a
subject capable of knowing the past with any certainty. However, postmodern
intertextuality reveals an attempt to close the gap between the past and the
present and to rewrite the past in a new context. Moreover, this is not a desire
to organize the present through the past, but an attempt to seek reality and
represent it in language, since both fiction and historiography refer to other
texts in order to prove the nature of their evidence (Hutcheon 117-118-119). I
do agree with Linda Hutcheon that there's no pure reality, and what we can do,
is at least minimize the gap between the past and the present. Through my study
for post-colonial literature I like the idea of practicing self-judgement from
the side of the colonizer, and judging the colonizer from the side of the
colonized. Literary
critics from Europe and North America show interest in the cultural consequence
of some colonized regions such as, China, Canada, and Austria. On the other
hand, individual regions present post-colonial writers such as Wilson Harris
from the Caribbean-and from Africa Chinua Achebe as well as many scholars who
have worked in correspondence to reveal the truth of their national literatures.
Such literary commentators present careful awareness of issues produced by
Commonwealth literature. One
of the important books that "demonstrates
the agenda for post-colonial studies in English" is The Empire Writes Back. I do like to stress the term '
hybridization' that the book highlights, which combines the colonized traditions
with the imperial notions in order to develop "something newly
post-colonial in a language which Empire calls english". In fact, literary
decolonization between the two creates a ' recovered post-colonial reality',
which is an acceptance of the other on ' equal terms'. Theorists and historians
recognize that cross-culturality is the turning point in order to have a
stablized post-colonial world (Ashcroft
9-36-37). Thus, I believe that the role of the post-colonial writer is to tackle
the difference between truth and error in order to create a comparative critical
awareness, which does not deny the rights of either the colonizer or
the colonized. Between
truth and error, colonization and post-colonization, the reality of what
happened before and after proves itself through the different studies done by
researchers from both sides, the colonized and the colonizer. A brief scope of
what I read from African Perspectives on
Colonization by A.Adu Boahen would draw a glimpse on the positive and
negative trends that happened in Africa before and after colonization. In the
economic field, for example, colonization did play a positive role in developing
the infrastructure of roads, railways, telegraph and the telephone. On the other
hand, after independence nothing of these changes did really improve. Moreover,
during colonization, cash-crop agriculture spread widely. This helped Africans
from different social states, particularly
rural Africans to have wealth and to raise their social class. Another change is
the banking activities, which show the independence of African states and the
increase of the individuals' salaries (Boahen 1oo). My happiness to learn that
colonization did do something positive did not last because Boahen's analysis
stresses the point that colonization did neglect the African's industry and
encouraged Africans to consume what they did not produce and vice versa. In
spite of the fact that Africa before colonization did produce its own raw
material and benefit from it (Boahen 102). I think that this colonial policy
helped in deteriorating the infrastructure of the African trade. With
regard to the social field Boahen discusses the benefit of urbanization, which
resulted in creating new ports or harbors. Besides this, Western Education
helped in producing ' a lingua franca' which also prevented the development of
the African mother tongue. Boahen hints to the negative and positive role of
colonial education. With this double impact, Africa had a high number of
illiterates. Another negative social impact was racial discrimination, which
degraded the Africans of their human dignities and left its psychological impact
on them even after colonization. Degrading women status in society was another
negative social impact. Through what I read from Boahen and other researchers,
women's role appear in the field of agriculture and trade, but not further '
Good European posts' would probably be given to the males (Boahen 106-107-108).
I would posit that labor division between males and females would probably widen
the gap of class authority and give more control to the male. What I see here is
not only a gender struggle but also an economic imbalance using the impact of
gender discrimination. In African "Ibgo" communities women practice
the role of powerful goddesses where their high priests could be men. This role
as well as other customs disappeared when Christianity came. The
anthology of Women in Africa and the
African Diaspora, stresses that though some African traditional customs have
changed, they still carry African values, for example, African female
descendents as well as those who are in Africa still carry their values to the
New World. Two dominant values are ' developing survival strategies and
encouraging self-reliance through female networks'. However, such a combination
disappeared among females in Western societies (Harley 45). I would like to draw
attention here to the African woman being the 'Other' of man, the 'Other' of the
African American, and the ' Other' of the Western woman. She
is the outcome of different discourses, race, class, gender, and sexual
oppression. Of course we should not forget the Western women's approach to help
the black women defend and speak for themselves. After all, both the Western and
the African women fight for the same cause, and what binds them together is this
' sameness' of oppression. Western feminist scholarship breaks down the barriers
of political and economical framework, which is in other words, the capitalist
oppression. The Western woman 'colonizes' the complexities that frame the lives
of women in different cultures. To me both the African and the Western women
live in the same boat, but one resembles the labor of the First World who
produces industry, and the other resembles the labor of the Third World who is
suppressed from producing raw material. Again, I believe that historical
heterogeneity's of the African woman produces a woman who carries inside her the
Western humanist discourse. In
LITR 5734: Colonial and Postcolonial
Literature, Carolyn Richard discussed how the issue of matriarchy and
patriarchy works in Achebe's Things Fall
Apart . She started her presentation by hinting that women in the African
society were colonized by patriarchal and imperial ideologies. Carolyn pointed
out that Achebe mirrors the sociocultural organization existing in Africa of the
era he describes. She added that Achebe's women are presented
'in a less than positive light'. Ibo, being an oral culture makes
Achebe's women voiceless. One can
see them without hearing them. Carolyn hinted that women of the Ibo do not
engage in discussions regarding government councils nor are they the heads of
their families. However, Carolyn accused Achebe of highlighting Ibo's
traditional culture without giving significance to the role of women. She
suggested that this would create a problem in publishing books that would really
discuss 'the needs of the African women'. Through the discussion, a student
hinted to gender division in jobs. However, the majority agreed that patriarchy
governed the African society. The discussion then shifted to common themes
between African American women and African women. The discussion concluded that
though some customs have changed, still African themes are different because the
African people have different historical experiences, and live in a
heterogeneous cultural environment. As for gender discrimination it was noted
that it is still present in many cultures. In
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
represents the traditions and values of his African community. Though some might
consider Achebe's women as weak or voiceless, yet what Achebe reveals is a true
picture of his Igbo community. The stories that he narrates depict the
individual's social behavior in a disturbed world. Achebe's Igbo shifted to
modernity when the white man arrived. The story pictures phases of ideological
crises in the communities of Umofia and Mbanta. Umofia stands for power seen in
the male dominance. Thus Okonkwo, Achebe's dramatic hero, identifies a defensive
masculinity against weakness shown in the figure of Unoka, the father. I think
that Achebe represents the African voice through Okonkwo's rebellious figure
that could no longer stand the new change that the imperial power brought to
Umofia. To him there's a struggle between his African values and the colonizer's
own values. The end of the story sums up Achebe's message to his natives;
Okonkwo's death objects submission to the European imposed values. Thus , his
death allows his wives to control over their existential difficulties in order
to survive . In conclusion, being voiceless or gentle does not mean a probable
weakness, but a great hidden power to overcome predicaments. In
Culture and the Nigerian Novel,
Oladele Taiwo believes that Achebe describes Okonkwo as a gentle person despite
the fact that he is concerned with his powerful masculinity. Oladele highlights
this by reminding the readers of Okonkwo's relief when he fails to kill his
wife(Taiwo120).The conflict arises when Okonkwo was not able to communicate with
his people who had lost the identity of their tribe by the appearance of
external influence. Oladele concludes that the Umofian society was not a strong
society to absorb the influence of Christianity and still keeps its own identity
(Taiwo 121-124). Kirsten
Holst Petersen in The Post-Colonial
Studies Reader , believes that African writing in the sixties reveals the
dignified African past of which the African youth should be proud. She accuses
Achebe of being unfair to the women in his community, by stressing the fact that
Okonkwo was not punished for beating his wife, but because he offended the gods
(PCSR 253-254). Though Petersen
appreciates Achebe's description of the Ibo's traditions, yet she feels that
Achebe has weakened this value by underestimating the role of women in his
society. "
My identity", is a phrase that still echoes in African literature, still
there's this struggle between the past and the present. African literature acts
as an inventor of fiction as well as a recorder of the ancestors' past. Should I
live in the past or the present? Should I invent a new identity and become
myself? To answer these questions, I would like to hint to Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy
that would really carry the answers for the above mentioned questions. Lucy
is Jamaica Kincaid's " marginalized other". Kincaid, in her essay,
"A Small Place" analyzes post-colonial influence on Antigua's
culture. She condemns the colonizer's policy for erasing the features of
Antigua's culture and replacing it with the colonizer's own culture( PCSR
93-94). With Lucy, Kincaid portrays
Lucy's liberation, which cannot be done away from self-destruction and
loneliness so that to create a new self. Lucy, the heroine suffers a conflict of
identity between her Antiguan past and American present. The colonizer and the
colonized are active tasks for Lucy in America. Between the colonizer and the
colonized, Lucy stands for the
liberation of Antigua, the motherland and Lucy's hidden identity. When Lucy
accepts her post-colonial past, it is then that she started realizing who she
was, and acted on the basis of creating her identity in America. Post-
colonial education haunts Lucy's memory in America; she keeps remembering poems
from her childhood. This reminds me with what Kincaid hinted to in "A
Small Place", "We were taught the names of the Kings of
England"(PCSR 93). Lucy's
awareness of the past helps her to explore the reality of her future present.
Thus within this process Lucy learns to overcome her anger towards the
colonizer. Lucy tries to liberate herself from the double impact of
post-colonization and maternal authority. Though Lucy might seem to hate her
mother, deep inside she carries a
great love to her. What Lucy hates in her mother is that she reminds her of the
past that she wants to forget; her mother's sacrifice to hold up the family, is
what Lucy considers weakness and hence tries to object. However, Lucy wants to
be an opposite picture of her mother, the same as Okonkwo in Achebe's Things
Fall Apart. Throughout the story Okonkwo seems sensitive to hear the word
'poor 'or 'weak' because this would be an indication of his father's weakness
which he doesn't want to mirror. On the other hand, Lucy keeps remembering her
mother's warnings, not to become a slut, what Lucy does is completely the
opposite. Thus, Lucy allows her experiences to be the means for her liberation,
and so she creates her present as different from her past. The
two books that I discussed show search for self-discovery. In Achebe's book Things
Fall Apart, Okonkwo searches for his identity after exile, but ends up to
find that Umofia has lost the unity of its tribe. Okonkwo seems unable to
recognize the new Umofia
that colonization has changed. Thus Okonkwo's death at the end of the story
reveals his inability to accommodate with the new trend of life in Umofia.
However, Okonkwo's wives who were entitled of taking care of agricultural work
and children, now with Okonkwo's death have to play a bigger role in their
family affairs as well as in their society. They are the new change in Umofia,
the voiceless that is going to be heard. As for Lucy, it is the cross-roads of cultures and identities. Lucy, the
heroine is like the post-colonial writer who is torn between two worlds, the
past and the present. Lucy tries to liberate herself from the ambiguity of a
faraway past society to a present one, which she tries to fit in. Her
self-renewal appears at the end of the story when she starts writing her diary.
At that moment, Lucy translated herself from the past to the present.
'Translation' is like a bridge to Lucy that allows her to create her independent
identity away from maternal and traditional restrictions. The
colonizer and the colonized are tied up to one chain that cannot be examined
away from the other. After colonization the relationship between the colonizer
and the colonized appeared in political, social, and economical integration.
African economical integration with European economies showed growth in Africa's
cash crops and industry, which would probably result in a continuous cooperation
between the two. In the political field, Africa maintained good ties with her
former colonizers by including European advisors to support her policies. In the
social field, the language of the colonizer remained and would probably last
forever in major regions of Africa. As for the social classes, which appeared
under the colonial impact, would probably continue in growing. Cultural issues
such as racial discrimination disappeared in Africa after independence. As for
gender discrimination, after colonization Africa enjoyed a major development
that resulted in the appearance of African women writers who struggled and are
still struggling to defend the African women human rights. However, cultural
oppression urges African black women to struggle against their men, and the
racial political powers that have erased the African black women's voice.
Bibliography Books
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and Tiffin, Helen. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in
Post-Colonial Literature. London; New York: Routledge, 1989. ----------
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Adu.A. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1987. Harley,
Sharon, Penn-Terorg, Rosalyn, and Rushing, Benton, Andrea.Women in Africa and
the African Diaspora. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1987. Hutcheon,Linda."Historiographic
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