LITR 5734:
Colonial & Postcolonial Literature
Sample Student Midterm 2005
Luis A. Saenz
October 4, 2005
Insights on Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Being a first year literature student, I marveled at the thought of studying the literature of the late 1600s and 1700s in the United States. As a college sophomore while studying early American literature, I attained an understanding of the colonial era as the historical time period of early America’s civilization and development. Thus, we studied the works of authors such as John Smith, William Bradford, and Benjamin Franklin as they told their accounts with “uncivilized” peoples and their quest to civilize them under European negotiations. However, when I read the course description I had no background knowledge in the works of Conrad, Achebe, and Walcott, so I began to wonder whether we were going to concentrate on American colonial and postcolonial authors. Sure enough, on the first day of class, as I held the thick syllabus distributed to me, I noticed the following words in bold: AFRICA, INDIA, and THE CARIBBEAN with the following course description above them: “Classical texts of European colonialism are read in dialogue with postcolonial texts from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.” Immediately after I noticed the phrase “European colonialism” my mind said “Bingo!”, and at that moment I realized this course would not emphasize American colonialism but European colonialism upon “uncivilized” inhabitants in Africa, India, and the Caribbean.
The term colonialism is defined as, according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, “the system or policy by which a country maintains foreign colonies, esp. in order to exploit them economically.” In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow’s definition of colonialism is “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves” (Conrad 10). Colonization, during the time period of Heart of Darkness, involved the taking over of an uncharted territory along with its inhabitants and molding them into the traditions of the dominant culture. This perspective of colonization was the mindset of the upper-middle-class European man attempting to dominate inferior, unintelligible, uncivilized, primitive individuals. In 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote the following statement regarding the inferiority of Native Americans in colonial America in his Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America: “Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility. Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different nations with impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as to be without any rules of politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some remains of rudeness” (516). Franklin’s definition of civilization consists of learned European behaviors which both the white and the non-white shared. To Franklin, any group belonging to a culture which did not display European mannerisms was considered uncivilized and rude. Colonization, therefore, involved the taking over of a group of people in an unexplored area in order to increase power and territory for the purpose of wealth, and along with it came the saturation of the dominant culture and its traditions upon the powerless.
The mindset of Benjamin Franklin mirrors the ethnocentric attitude of the British colonizers towards the inhabitants of the Congo in Heart of Darkness. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own ethnic group, nation, or culture is superior. Benjamin Franklin’s statement of Native Americans is purely ethnocentric. He finds the Native Americans to be savages because their manners differ from those of the European race which Franklin considers to be “the perfection of civility” (516). Manners are a cultural custom which differ from culture to culture. To say that one’s way of doing things is the “perfection of civility” as opposed to another culture’s custom is considered ethnocentric.
Marlow in Heart of Darkness displays an ethnocentric attitude towards the Africans. His perception of their “bestiality” is a characteristic of colonialism. Emily Masterson, a former student of LITR 5734, found that
Conrad’s narrating character is reluctant to view the natives as fellow humans in the same sense that he recognizes humanity in other Englishmen. Because the Africans are not “civilized” in the same way that Marlow is acquainted with European notions of civility, the wildness of the Africans poses an insurmountable barrier in Marlow’s view of them as intellectual and emotional equals.
Marlow is unable to view the Africans as humans with intellectual and emotional senses due to their inability to demonstrate European civility. As Marlow travels up the Congo River, he notices Africans partaking in their rituals and describes it as “a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. We glided past like phantoms, wondering secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse” (37). The European of the 19th century was unable to admit the cultural traditions that took place as civilized due to the set notions of civility portrayed in Europe as ideal and perfect. In addition, Marlow describes the language of the Africans as inferior or inhuman: “they shouted periodically together the strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language; and the deep murmurs of the crowd, interrupted suddenly, were like the responses of some satanic litany” (66). Marlow’s word choice to depict the language of the Africans is quite strong as it is detrimental. Words like resembled no sounds of human language and satanic litany devalue the language of the African people by making it seem as if they are nothing more than savages. Since Marlow lacks an understanding of the language of the Africans he depicts it as barbaric and unintelligible. With this in mind, Chinua Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad’s novel as one that “dehumanizes” and “depersonalizes a portion of the human race” (An Image 257). Therefore, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents the European colonizer as ethnocentric, civilized, and superior to Africans as he undergoes exploitation in the Congo. Needless to say, Walter Rodney comments that “To be colonized is to be removed from history” (Literary Theory Handout 582).
Postcolonialism can be viewed as the opposite of colonialism. While colonialism involves the exploitation of an unexplored territory as well as the subduing of its inhabitants, postcolonialism can be defined as the voice of the subdued. The John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism calls postcolonialism “the slow, painful, and highly complex means of fighting one’s way into European-made history, in other words, a process of dialogue and necessary correction” (582). Once a powerful country gets control of an underdeveloped nation, the voice of the controlled seems to establish a dialogue with the past by revealing its true identity of life prior to colonization. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a classic example of the postcolonial voice as it portrays the life of a man named Okwonko, a highly respected Igbo tribe member who is faced with obstacles as he watches his people fall from their traditions and customs as Christian missionaries seek to convert them. Achebe illustrates the Igbo people as culturally civilized with morals and ideologies in order to correct the European notion that Africans are savages, uncivilized, and inhuman. April Davis, another former student of LITR 5734, said that “[b]y creating Igbo characters that question aspects of their own culture – such as Nwoye and Obierka – Achebe depicts Africans as an intelligent, peaceful race, capable of making moral judgments.” Achebe’s characters are faced with internal conflicts that involve issues such as masculinity, fear, religion, marriage, and coming of age. These internal obstacles which the characters face eradicate the misconception of their savagery that Conrad portrays. In essence, postcolonial literature serves as a reversal of colonial literature; postcolonial literature corrects the inaccurate, biased perspective of the European colonist.
Perhaps it is postcolonial literature that makes the biggest impact in trying to describe traditional cultures as they really are. Developed nations like the United Kingdom, United States, and other European countries, generally speaking, have their own view of tribal cultures such as those in Africa and the Pacific Rim. Colonial literature will present those cultures via its stories in its own language, beliefs, customs, and traditions which would not be authentic of the actual culture and its habits. “Many westerners have a stagnant idea of what African culture consists of, derived primarily from western television programs and western magazine articles”, such as National Geographic (Emily Masterson). In Achebe’s An Image of Africa, he explains that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents Africa as a biased Western portrayal: “Conrad did not originate the image of Africa which we find in his book. It was and is the dominant image of Africa in the Western imagination and Conrad merely brought the peculiar gifts of his own mind to bear on it” (261). Thus, postcolonial literature can be considered as the authentic voice of the colonially repressed. It would be deceitful to develop an image of Africa solely on the experiences and encounters of the colonialists. The true storytellers of the actual culture would be the members themselves.
However, postcolonial literature voices the concerns and frustrations of the repressed (Literary Theory 582). In Things Fall Apart, Okwonko makes known his frustration as the Igbo men of his tribe fell apart as the Christian missionaries gradually began converting Igbo members. At the end of the novel, tragedy sets in. Enoch, a Christian convert from Umuofia, challenged a group of egwugwu, masked individuals portraying ancestral spirits, by boasting and declaring that they dare not touch a Christian, which undermines their authority as sacred tribal members. Immediately after Enoch’s boasting one of the egwugwu’s stroked Enoch with a cane. Enoch jumped on the man and tore off his mask, which is a spiritual desecration. As a result of this crime, every man in Umuofia was armed throughout the village, and this happened to disturb the Christian missionaries which eventually brought it to the attention of the District Commissioner. Then, the District Commissioner called for a meeting with the six leaders of Umuofia in order to hold them responsible for Enoch’s disturbance of the village (i.e., harassing village members by destroying their houses and their place of worship). It is at this scene that the colonizing culture overrules the traditional culture: “’We shall not do you any harm,’ said the District Commissioner to them later, ‘if only you agree to cooperate with us. We have brought a peaceful administration to you and your people so that you may be happy’” (Achebe 194). The colonizing culture attempts to bring forth a government in order to suppress chaotic behavior displayed by the Igbo people: “We have a court of law where we judge cases and administer justice just as it is done in my own country under a great queen.” The British colonizer then replies to the leaders of Umuofia regarding the vandalism of the village: “That must not happen in the dominion of our queen, the most powerful ruler in the world.” After the decision gets made the six leaders must stay for a few days in prison in order to pay the set fine of the colonizer.
Okwonko cries aloud in frustration to his co-leaders while in prison: “We should have killed the white man if you had listened to me” (195). Later, after the men’s release, Okwonko and the unchristian tribe members gather for a meeting in order to decide to wipe out the white man. As the men decide what to do one of the District Commissioner’s messenger’s storms into the meeting in order to disperse it. At that moment Okwonko draws his machete and kills him. The other messengers departed from the scene, leaving the Igbo men standing speechless not attempting to capture the other two messengers. At this climax of the novel Okwonko realizes that Umuofia will not go to war, so “ . . . [he] was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (183). It is Umuofia’s falling apart that leads Okwonko to suicide at the end of the novel, the struggle of the colonized to remain uncolonized from the white man’s traditions.
A contemporary postcolonial voice is Derek Walcott. As a West Indian from the West Indies, Walcott is concerned with the conflict between the heritage of European and West Indian culture and his role as a nomad between two cultures. For example, in Walcott’s “Ruins of a Great House,” Walcott reflects the present from the dark past as he walks through the ruins of a slave-owner’s house. The ruins of the slave-owner’s house is symbolical of Walcott being trapped in a past that no longer exists but still lingers. Walcott is describing his identity as a man from two cultures: white and black, colonial and postcolonial, superior and “inferior.” He seems to be attempting to see his African culture from the eyes of his British past. In the poem Walcott struggles to accept his British identity. Towards the end of the poem he finally comes to terms with his English ancestry and develops a compassionate attitude towards it: “All in compassion ends / So differently from what the heart arranged: ‘as well as if a manor of thy friend’s . . . ‘” (Walcott 21). In “A Far Cry from Africa”, the speaker states:
I who am poised with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love? (18)
“A Far Cry from Africa” clearly depicts Walcott’s attitude towards his two cultures. Although he struggles to identify with one culture, his love for both are obvious. In this context, Walcott produces a dialogue between his British and African descent. He establishes his racial identity by depicting the evils of his English culture in order to show compassion towards it through his African heritage.
As I continue to read colonial and postcolonial texts in this course, it is important to notice how change takes place throughout history through time. It is difficult to say that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is racially biased when this was the mindset of Europe during the late 19th-20th century. During this moment in time the notion of European superiority was admired that it was considered ideal and civilized. All other Third World cultures were considered inferior and barbaric. However, times have changed and new ideologies have emerged that define what is civilization and idealization with respect to culture. Rather than taking sides with one point of view in the study of literature the best approach seems to be descriptive – i.e., by not judging a work and describing it as it is presented would bring forth unbiased interpretations and analyses. As I study literature it is important for me to have an understanding of the philosophies that took place during the time periods in which the texts were written as these provide insights into the perspectives of the authors. Also, considering a text’s history, philosophy, cultural background, language, religion, geographical location, social issues, and its author’s biography can understandings and insights be developed which will, in effect, shed light to new advances and approaches toward literature, especially colonial and postcolonial texts.
Works Cited
Franklin, Benjamin. “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5th Edition, Volume 1. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. 516-520.
*All other texts referenced in the midterm were derived from assigned texts, course handouts, or student postings on Dr. White’s course webpage.