LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Midterm 2008

Larry Stanley

2-14-08

Colonization and Its Effects on Tradition

For centuries countries have fought each other with hopes of securing more land and support from other races in which to assure their power among the other ruling countries fighting for the same reason. But like in Roman times, the people fought with others who displayed similar traditions as theirs. The Greek people, although not as insensitive and cruel as the Roman warriors, basically had an equal, if not higher, intelligence and basic lifestyle considered normal in that day and age to the Roman, Asiatic, and other Eastern civilizations. If taken over by a neighboring country, their lifestyle changed very little, except for the possibility of becoming a slave state.  Their traditional values changed very little, mostly due to their knowledge and similar traditional ways.

The books we’ve read in Colonial and Postcolonial Literature have so far dealt with the invasions of entirely different cultures; cultures developed under a whole different standard of living the conquering people had yet experienced before. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the English explorers come upon a civilization that takes them by surprise; people whose way of life is simply traumatic to the explorers’ way of thinking. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe tells of traditional practices that bring a feeling of nausea to its readers. The practice of destroying twin babies from fear of bringing misfortune to the tribe is something an intelligent race would never consider.

But these traditions, however disturbing to us, are practices these people grew up with, for generations that have probably been around long before the Roman and Greek people have. This would be the same way the settlers to America would have felt the first time they engaged the Indians of North America. I’m sure Cortez couldn’t believe his eyes the first time he saw someone’s heart cut from his body. But though these are not traditions practiced by the majority of cultures, they are still the colonized peoples’ traditions, and until they are taught the difference in cruelty and that their gods don’t expect them to practice these horrid customs, the conquering country can only hope to change their way of living, much like the missionaries in Things Fall Apart tried to do. Conrad and Achebe’s novels help us see these differences that exist far from our own world. Like I said, these customs can bring a sort of inner sickness to one’s stomach, but the people we’ve studied would probably be just as sick to see a huge battlefield with tens of thousands of Roman warriors dead on the ground, a custom our civilized world has come to accept.

Colonial and postcolonial literature shows us both the good and bad that comes from colonization, particularly in Achebe’s novel where the protagonist would rather kill himself than remit to the outside world’s teachings. Later readings of Defoe’s Adventures of Robinson Crusoe will show how the intruder to an island will change the islanders’ way of living to conform to his way of life, a practice colonizers have been taking for years. Though this may be a better way for the colonized people, it takes from them their traditional way of life, or simply dulls it until after a time the tradition is lost. Though some customs may be retained, as many are in the U.S., the colonized people usually are forced after a while to blend in with the mother country.

In Derek Walcott’s poem “A Far Cry from Africa,” he is concerned which country he should hold allegiance to, being his father was a Bohemian from England and his mother of Caribbean descent. Due to Britain’s takeover of St. Lucia, where Walcott was born, his poetry reflects a somewhat lost person who doesn’t know where he belongs. With his original roots in Africa, the poem reflects his thoughts as to whether he should help people in his home country or ignore their plight. The situation would be the same for a person of Iraqian descent living in the U. S. In this way, colonization can pull a person away from his country and its traditional ways. But colonization also gave Walcott the advantage of an education, something he may have lost had he been in Africa. So this can, and has, helped many countries expand their knowledge and helped to develop their towns to compete with the world around them.

Reading an essay by Robert Ausmus of the 2005 Colonial and Postcolonial class, he agrees that colonialism has a harsh effect on the colonized people and the people who took over the colonized country. Both cultures are stressed beyond limits, one trying to hold on to their traditional ways while the other is attempting to change the native people into thinking their way. Ausmus agrees meddling with a country’s way of life, or as he says “natural course,” changes these people, making them feel inferior to the ruling country. Ausmus also added Walter Rodney’s quote, “To be colonized is to be removed from history.” I think this is true, because although a culture will try to save part of their traditions, after a while these traditions are gradually lost, along with the country’s identity. Though the old members still use and try to teach the young ones these lost talents, after their time on earth, many of these ways tend to disappear from the new way of life. Fortunately, there are remote places that still practice these habits, but as more countries seek the resources these other small countries have, more people and cultures are absorbed, civilized to an extent where the old ways are taken over by the new easier ways.

One of my favorite authors, Edgar Rice Burroughs, has been pinned down as a writer whose characters become classified as colonizers, taking over a culture using their strength and ingenuity to assume control over them. His most popular protagonist, Tarzan, can be seen showing his strength and ingenuity against the natives who are faced by what they called “the Great White Ghost.” Not necessarily there to take over Africa from the natives, Tarzan’s dominance over the natives, and his own tribe of apes, is merely a show of power and a need to show his right to live in this foreign realm, too. John Carter can also be classified as a dominant character, using his Earth-born abilities on the planet Mars, including his near-weightlessness, to perform harrowing feats and overcome the six-armed creatures that inhabit the planet. As I said before, most of this domination is just a need to survive in a place they were accidentally placed.

Conrad, like Burroughs, has been considered by some critics as very racial in his thinking and writings. Achebe wrote a condemning article on Conrad’s view of African people. But Achebe is African, for one thing, which might contribute to his sympathetic views of Conrad’s writings, and Achebe is writing in the 21^st century, where racialism is condemned more than it was when Conrad wrote his book. I believe people looked at racialism with a whole different attitude then as now, just as sex was viewed differently in Victorian times compared to the Romantic era. Times change, and though Achebe has a right to look at Conrad’s book as racial, he should look at the period Conrad lived in as a more acceptable way that blacks were treated and looked upon. I agree it’s no way to view someone today, but if Achebe lived in the period Conrad did, would he have viewed the white man the same way he looks at him today?

Reading the first part of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India, I have noticed the racialism Britain held toward the Indian people and the fears that the Indian people showed toward the British colonizers. It is the same fear Okonkwo and his tribe had toward the missionaries who came to change the tribe into a civilized race. Though the missionaries had a respectable plan to start with, it was the African tribes who lost their identity and their traditions to a more powerful nation; and whether or not these conquering nations can see the change that is brought over these conquered tribes is hard to tell. Actually they are only taking over these nations as a hope of alliance in time of war and as a hope of resource materials taken from the colonized country.

It is these books that show the world both sides of the situation, from both the colonized world and the conquered world. They let us see both perspectives just as both sides see them. In this way, we learn the ways of different cultures, their habits and customs, even though they may appear primal to our way of thinking. The novels introduce us to worlds we normally would not be able to visit, another gift of literature. My literature studies in recent years have changed my outlook toward a lot of different ways the world works. The diverse eras I’ve studied have added knowledge and perspectives that have at times excited me and puzzled me beyond any other field of training I’ve been fortunate enough to experience. Before now, I merely would pick a book up and read it, the interesting cover the only reason for buying it. Now I can visualize the many ideas the authors are trying to throw my way, get an idea of what their world was like, the people they met while walking down a street thinking of what they could write about, and being able to experience through their writings what they saw and thought of their world.

Taking this course will, I hope, help me as I plan my future agenda. Learning to absorb the material one gets from reading will help in conveying my knowledge to other young audiences. At least now I can fool them a little better with my increased schooling! I believe this course will help in my understanding of both sides of the issue, give me some idea of what both sides had to go through, and be less discriminating against cultures I don’t know that much about. Being able to understand everybody’s viewpoint enables people to be less critical of other cultures’ traditions and beliefs. Colonial and Postcolonial literature has provided this perspective, allowing me to be more supportive toward other cultures, because I can see what their side is like. Though it may be different from my side, it’s still their traditional way of doing their thing.