LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Midterm 2008

Cynthia Stone

February 22, 2008

America the Blind: Colonial and Postcolonial Awareness

I would like to say that when I entered this class I came equipped with limited knowledge of colonial and postcolonial literature. However, I now understand that I actually came with limited awareness about colonial or postcolonial literature. The last time I thought about the effect or historical value of colonial or postcolonial literature was when I took history in Junior college and perhaps not even then. Though the class discussed slavery and its history (so did my American minority literature class, which I took later in my educational career, along with an American immigrant literature class) I never stopped to think of the literature as colonial and postcolonial texts. Instead, I was focused on how the literature affected America. It is not until this class, when the focus was on England’s colonization of Africa, India and such, that I realized that the colonial and postcolonial parameters fit America as well. I know, like all children are taught, that England as well as many other European countries had colonized the Americas and that the only reason that there is not more literature over it in a postcolonial literature form is because of the mass genocide that “New” Americans committed against the “Native” – “Old” – “Other” Americans. 

This is a problem because I have come to view and define colonial and post colonial literature as two sides of one coin; two halves of one whole – the future. Colonial literature is basically the literature that is generated at the time and during colonization, this literature is almost always written by the colonizers. Postcolonial literature is, in my view, the literature that is generated after colonization has settled and the affects of it are becoming apparent. The colonizers can write postcolonial literature, but it is most effective when the colonized, indigenous, cultures write it. Never the less, once colonization is complete then any literature written is postcolonial literature, no matter who writes it. The two cultures forced to live and adapt to each other will affect each other in the long run.

Taking my personal definitions of colonial and postcolonial literature in hand, I would like to turn to the course objective 3(3a): “to witness Americas’ difficulties with colonial and postcolonial discourse and the issues of American ignorance of larger world views”. When reading Heart of Darkness the effect of colonization did not really dawn on me, it was not until I read the article by Chinua Achebe that I realized how blasé the superior/inferior attitude of colonizers, and in turn Americans, are to the world around us. Achebe states “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore civilization . . . “(Achebe 338), this is a common view that all colonizers take with the natives of whatever land they are colonizing. Even countries who have established empires such as China and Egypt were subjected to the superior attitudes of British explorers. It was Africa’s misfortune to have several sub-cultures instead of a united form of government in which to greet the British forces with; just the same as it was the American natives misfortune not to have a united and “civilized” front to greet the European colonizers with when they arrived. The European ideal of civilization gave colonizers a free pass to take over and destroy cultures without guilt and shame to way down their souls. European mindset has for the longest been that they have the right way of living down to an art and it is Europe’s God given duty to inform and educate other less fortunate cultures of where they are going wrong and how to enrich their living. This European mindset has, over the years, been slowly taken over by the American mindset that America knows better than all, even Europe, and that ‘our’ government has a duty to inform and educate the rest of the world. This way of thinking is confirmed in Heart of Darkness when Conrad writes, “I had got a heavenly mission to civilize you [Africans]” (Conrad 5). What makes this mentality worse is the view of Conrad’s storyteller Marlow, that the civilizing of those who were not like Europeans was a good thing even though it was an ugly process; indeed, he says “what redeems it is the idea only” (Conrad 4), as if anything can redeem the total annihilation of another’s culture in order to mold an people into a like image of one’s self.

Today we can look at the way that America interacts with foreign countries and see that we have built up an empire that rivals England’s and are, in our own well-meaning way, an interference subjecting other cultures to American beliefs and systems.  I cannot say that I think America is totally in the wrong, however, I am thinking from the perspectives of the dominating culture and not the ‘others’ who have not been raised to my beliefs. America injects its beliefs on others in the name of peace, Rudyard Kipling described it best in his poem The White Man’s Burden, when he wrote the line “the savage wars of peace” (line 18). That is exactly what colonization is on so many levels – the attempt to better life and live in peace by creating war.

It is in the aftermath of colonization that colonizers can look back and say, oh maybe we did make a mistake, even then it takes years and even decades before colonizers see the mistakes and the effects of their actions on a culture and already existing civilization. It is at this point that postcolonial literature steps in and helps to fill in the gaps of understanding that must cross between two cultures that are now attempting to coexist. Postcolonial literature is the way that natives can get their point of view across to their conquerors, it is also a way for native writers to preserve parts of their culture that is quickly being taken over by the dominating forces. Postcolonial literature serves many purposes and has the added benefit of being able to take up a dialogue with colonial literature. The two literatures can effectively compare insights to history and inform the reader of the two different views that were held at the same time. Stories are important in any culture, it is the way that history and tradition is passed to the next generation and how changes can be documented and made into lessons to guide people in the future. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe has several instances where the women of the village pass on stories that are meant to teach their children morals and values. In the same way the stories that are created by postcolonial writers about colonial times are stories to teach present and future generations. These stories are a bridge that covers a gap in understanding other cultures. Michael A. Russo in his 2005 midterm explained that:

It is through stories, whether fiction or non-fiction, that we are given a glimpse of the world from the unique perspectives of others.  Achebe’s unique position as a member of a colonized culture, yet also a student of the Western world, provided him with an opportunity to fill in the gaps of understanding between the Western world and the Third world… Achebe chose fiction as a means for teaching a very practical lesson – that the means of understanding human cultures is not straightforward, but the failure to understand the drives, customs and motivations of others – meaning those not like oneself in behavior, appearance or perspective – can have tragic consequences.

Achebe does indeed show how the lack of understanding leads to tragedy and the tragedy is still being examined and discussed even though it occurred years in the past. Regrets that are just now surfacing could have been avoided if dominant cultures would have stopped and stepped back looked and the big picture instead of focusing on the little picture and self-satisfaction.

            Since Achebe is a postcolonial writer we see the effect of colonization through him and his teachings as the sub culture to England’s superior knowledge. Yet it is with a powerful story like Things Fall Apart where England’s actions, “they began to shoot. Everybody was killed except the old and the sick who were at home. . .”(Achebe 139) are monstrous and it is easy for readers to sympathize with the Africans and detest the way England bulldozed through and entire civilization  ‘for the greater good’. America has taken a similar path; the history of America’s beginning is riddled with monstrous act in the name of freedom and God. Still today America visits its opinions on other countries who do not ask for it and when a country does ask for aid, America does not give aid and then turn away, no, it lingers and pushes its beliefs onto the country and culture it is essentially a guest of, until America is viewed by the world as a festering wound, or a soul stealing pest, that runs rampant on the cultures of the world.

            Achebe writes of the stories of white men that passed deep into the jungles of Africa and were not believed, “Although such stories were now often told they looked like fairy-tales” (Achebe 155) after all why would the white men want to leave their home and impose their religion and government on people they did not know and had no quarrel with. The simple logic that is seen in Achebe’s story is perhaps the most intelligent logic to be found when dealing with the complication of colonization and post colonization. The answer to such a question can be as messy and the colonization process and like Marlow said it is easier to accept if you look only at the ideal. The supposed betterment of another race is the pretty face of the beast that is called power and greed.

The results for a culture and individuals can be seen in the life of Derek Walcott who grew up in colonized St. Lucia and had to deal with the cross cultural aspects of being from both African and British decent; colonizer and colonized. Walcott expressed his anguish of not having a definite shore to stand on in his poem A Far Cry From Africa, “I who am poisoned with the blood of both/ Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?” it is this mental and emotional battle that colonization leaves in its wake. It is with courses like Colonial and Postcolonial literature that students from multiple cultures and backgrounds can come together and read and share their experiences with the aftermath of colonization of foreign lands and of this great empire that proudly calls itself America the beautiful, when it should be called American the blind.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Norton Critical Edition, 4^th ed. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong and Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton. 2006. 336-49.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books. 1994.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness: Unabridged. New York: Dover. 1990.

Kipling, Rudyard. The White Man’s Burden.

Russo, Michael. Literature and the Complexity of the Human Story: A Better Understanding of Colonialism through the Study of Fiction. Fall 2005.

Walcott, Derek. “A Far Cry from Africa.” From In A Green Night. 1962.

White, Craig.  LITR 5734:Colonial & Postcolonial Literature syllabus. Spring 2008.