DecolonizationWHITNEY TURRIETAHSP 406WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

What is decolonization?

The answer to this question is more complicated than it may seem. According to thefreedictionary.com (2014), decolonization is defined as “the action of changing from colonial to independent status”. This simplistic definition implies that decolonization is limited to the political status of colonized territories. But it’s not that simple. Decolonization is not the reversal of colonialism or imperialism, because neither of those processes can be undone. Nor is it limited to the 17 territories identified by the United Nations as needing decolonization, or to any geographical boundaries, for that matter. Bamba (2013) offers this definition: “I define decolonisation as an historical moment and process whereby the emergence of a transnational public opinion invigorated by, yet in tension with the Wilsonian rhetoric of self-determination, came to delegitimize colonialism” (p. 328).But what does that mean? It means that to some extent, a movement began following WWI and gained momentum after WWII, where people around the world said that people have the right to govern themselves. However, many of the colonizing countries that lost control of governments maintained a presence in decolonize territories, often in the form of military.

There are two different types of colonies (Tsokodayi, 2012)

Colonies of exploitation: Also known as administrative,

conventional, or classical colonies, were created to take the resources of a territory and send the funds back home. This was the case in most Asian and African colonies. Several countries in Africa were not completely overpowered and have achieved some degree of decolonization.

Settler colonies: Mainly established in the Americas,

Australia, and New Zealand. The purpose of those colonies was permanent settlement of the Europeans who immigrated there. In settler colonies, indigenous people were overpowered by the numbers of colonizers and/or their military powers, and often exterminated.

Settler colonies have historically been highly resistant to decolonization.

The World History of Geographical Decolonization

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Decolonization in Africa

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• Independence movements began in Africa between World Wars 1 & II• Following WWII, Great Britain was no longer in a position to maintain their colonies.• By 1962, most colonies had regained some level of independence.• By 1963, all of Africa had achieved independence from Great Britain, except Rhodesia.• France also could not maintain control of their colonies; by 1960, all but Algeria had gained

independence. • Algeria and Kenya both used guerilla warfare to reclaim their independence.• South Africa had both Dutch and British colonizers on their soil. The system of apartheid was

abolished 20 years ago and control of the government was taken by the African National Congress.

• In many parts of Africa, including South Africa, the presence of European immigrants interfered with negotiations, resulted in violence, and impeded transition of power. The withdrawal of resources and lack of preparation for the indigenous people to regain control complicated matters further.

Asia and the Middle East Great Britain granted independence to India in 1946, but conflict between Muslims and Hindus led to the

division of India into (Hindu) India and (Muslim) Pakistan. During the transition, a million people were killed crossing borders as 12 million people migrated.

In 1948, Ceylon and Burma were also granted independence. France refused to grant independence to colonies in Indochina but were defeated in 1954 by Ho Chi Minh

and Vietnamese guerillas. Although Cambodia and Laos were given their independence, the division of Vietnam eventually led to the

Vietnam war. Communism in China under the Red Guards acted as a colonizing agent by seeking to eliminate traditional

cultures and customs. Following WWII, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan became independent. The Arab League, formed in 1945, acts as a decolonizing agent by preserving and enriching Arab cultures,

promoting child welfare, and improving education, among other things. Israel was formed as a state by the United Nations in 1948 and has been involved in conflict with the Arab

states in one form or another ever since, although what was once large scale fighting is now smaller and more localized.

Decolonization in these instances came about by one of three processes: negotiation of independence, partial withdrawal by colonizing powers, and guerilla and/or civil war.

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The United Nations and Decolonization

The United Nations has s Special Committee on Decolonization, which as of 2013 identifies only 17 territories who are not self-governing.

Turner (2013) identifies the SCD’s approach to and interpretation of colonialism as outdated and ill-suited to address the problems of colonialism in the 21st century.

The problems faced by colonized territories and people are complex and remain long after official independence, issues that are not addressed or even considered by the SCD, who now faces a question of legitimacy as their role in global affairs comes into question.

The terms independence, self-determination, and decolonization are used almost interchangeably, evidencing a fundamental flaw in the Committee’s interpretation of decolonization and the underlying issues that are not addressed by administrative emancipation.

“Committee members should reflect on the extent to which they work in the interests of these places, and on how this aim has been compromised and diluted by an overriding desire to see a set of states stripped of authority over territories in which they retain a presence. These two motivations should be consciously dislocated from one another, as the latter has frequently precluded the achievement of the former” (p. 1203).

Source: http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/nonselfgovterritories.shtml

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Decolonization is not limited to the formal (and usually incomplete) removal of

colonial powers from indigenous lands.

“Colonization takes many forms: from the literal appropriation of lands to cultural globalization, from political manipulation and armed

intervention to modern versions of economic enslavement” (DeLeon, 2010, para 8).

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Neither is decolonization an act of self improvement for the benefit of our own ego, a synonym for social justice, or a box to be checked before seeking solidarity with Indigenous people in their struggles against colonization and imperialism. Instead, decolonization is the constant action of turning towards life that never ends. Decolonization is vividly alive.

(ARCHER, N.D.)

Although decolonization is often discussed in terms of a “world power” returning physical and economic control of a country to its indigenous people, that is just the beginning step. To fully understand decolonization, it has to be evaluated through the eyes of the people most deeply affected by it, as well as in the contexts of feminism, racialization, academia, and globalization.

Decolonization and Feminism

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Post Colonial Feminist Theory

Feminism in Western ContextFeminism originated with white middle class women who were free from racial discrimination and had access to education and economic resources. “Their perspective did not leave space or allow for the consideration of the very different reality of women of color who worked outside the home in blue collar jobs due to often excruciating economic needs, and suffered disadvantages not only as women, but as people of color” (DeLeon, 2010, para 2).

Academia as a RestrictionExpression of feminism in elite or academic circles limited access even further, and these circumstances as well as the language used to discuss feminism served as a form of colonization itself. These conditions have changed as oppressed women have raised their voices and shared their stories, expanding not only the language of feminism but also the scope.

Personal IS Political In developing nations, women don’t have the option to separate their personal concerns from their political stances. “As women of color, their access to education and health care, their ability to raise their children, the neighborhoods they live in, are all political issues - making everything political” (DeLeon, 2010, para 5).

Indigenous Women and Western Academia

Research methodologies have always had inextricable links to imperialism. Western colonizers have used indigenous practices as their own while rejecting the

indigenous people themselves. There has been a longstanding, blatant disregard in western academia for perspectives

that don’t align with standardly accepted paradigms. Colonialism is deeply embedded in our education system and continues to affect

indigenous scholars’ abilities to participate in and get recognition of the research they conduct.

Western knowledge of indigenous culture is often ill informed. “Travellers’ tales and other anecdotal ways of representing indigenous peoples have contributed to the general impressions and the milieu of ideas that have informed Western knowledge and Western constructions of the Other” (Smith, 2012, p. 145).

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The feminist movement as a whole has come to be aware of the fact that sexist oppression

is inexorably related to economic, racial, heterosexist, colonial, and all other forms of

oppressionDELEON, 2010, PARA 4

Colonialism, feminism, and all other global

issues do not exist in a vacuum. They are all

interconnected.Image #4

The Construct of Race Within Colonization and Globalization (Kane, 2007)

• Recurring themes within discussion of globalization focus on economic relationships of national institutions and fail to include race as the organizing principal that it is.

• Color-blind racism prohibits globalization from being “transformative and emancipatory” (p. 354).

• Economic structures in colonies are superstructures where cause IS effect; class and race are not separate entities.

• The colonizer only exists through his relationship with the colonized, white is only such as compared to black, and each can only exist through the other, because race is a social construct, not a biological one.

• Schools, government, and criminal justice, as well as the loss of language, cultures, and history, are all means of maintaining domination.

• Change is only possible by both the oppressor and the oppressed reaching out to each other, through authentic dialogue, an ontological shift.

• “In the colonial world, this system of signification became a system of power legitimating white supremacy. The task of the colonist was to replace indigenous histories and cultures and replace them with the newly constructed racial ideologies” (p. 357).

Global Implications of Decolonization

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• The impact of colonization and the struggles of decolonization continue to manifest themselves on a global scale.

• “The systems of power that produced colonial formations have reformulated and, hiding behind the myth of neoliberalism, are reproducing the same inequities” (Kane, 2007, p. 355).

• “Eurocentric analytic paradigms continue to flourish” (Mohonty, 2003, p. 229)

• The capitalist domination on Third World women workers, the continued military presence of imperialist powers in decolonized countries, and the impact of generations of settlers remaining on colonized lands all continue to negatively impact indigenous cultures.

• Power and oppression disbursed by the newly formed alliance between corporations and universities continues to inject Western presence in non-Western nations who have historically been oppressed.

• “Financial crises, energy security, international terrorism and climate change are among the issues which ensure that colonialism and decolonisation are now rarely prioritized by government or other organizations” (Oliver, 2013, p. 1197).

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From its analytical value as a category of exploitative economic exchange in both traditional and contemporary Marxisms to its use by feminist women of color in the United States to describe the appropriation of their experiences and struggles by

hegemonic white women’s movements, colonization has been used to characterize everything from the most evident economic and political hierarchies to the production of a particular cultural discourse about what is called the Third World.

(MOHANTY, 2003, P. 18)

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Decolonization and the United States

It is often easy to consider issues of a global nature without acknowledging the presence of these issues within our own society. The United States is still populated by a majority of settler descendants of European origin. Common issues associated with this circumstance are white guilt, privilege, and rhetoric, including the stance that Native American ancestors sighed treaties ceding land to the United States government.

Decolonization efforts began shortly after colonization in the Americas began, specifically in the early 1800’s by five Native American tribes who were forcibly removed from their lands.

Native Americans, specifically the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations, appropriated colonizer’s language and rhetoric to speak for themselves throughout the colonization process, engaging in discourse to assert their rights and highlight the contradictions in what was being presented as a benevolent plan to “save” Native populations (Black, 2009).

Repeatedly, the U.S. government claimed that they only way they could protect Native nations from being encroached on by white settlers was for them to relocate to protected lands.

Indian Boarding SchoolsIn the late 1800s, a new type of genocide was committed by the United States on Native American youth. Tens of thousands of children were forcibly removed from their homes, which had already been reduced to poverty rampant reservations, and put into boarding schools where the philosophy was “kill the Indian, save the man”. They had their hair cut (a sign of mourning in some cultures and shame in others), were forced to speak English, to practice Christianity, and were punished for any actions related to their own language or culture. They were often forced to perform hard labor and subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Only when they were completely stripped of their cultures were they considered assimilated. This type of historical trauma continues to impact Tribes as they struggle to bridge the gap caused by the system destruction of their families, homes, and ways of life.

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I was Born with Unearned Privilege on Stolen Land; What is the Next Step?

…some words for European descendants occupying colonized lands:

“Decolonization for people of European heritage is especially challenging as we accept responsibility for the genocidal acts committed by our people against Indigenous peoples while simultaneously seeking the traditional cultural relationships with life necessary to reawaken our own Indigenous understandings. There is no map for how to navigate these murky waters of our complicated history, just the need for honesty, understanding, deep listening, and self-reflection as we seek out this uncharted territory of turning towards what’s alive again.

Decolonization is the process that repatriates Indigenous land and reawakens an Indigenous lifeway for both those resisting colonization, AND the colonizer” (Naomi Archer, n.d.)

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Suggested Readings: Two-Spirit People: Gender Variance & Resistance in Onkwehón:we Culture by Enaemaehkiw

Túpac Keshena. https://onkwehonwerising.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/two-spirit-people-gender-variance-resistance-in-onkwehonwe-culture/

Euro-centric vs Afro-centric Analysis by Dr. Kwame Nantambu. http://www.trinicenter.com/kwame/2006/2707.htm

Indigenous Feminism Without Apology by Andrea Smith https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/indigenous-feminism-without-apology/

Wanting to be Indian: When Spiritual Searching Turns into Cultural Theft by Myke Johnson. http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/wanting-to-be-indian/

Everyone Calls Themselves An Ally Until It Is Time To Do Some Real Ally Shit by Xhopakelxhit, Ancestral Pride. http://ancestralpride.ca/?p=253

Understanding Colonizer Status by Waziyatawin. http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/understanding-colonizer-status/

Say whaaaaaat….? Glossary of Terms:

EpistemologicalPertaining to epistemology, a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epistemological. HegemonicHaving hegemony, or dominance: the ruling party's hegemonic control of all facets of society. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hegemonic HermeneuticThe study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the bible). http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hermeneutic.  HeterogeneityHeterogeneity is a word that signifies diversity. A classroom consisting of people from lots of different backgrounds would be considered having the quality of heterogeneity. The prefix hetero- means "other or different," while the prefix homo- means "the same." www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/heterogeneity OntologicalRelating to ontology. Ontology: a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ontology TransnationalGoing beyond national boundaries or interests: a transnational economy. Comprising persons, sponsors, etc., of different nationalities. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transnational

Works Cited

Archer, N. (n.d.). What is decolonization?. In Decolonization & reclaiming indigenous identity: Awakening the horse people. Writings

& resources for people of European heritage.. Retrieved from http://awakeningthehorse.wordpress.com/de-colonize-2/what-is-

decolonization/

Bamba, A. B. (2013). Transnationalising decolonisation: the print media, American public spheres and France's imperial exit in West

Africa. Journal Of Transatlantic Studies (Routledge), 11(4), 327-349. doi:10.1080/14794012.2013.843881

Black, J. (2009). Native Resistive Rhetoric and the Decolonization of American Indian Removal Discourse. Quarterly Journal Of

Speech, 95(1), 66-88. doi:10.1080/00335630802621052

DeLeon, N. D. (2010, July 14). Common layers of oppression: Post-colonial feminist theory across borders; the first world / third

world divide . In Yahoo Voices. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/common-layers-oppression-post-colonial-feminist-

6375488.html?cat=9

Oliver, Turner (2013) ‘Finishing the Job’: the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and the politics of self-governance. Third

World Quarterly, 34:7, 1193-1208, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2013.825078

Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples (2nd ed.). London, England: Zed Books.

Thefreedictionary.com. (2014). Decolonization. Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/decolonization

Photo and Image Credits

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8. http://www.digitaljournal.com/img/6/9/1/0/4/8/i/4/0/4/o/globalization.jpg

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