CW: MENTIONS OF R!PE AND TORTURE
By: Noah Potter
Tags: Colonialism, Colonization, Politics, Culture, Policy

He who civilizes, decivilizes. He who humanizes, dehumanizes. So is the process of colonialism, the conquest of new lands, the metrics and methods of life pushed upon others. The acts of violence committed against these foreigners, in foreign lands that we dominate, while pushing the facade of civilization of the foreigners, these lazy, incompetent beings, just serve to further decivilize us.

When thinking of colonialism, the external aspects of it come to mind. The adventure of sailing to the new places, the conquest of these places and their inhabitants. The physical methods employed unto the people are highlighted, opposed to the mental methods that are not as easily seen.

Barbaric vicious acts such as r!pe, torture, etc, are often seen in these colonial presences. They inflict pain upon the natives, mentally and physically. They keep the colonized in place. They keep the colonized from acting out. Building up a mentality of rage and hatred, while also causing the internalization of these hierarchical institutions, creating a contradiction in the self. The colonized are angry and would like to rebel, but they constantly tell themselves they can’t, that these authorities are natural, are the rightful dominators of them. But, when the dominance is high, the anger levels also rise. The anger levels rise above the domination and the natives revolt.

“I am talking about millions of men in whom fear has been cunningly instilled, who have been taught to have an inferiority complex, to tremble, kneel, despair, and behave like flunkeys.” ¹

Each time these acts happen, the colonized are brutalized and dehumanized. However, dehumanizing someone else is the dehumanization of the self. The Dehumanized are the people who colonize, sympathize with those colonizers, encourage it, or even simply those who are complacent bystanders to colonial policies.

“Each time a head is cut off or an eye put out in Vietnam and in France they accept the fact, each time a little girl is r!ped and in France they accept the fact, each time a Madagascan is tortured an in France they accept the fact, civilization acquires another dead weight, a universal regression takes place, a gangrene sets in, a center of infection begins to spread, and that at the end of all these treaties that have been violated, all these lies that have been propagated, all these punitive expeditions that have been tolerated, all these prisoners who have been tied up and interrogated, all these patriots who have been tortured, at the end of all the racial pride that has been encouraged, all the boastfulness that has been displayed, a great poison has been distilled into the veins of Europe and, slowly but surely, the continent proceeds towards savagery.” ²

Colonization can be seen as the dehumanization of even the most civilized man. It changes who undertakes it.

“In order to ease his conscience [he] gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal, accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform himself into an animal.” ³

That is the boomerang effect of colonialism, the going and coming about of dehumanization of the self and unto the other man. Uplifting oneself while degrading oneself in the same action. Throwing the boomerang, taking brutal action against someone, the boomerang comes back, you’re doing the brutal action back to yourself.

Being complacent in colonialism is further internalizing the barbarism, dehumanizing actions of colonial policy. It degrades you and the colonized peoples, dragging into an endless spiral of ‘who will be dehumanized the most!’ The people who are dehumanized by others, or the people who dehumanize others?

All of this exploitation, the subjugation of the world was done under the guise of “civilizing” these foreigners, pushing and expanding the Western narrative into new places. Colonialism did not only push the Western narrative, but it also decimated the cultures of the colonized.

“The Africans, the Indians, the Asians cannot possess civilization or a culture equal to that of the imperialists, or the latter have no purpose, no justification for their exploitation and domination of the world. The colonial encounter, in other words, requires a reinvention of the colonized, the deliberate destruction of the past.” ⁶

Césaire calls this process “thingnification.” Societies get drained of their essence, institutions are destroyed, art destroyed, religions and lands smashed, their cultures being torn up at the roots.

The damage and destruction done to Africa alone created new institutional concepts. It brought about the fabrication of, “Europe as a discrete, racially pure entity, solely responsible for modernity, on the one hand, and the fabrication of the Negro on the other.” ⁷ European scholars worked to diminish Africa’s contributions to history, to make it easier to control them, to justify their imperialist desires.

Colonialism has twisted and shaped our views on the world today. It attacks the entire globe with a euro/amerocentric viewpoint, creating vast and untrue stereotypes that fuel oppression. The characteristics it has pushed unto people, stemming from racial and cultural superiority, have done nothing but taint perceptions and fuel dehumanization.

1–3 — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism

4–5 — Smithsonian Magazine

6 — Robin D.G. Kelley, Discourse on Colonialism intro

7 — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism