Anticolonialism Postcolonialism

Anticolonialism is a form of nationalism that emerged as the experience of colonial rule, in Africa and Asia in particular, helped to forge a sense of nationhood and a desire for ‘national liberation’. Its origins lay in the inter-war period, but it reached its high point in the early post-1945 period, as the British, French, Dutch and other European empires collapsed in the face of the growing strength of independence movements. In a sense, the colonising Europeans had taken with them the seed of their own destruction, the doctrine of nationalism. Anticolonialism was thus founded upon the same principle of national self-determination that had inspired European nation-building in the nineteenth century, and which had provided the basis for the reorganisation of Europe after the First World War. However, anti-colonialism did not simply replicate classical European nationalism but was also shaped by the distinctive political, cultural and economic circumstances that prevailed in the developing world. In many ways, the desire to pursue a distinctively developing-world political course strengthened rather than weakened once independence had been achieved. Postcolonialism has therefore been drawn towards non-Western and sometimes anti-Western political philosophies.

Most African and Asian anticolonial movements were attracted to some form of socialism. This occurred for two reasons. First, the quest for political independence was closely related to an awareness of economic under-development and subordination to the industrialized states of Europe and North America. Socialism was attractive because it articulated a philosophy of social justice and economic emancipation. Second, socialism provided an analysis of inequality and exploitation through which the colonial experience could be understood and colonial rule challenged. Marxism (see p. 82) was particularly influential in this respect. Its strength was both that its theory of class struggle provided an explanation of imperialism in terms of the capitalist quest for profit, and that its commitment to revolution provided colonized peoples with a means of emancipation in the form of the armed struggle. However, since the 1970s, the influence of Marxism has steadily declined, its place being taken mainly by forms of religious fundamentalism, most significantly Islamic fundamentalism. The fundamentalist impulse in religion is sometimes based upon a belief in the literal truth of sacred texts, but is expressed politically in the assertion that religion provides the basis for social order and political conduct, as well as private morality. Islamic fundamen-talists, for instance, call for the founding of an ‘Islamic state’, a theocracy ruled by spiritual rather than temporal authority. Multiculturalism (see p. 215) can be viewed as a form of postcolonialism in so far as it seeks to recognize the rights and interests of cultural groups disadvantaged as a result of past colonial rule.

Anticolonial and postcolonial political theory has the virtue that it challenges a predominantly Eurocentric world-view. Whether expressed in revolutionary Marxism or in non-Western religions or philosophies, it attempts to give the developing world a distinctive political voice separate from the universalist pretensions of liberalism. This has encouraged a broader reassessment within political thought, in that, for instance, Islamic and liberal ideas are increasingly considered to be equally legitimate in articulating the traditions and and values of their own communities. Critics, nevertheless, have portrayed postcolonialism in particular as a political dead-end and warned against its authoritarian tendencies. In this view, religious fundamentalism is not a viable political project, but merely a symptom of the difficult adjustments that the process of modernisation brings about. A further danger is that it is implicitly totalitarian, laying down principles for political organization that are by definition absolute and unquestionable.

Key Figures

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (see p. 180) Gandhi advanced a political philosophy based upon a religious ethic of non-violence and self-sacrifice, ultimately rooted in Hinduism. In his view, violence, ‘the doctrine of the sword’, was a Western imposition upon India. His notion of non-violent non-cooperation, satyagraha, was intended both to manifest national strength and to constitute a new form of spiritual freedom.

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) A Jamaican political thinker and activist, Garvey was a pioneer of black nationalism. His political message mixed a call for black pride with an insistence upon economic self-sufficiency. A leader of the ‘back to Africa’ movement, Garvey developed a philosophy based upon racial segregation and the re-establishment of black consciousness through an emphasis upon African culture and identity. Garvey’s ideas helped to shape the Black Power movement of the 1960s and have influenced groups such as the Nation of Islam.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900–89) An Iranian cleric and political leader, Khomeini was the foremost exponent of militant political Islam. His world view was rooted in a clear division between the oppressed, understood largely as the poor and excluded of the developing world, and the oppressors, seen as the twin Satans: the United States and the Soviet Union. He called for the establishment of an ‘Islamic republic’ as a system of institutionalized clerical rule, recognizing that this was based upon a novel interpretation of Islamic doctrine. Under his influence, Islam became a theo-political project aimed at regenerating the Islamic world by ridding it of occupation and corruption from outside.

Franz Fanon (1926–61) A Martinique-born French revolutionary theorist, Fanon is best known for his emphasis upon violence as a feature of the anticolonial struggle. His theory of imperialism emphasized the psychological dimension of colonial subjugation. Decolonialization is therefore not merely a political process, but one through which a new ‘species’ of man is created. Fanon argued that only the cathartic experience of violence is powerful enough to bring about this psycho–political regeneration. Fanon’s major works include Black Skin, White Masks (1952), The Wretched of the Earth (1962) and Towards the African Revolution (1964).

Edward Said (1935–2003) A Jerusalem-born US academic and literary critic, Said was a leading advocate of the Palestinian cause and major influence upon anticolonial and postcolonial theory. He developed, from the 1970s onwards, a humanist critique of the Western Enlightenment that uncovered its links to colonialism and highlighted ‘narratives of oppression’, cultural and ideological biases that that disempowered colonized peoples by representing them as the non-Western ‘other’. Most influentially, he portrayed ‘Orientalism’ as a form of cultural imperialism. His best-known works include Orientalism (1978) and Culture and Imperialism (1993).

Further Reading

Essien-Udom, E. V. Black Nationalism: A Search for Identity in America.

Chicago University Press, 1972.

Williams,  P.  (ed.)  Colonial  Discourse/Postcolonial  Theory.  New  York:

Colombia University Press, 1994.

Zubaida, Sami Islam, the People and the State. London: Routledge, 1989.