Eurasia Press & News
Discourse on Colonialism is a text published in 1950 by Martinique poet Aimé Césaire. Césaire was deeply influenced by Hegel, Marx, and the Surrealist movement. African and French literature was also strong influences on the author. Written in an energetic and captivating poetic style along with brutal descriptions of violence, this unapologetic text created ripples upon publication. The text starts off by critiquing various ideas regarding colonialism prevalent at the time. These ideas depicted colonialism as an effort to civilize and progress primitive societies. Later, the text moves on to define colonialism and explore the impact it has on the colonizer. In the days of American imperialism and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, rereading this classic would definitely be a fruitful exercise.
The text starts with Césaire declaring that Europe is indefensible. Surely, a civilisation that is unable to solve its two major problems, the problem of the proletariat and the problem of colonialism, cannot really be a healthy civilisation. Unable to rationalise and reason out these problems, Europe seeks sanctuary in hypocrisy and deceit. Various intellectuals of the time tried to justify colonial oppression and violence with claims of the uncivilised and barbaric nature of the colonised people. They, in turn, portrayed colonialism as a philanthropic educational project: a developmental mission for the benefit of the colonised. Sometimes, these claims were cleverly justified using pseudoscientific evidence. Césaire addresses these conceptions of colonialism dominant at the time. Recently, an incident has occurred that could help us understand what Césaire was trying to convey.
An American billionaire wants America to occupy Gaza. He is a billionaire businessman first; the fact that he is the president of the world’s largest capitalist state is no coincidence. He is deeply affected by the fact that the Palestinians go back to Gaza and live in conditions that are “very dangerous and very precarious” (Jazeera). The Americans will hence occupy Gaza and develop it, creating jobs for people. “The Riviera of the Middle East,” he intends to make of Gaza, so that the people can live in a beautiful land in peace and harmony. Yet, his actual intentions are not concealed well enough.
Should such ideas that appear to be undertaken in good faith be tolerated? Definitely not! Mutatis mutandis, Césaire talks about ideas like the one Mr. Trump has just described. A common problem when dealing with the subject of colonialism is to be tricked into supporting “a collective hypocrisy that cleverly misrepresents problems, the better to legitimise the hateful solutions provided for them” (Césaire). We must see through the words of Trump and realise what he actually intends. His words spring not from emotional depth and genuine human concern; one could doubt if he is even capable of such a genuine expression. It is the words of a businessman motivated by greed. Césaire emphatically states in his texts that colonialism is “neither evangelisation, nor a philanthropic enterprise, nor a desire to push back the frontiers of ignorance, disease, and tyranny” (Césaire 5). The decisive actors were the pirates, merchants, and prospectors. It is the capitalist market forces that push for such great plundering and domination. This results in the formation of relations of domination and submission. There is no interaction between mankind and mankind here.
A major part of the text looks into the impact of colonialism on the colonizer. Césaire boldly links the rise of Hitler with colonialism. Considering the date of publication, the comparison is likely to have had a significant impact. Césaire argues that colonialism inevitably results in the reduction of human beings to instruments of production and the formation of relationships of domination and submission. Colonization is, in effect, the “thing-ification” of a people. This, in turn, impacts the colonizer itself. Colonialism results in the “decivilisation” and brutalization of the colonizer. It arouses in the colonizer aggressive instincts and emotions. With this, European civilisation degrades into savagery and barbarism. Colonialism “dehumanizes even the most civilized man; that colonial activity… inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it” (Césaire 5). Colonialism impacts the colonizer by making them aggressive and degrading them. Nazism follows as almost a natural product of this violence. Due to the moral and civilisational decay of European civilisation, Nazism is not an exception but a progression.
Another section interesting for our times is the claim that Nazism inflicted on white colonizers what they themselves condoned in the colonies. The European was complicit while similar atrocities took place against the “Arabs of Algeria, the coolies of India, and the blacks of Africa” (Césaire 3). They accepted the violence inflicted on the Vietnamese, the Madagascans, and on all the colonised. Before being victims, they were complicit accomplices. They legitimized it when inflicted on non-Europeans, but then are shocked when inflicted on the “white man.” It is not the crime against man that outrages the Europeans but the humiliation of the white man that they are unable to digest. With this, Césaire critiques what he terms the “pseudo-humanism” of the West and its narrow idea of the rights of man. The text then moves on to a general criticism of the Western intellectuals who are complacent and ignorant of the atrocities taking place in the colonies. Sociologists, psychologists, and biologists are accused of spreading pseudoscience in an attempt to justify colonialism. The bourgeois Christian is also attacked for his complacency in colonial atrocities.
The outrage in the West at the war in Ukraine and the stark contrast in its stance towards the Israel-Palestine conflict serve as a reminder of this thesis. As a reaction to Russia’s aggression, there was a collective condemnation of Putin and Russia for the breach of international law. This was followed by sanctions on Russia and aid provided to the Ukrainians. After Hamas’s aggression towards Israel, Israel has led a bloody, inhumane, and unjustifiable genocide against the Palestinians. In contrast to the response towards the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Americans not only aided Israel but also vetoed a United Nations Security Council ceasefire agreement. Mutatis mutandis, this is the double standard that Césaire spoke of. The war in Eastern Europe must be condemned and brought to an end as soon as possible, but the lives of the Palestinian Muslims aren’t worth the same.
The text remains influential and relevant in contemporary debates. In today’s world, Césaire’s passionate and energetic style must force us to rethink contemporary developments at the global level. We must rethink and reevaluate global decisions and perhaps ideally be able to advocate for more humanitarian stance.
