Anticolonialism exam Flashcards
What term is defined by Memmi as “the colonizer who accepts”?
Colonialist
According to Memmi, “the traits ascribed to the colonized” by the colonizer’s racism “are incompatible with one another,” but this inconsistency does not phase the colonizer at all, or bring them up short in their accusations. What cause explains the contradictions in the mythic portrait of the colonized?
The needs of the colonizer
What, according to Memmi, is the primary motive for colonialism?
Profit
The success of the Haitian revolution, according to James, was due to 1) initial support from the Jacobin revolutionaries in France, 2) the way the slave revolt divided the great international powers against one another, and 3) this third factor, which, while “derivative,” was also “of extreme importance.” What is the third factor?
Slogans of freedom and equality (or republican ideology)
What are the three things Black Americans wanted post-emancipation, according to Davis?
suffrage, land and schools
Fill in the blank. According to Memmi, “every colonial nation carries the seeds of X temptation in its bosom”? What is X?
fascist
According to Lenin, what is the “briefest possible definition” of imperialism?
Monopoly capitalism
If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism. Such a definition would include what is most important, for, on the one hand, finance capital is the bank capital of a few very big monopolist banks, merged with the capital of the monopolist associations of industrialists; and, on the other hand, the division of the world is the transition from a colonial policy which has extended without hindrance to territories unseized by any capitalist power, to a colonial policy of monopolist possession of the territory of the world, which has been completely divided up.”
According to Memmi, why can’t the colonized escape the colonial situation by assimilating? What is the other possibility, and why is that the final and only real possibility?
Colonizers won’t let them assimilate (or the racism of the colonizers)
only real solution is revolution, woth the ultimate goal being self-determination
Fill in the blanks. According to Samir Amin’s understanding of contemporary imperialism, “the dominant segments of X share common interests in the management of their profit” but the unified management of the imperialist system “comes up against the plurality of X.
Capital / states
In the past, imperialism appeared as the permanent conflict among the imperialist powers (in the plural). The growing centralization of oligopolistic capital has now given rise to the emergence of a “collective” imperialism of the triad (the United States, Europe, and Japan). In this respect, the dominant segments of capital share common interests in the management of their profit from this new imperialist system. But the unified political management of this system comes up against the plurality of states. The contradictions within the triad have to do not with the divergence of interests among the dominant oligopolistic capitals but with the diversity of interests represented by the states. I have summarized this contradiction in a phrase: the economy unites the partners of the imperialist system, politics divide the nations concerned.
What is the final aim of anti-colonial struggle among the colonized, according to Memmi?
National self-determination
What is neo-colonialism, according to Nkrumah?
“The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.” In my own words: neo-colonialism combines two features: a) the “flag independence” of the the state subject to it, and b) the persistence of indirect foreign control of the state via economic dependency
Why, according to James, was the slave revolution of Saint-Domingue “a thoroughly prepared and organized mass movement”?
= CLR James’s characterization of the class position of the slaves of San Domingo, and its effect on their revolution
“Working and living together in gangs of hundreds on the huge sugar-factories which covered the North Plain, [the slaves] were closer to a modern proletariat than any group of workers in existence at that time.” That is, James claims that the organization of the slaves’ conditions of work carried over into their way of making revolution
According to Davis, this is “one of the greatest ironies of the slave system.” What is it?
“In subjecting women to the most ruthless exploitation conceivable, exploitation which knew no sex distinctions, the groundwork was created not only for Black women to assert their equality through their social relations, but also to express it through their acts of resistance.”
In my own words, the lack of sex distinction and the forced labour and oppression meted out on enslaved workers gave rise to social equality in the Black family and to equality in the leadership of the Black revolt against slavery.
= chain of inequality
Davis’s thesis regarding “the chain of equality” and her reasons for calling it “one of the greatest ironies of the slave system.”
Thesis: “Black women were equal to their men in the oppression they suffered; they were their men’s social equals within the slave community; and they resisted slavery with a passion equal to their men’s.
Why an irony: This was one of the greatest ironies of the slave system, for in subjecting women to the most ruthless exploitation conceivable, exploitation which knew no sex distinctions, the groundwork was created not only for Black women to assert their equality through their social relations, but also to express it through their acts of resistance. This must have been a terrifying revelation for the slave owners, for it seems that they were trying to break this chain of equality through the especially brutal repression they reserved for the women. Again, it is important to remember that the punishment inflicted on women exceeded in intensity the punishment suffered by their men, for women were not only whipped and mutilated, they were also raped.” p. 19
→ equality in domestic work as well, no gender-based division of labour (p15-16)
Briefly outline the basic economic features of imperialism, according to Lenin
Lenin’s most succinct formulation is: “Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which [1] the dominance of monopolies and [2] finance capital is established; in which [3] the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which [4] the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which [5] the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.” In the shortest possible list form, the basic economic features are:
a. Monopolies;
b. Finance capital;
c. Capital exports;
d. International trusts;
e. The complete territorial division of the world
Explain Memmi’s conception of the Nero Complex
The Nero Complex is called by Memmi “the usurper’s role.” The colonizer is a usurper by definition, and the Nero Complex arises when the colonizer accepts this position as usurper and tries to justify it. But this involves a self-contradiction: the colonialist seeks to justify their victory over the colonized even as they recognize, deep down, the illegitimacy of that victory.
What are the three discoveries colonists make upon their arrival in the colony?
- Profit – Colonists realize they can live a more comfortable and privileged life in the colony than back home because the colonial system provides them with better wages, jobs, and living standards.
- Privilege – They soon recognize that their comfort is maintained by the systematic oppression of the colonized people. Their privileges exist because the colonized are excluded from political power, education, and economic opportunities.
- Usurpation – Over time, the colonist realizes that these privileges are not natural or deserved but instead depend on a violent and unjust system that takes from the colonized.
“Before seeing how these three discoveries—profit, privilege, and usurpation, these three developments of a colonizer’s consciousness—are elaborated, we should examine what happens to him when he has made them.” (p. 54)
How does memmi distinguish between colonizer, colonial and colonialist
Colonizer = any european in a colony and that benefits from its structures of privilege
Colonialist = A colonizer who actively supports colonial rule, believing in its legitimacy and seeking to preserve it.
Memmi’s definitions of and distinctions among the colonial, the colonizer, and the colonialist;
Albert Memmi defines the colonial as a system of domination marked by political control, economic exploitation, and cultural oppression. The colonizer is the individual from the dominant group who benefits from this system—either by accepting and upholding it or by attempting, often unsuccessfully, to reject it. A colonialist, in contrast, is a colonizer who actively defends and justifies the colonial order through ideology and belief in superiority.
Memmi’s reasons for thinking that a colonizer who opposes colonialism on leftist grounds “finds in the struggle of the colonized … neither the traditional means nor the final aims of the left wing to which he belongs”;
- Leftists might expect the colonized to adopt socialist, class-based revolution, but the struggle of the colonized is often nationalistic, aiming to reclaim cultural identity rather than just change economic systems.
- The leftist colonizer is forced to choose: either remain in solidarity with their colonial identity or commit fully to anti-colonial struggle, which often means abandoning their own position of privilege.
> “In short, the leftist finds in the struggle of the colonized, which he supports a priori, neither the traditional means nor the final aims of that left wing to which he belongs.” (p. 74)
Thus, Memmi highlights the limitations of a purely ideological or theoretical leftist critique of colonialism when confronted with the lived reality of the colonized.
Memmi’s reasons for claiming that “the colonialist requires that his homeland be conservative”
Memmi argues that colonialists need their home country to remain conservative because any liberal reforms in the metropole (the colonial power) could threaten their privileged status.
- If democratic ideals take hold in the homeland, they could undermine colonial rule, as the public might demand equal rights for the colonized.
- The colonizer, therefore, wants their homeland to remain static, resistant to change, and committed to maintaining colonial rule.
> “It is necessary, then, not only that the home country constitute the remote and never intimately known ideal, but also that this ideal be immutable and sheltered from time; the colonialist requires his homeland to be conservative.” (p. 106)
The three major ideological elements of colonial racism, according to Memmi
- The Colonizer’s Superiority – The colonizer justifies their rule by claiming inherent superiority, often citing cultural, intellectual, or biological differences.
- The Colonized’s Inferiority – The colonizer portrays the colonized as naturally lazy, weak, or childlike, needing colonial rule to be “civilized.”
- The Necessity of Colonial Rule – The colonizer claims that colonialism is beneficial, bringing “progress” while ignoring the suffering it causes.
> “How can usurpation try to pass for legitimacy? One attempt can be made by demonstrating the usurper’s eminent merits. Another is to harp on the usurped’s demerits.” (p. 97)
Memmi’s analysis of the contradictory features of the mythical portrait of the colonized
Colonial discourse is filled with contradictions about the colonized:
- The colonized is seen as both weak and dangerous.
- They are viewed as lazy but also threatening.
- They are depicted as childlike yet cunning.
> “The colonized must indeed be very strange, if he remains so mysterious after years of living with the colonizer.” (p. 30)
These contradictions reveal that racism is not based on rational beliefs but on the need to justify oppression.
The primary result of neo-colonialism, according to Nkrumah;
“The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world
