Citation

Kalman S. Hist. Reflect. 2020; 46(2): 1-8.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, History Dept., University of Waterloo)

DOI

10.3167/hrrh.2020.460201

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Commenting on the colonial setting in its twilight during the Algerian War of Independence, Frantz Fanon famously observed: "Le travail du colon est de rendre impossible jusqu'aux rêves de liberté du colonisé. Le travail du colonisé est d'imaginer toutes les combinaisons éventuelles pour anéantir le colon (the task of the colonizer is to make impossible even the dreams of liberty of the colonized. The task of the colonized is to conceive of every possible strategy to wipe out the colonizer)."1 In an ironic twist, the very things that seemingly protected the imperial project--military barracks and police stations, the omnipresent tricolore, military parades--only heightened the desire for freedom of the colonized denizens of the empire. Fully aware of this dilemma, authorities doubled down on policing, the scope of judicial powers, and the prison system in an attempt to mobilize law and security, alongside bureaucracy, science, and even language to effectively neutralize dissent and promote their possessions. Although writing about nineteenth-century India, Partha Chatterjee could similarly be addressing Algeria or Indochina when describing "a concerted attempt to create the institutional procedures for systematically objectifying and normalizing the colonized terrain."2 As race proved the most fundamental marker of colonial difference, it became the sole delineating factor in determining rights and benefits, and also the focus of security efforts throughout global empires.3 Worse still, as Homi Bhabha relates, the colonized were always viewed a racially inferior, no matter what their situation. Even in their own homeland, Africans or Asians were judged by European interlocutors, and thus condemned to second-class citizenship and concomitant security/surveillance until successfully decolonizing their territories...

Language: en