Colonial Domination Research Articles

Symbols of Hopelessness in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: A Study of Colonial Oppression

This research analyzes the symbols of hopelessness in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, focusing on the experiences of the Congolese under Belgian colonial rule. Using textual analysis grounded in Abram’s theory of symbols, the study examines how specific symbols—such as the iron collar, rifles, ivory, and the Congo River—embody the powerlessness, oppression, and suffering of the indigenous population. Thematic analysis reveals how these symbols represent the greed, destruction, and moral decay at the heart of colonialism. The iron collar symbolizes physical and psychological restraint, while the rifles signify the violence that enforces colonial dominance. Ivory represents the exploitation and greed driving colonialism, reducing both people and resources to commodities for profit. The Congo River functions as a path to both exploitation and despair for the Congolese, emphasizing the cyclical nature of their suffering. The findings highlight the stark contrast between the wealth of the colonizers and the degradation of the colonized, underscoring the pervasive hopelessness faced by the Congolese. This research contributes to postcolonial literary studies by offering a deeper understanding of the symbolic dimensions of Heart of Darkness and their broader implications for understanding colonial oppression, providing new insights into the moral and psychological impacts of imperialism.

BETWEEN CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF COLONIAL DOMINATION IN NIGERIA

This paper focuses on the causes and consequences of colonial domination in Nigeria. Nigeria being a ‘gift’ to Britain from the Berlin Conference of 1884/85, was conquered by the British led by Sir Goldie of the Royal Niger Company and later by Frederick John Lugard before the close of the 19th century. By 1897, the fall of the Benin kingdom was imminent, the activities of the British through treaties and diplomatic offensives enabled them to secure most of the territories that today constitute Nigeria. Its conquest was motivated by economic desires, especially to exploit the expansion of quality rubber plantations, palm produce, and many other items of trade in large quantities in the area. Colonialism was officially implemented in 1900 despite annexing Lagos in 1861 and declaring the Oil River protectorate in 1884. The colonial rule lasted for six long decades that ended in 1960 which is the object of this paper. Attention is given to the causes and consequences as historical methodology is used through to the conclusion.

The Outsider Within. Anticolonial Critiques of Humanity and the Cosmopolitan Vision.

This article re-examines the anticolonial critique of the concept of 'humanity'. It uses the example of Leopold Senghor to show the extent to which this critique is shaped by their sociological marginality. Drawing on Georg Simmel's discussion of the 'stranger' and Patricia Hill Collins's discussion of the 'outsider within', the study rethinks the production of knowledge in racially structured societies. As 'outsiders within' colonial empires, anticolonial thinkers from the 1930s to the 1960s challenge the idea of a universal humanity used to justify colonialism and expose its racial stratification. Their critique helps to end colonial domination and develop a more robust conception of common humanity, aligned with a genuine cosmopolitanism that resists exploitative manipulation and promotes anti-racist agendas. By exploring the critical potential of the figure of the stranger or outsider within, this study invites sociologists to integrate diverse perspectives into sociological discourse and to promote a cosmopolitan epistemology that combines particular and universal insights.

SHAPING THE PAST: BRITISH NOVELISTS AND THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE 1857 UPRISING

This research article examines the reinterpretation of the 1857 Indian Uprising in British colonial literature, focusing on how mutiny novels shaped and reflected the ideological underpinnings of empire. By exploring gendered and racialised tropes, particularly the portrayal of Indian women as loyal subordinates or treacherous adversaries, the analysis reveals how these narratives strengthened British colonial dominance while managing imperial anxieties. Works such as Seeta and On the Face of the Waters illustrate the manipulation of literary forms, including the picturesque and sacred aesthetics, to feminise and domesticate India, erase its revolutionary potential, and legitimise British rule. These portrayals expose the deep contradictions in the colonial project, blending moral authority with exploitative representation, and highlight the enduring impact of such narratives on contemporary understandings of identity, power, and history. This paper combines close readings of primary texts with critical insights from gender studies and post-colonial theory, highlighting how these narratives both reinforced and complicated the colonial project. Through this lens, the article uncovers the legacy of these works in shaping contemporary understandings of empire, identity, and resistance.

‘A Fictitious Referendum and a European Affair’: African Perspectives of the 1922 Referendum and the 1923 Responsible Government in Southern Rhodesia

ABSTRACT This article examines the African political perspectives and recollections of the 1922 referendum and the 1923 responsible government in Southern Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe. The 1922 referendum was part of wider settler and British imperial government planning in which Africans were not consulted, but they continued to show their agency by resisting colonial domination even after 1923. Africans interpreted these events through the lens of Britain’s imperialist agenda to advance its imperialism through the practice of settler colonialism by its local agents, the white settlers in Southern Rhodesia. In the 1960s and 1970s, African nationalists used the 1923 ‘responsible government’ as a political tool to compel Britain, the colonial power, to grant majority rule in Rhodesia. The article draws on a range of archival sources to capture statements and speeches by Africans on the 1922 referendum and the 1923 responsible government, providing a nuanced understanding of African political perspectives on these pivotal events in the history of colonial Zimbabwe.

National History, Resistance, and Cultural Enclosure in Iceland’s Bell

Iceland offers a combination of spectacular natural beauty and Viking history that has made it a popular destination for tourists. The island, which has a population of under 350,000, was visited by almost 700,000 tourists in 2021, according to the Icelandic Tourist Board, and tourism accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the country’s total export revenue (OECD). The island’s Viking heritage, recorded in the medieval sagas and eddas, is central to Icelandic cultural and national identity and has played an important role in attracting tourists. However, the history of the saga manuscripts as material cultural artefacts is also tied to Iceland’s history as a Danish colony. They were originally collected and stored in Copenhagen in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and only partly returned to Iceland in 1971, almost two decades after Iceland gained independence from Denmark. The history of the saga texts is the subject of Halldór Laxness’s novel Iceland’s Bell, published in three volumes from 1943 to 1946 at the height of the Icelandic independence movement. Through a discussion of the novel, this essay will show that the Icelandic sagas, both as tangible and intangible cultural artefacts, are central to Laxness’s articulation of a cultural nationalism that is resistant to Danish colonial domination. It will suggest that not only is Iceland’s Bell a novel concerned with the material history of the sagas, but that this history is intricately linked with the island’s seven centuries of colonial domination by the Kingdom of Denmark. It is thus a consciously anti-colonial novel that portrays the violence, in both cultural and material terms, of Danish rule in Iceland and aligns cultural enclosure with colonial domination.

Colonialism and Local Elites: Lyautey's Colonial Experience in Morocco as a Case Study

This article presents a thorough analysis of the dynamics that developed between the Moroccan makhzen elites and the French Resident General Hubert Lyautey during the period of the French protectorate in Morocco (1912–1956). The article examines how Lyautey, by employing carefully crafted strategies, effectively utilized the Moroccan elite as a pivotal tool for strengthening colonial dominance, all the while preserving the traditional and social values inherent in Morocco. The makhzen elites represent a pivotal component of the traditional Moroccan framework, having wielded considerable administrative and religious authority before the advent of the protectorate, thus justifying their prominent role in this analysis. The article suggests that these elites stood at a crucial juncture, where they had to decide between opposing French dominance and collaborating with the colonial administration to preserve their status and privileges. Lyautey upheld the conventional social and political structure, leveraging this context to advance the execution of colonial policies. As a result, a considerable portion of them chose to engage in collaboration. The article highlighted the "dual cooperation policy" that Lyautey put into practice. He upheld various conventional administrative frameworks, such as the Sharia judiciary and the Emirate of the Faithful, thus presenting himself as a guardian of authentic Moroccan values. This approach ensured the relative stability of the country during that period by striking a delicate equilibrium between the enforcement of French authority and the maintenance of the traditional Moroccan regime's outward appearance. The article says that the makhzen elites weren't just tools of colonial power; instead, they showed that they could negotiate to protect their own interests in a colonial setting. In this light, it's clear that Lyautey’s relationship with these elites was more than just dependence; it was a complex one characterised by mutual interests that overlapped. This research reveals a deep understanding of the complexities of power within the context of colonialism, illustrating how France leveraged local traditional forces to bolster its colonial endeavours while refraining from dismantling or supplanting them. This methodology played a significant role in shaping the distinctive identity of the French colonisation in Morocco.

Revolutionaries, coercive institutions and the crisis of collaboration in interwar India

Earlier generations of historians interpreted revolutionary politics of the interwar period within a paradigm of failure, on the basis that it did not bring about an immediate shift in the colonial dominance in South Asia. Following the ‘revolutionary turn’ in South Asian history, scholars have suggested that revolutionary politics needs to be read for the ways in which it shifted mainstream nationalist strategies and influenced other outcomes, both intended and unintended. This article deepens this analysis, by considering an unexplored outcome of the revolutionary politics of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA): its impact on Indians employed in British institutions, especially coercive institutions such as the police and prisons. These employees may not have resigned from their posts, and ultimately these coercive institutions remained coercive and violent at a macro level. However, based on the evidence presented here, it is clear there was a faintly discernible but important micropolitics emerging from within these institutions, which indicates that some exhibited admiration and sympathy for revolutionary prisoners, quietly and surreptitiously working to ameliorate systems of coercion and punishment, in the process undermining coercive institutions from within. Such a reading prompts a rethinking of paradigms of collaborators as colonial enablers, allowing us to see the withdrawal of cooperation with the colonial regime as a process, which becomes perceptible in the context of anticolonial movements in the late interwar period.

“Islam” and “Muslimisme” in the official discourse and categorical apparatus of the French authorities in the 1920s

Throughout history, France and the Muslim world have been connected in various ways. Their interactions have ranged from constructive collaboration to colonial (or semi-colonial) domination and mutual animosity. In this article, the author seeks to examine the nuances of the discursive mobilisation and contextualisation of terms such as “Islam” and “Muslimisme” within the public and secret documents of French diplomacy and colonial administration during the 1920s. He attempts to address the following questions: What was the terminological and semantic conflict surrounding the aforementioned concepts? What were the objectives of the French officials in articulating one or another aspect of “Islam” and “Muslimisme”? Contemporary neocolonialism and a necessity to study its historical genesis and forms determine relevance of the article. The author makes use of insufficiently researched archival and published material. This, in conjunction with the nature of the research question, provides the rationale behind the originality of the analysis presented in the essay. He employs the methodology of the “history of concepts” and comparative-historical analysis to examine the intricate interrelationship between the discursive mobilisation of “Islam” and “Muslimisme”, on the one hand, and the practical policies of Paris, on the other. The author draws on a range of sources to inform his analysis, including French diplomatic documents, the notes and reports of Marshal Hubert Lyautey, books and pamphlets by various French experts and public figures, and material from the French and Algerian press. He concludes that the semantic colouring of “Islam” and “Muslimisme” in the French official discourse of the 1920s was not homogeneous. This perception included a sense of superiority close to Orientalism, a perception of the backwardness of “Islamic civilization” and its incompatibility with the Western socio-political order, and a perception of “Islam” as a potential danger, especially if it was combined with other religious (pan-Islamism) and/or socio-political challenges (pan-Turkism, Bolshevism). Concurrently, the Third Republic’s authorities frequently regarded Islam as a means of securing Muslim allegiance and enhancing France’s “soft power”.

Who is the Blame for the Russia-Ukraine war? Feminist and Postcolonial Perspectives on 'Real Politics'

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has widely been narrated as having epochal significance with far-reaching implications. For leading historians of Eastern Europe, such as Timothy Snyder (2022) and Serhii Plokhy (2015), what we are seeing is an existential threat to democratic norms. While discussing phenomena of the political world, drawing on a variety of lenses is advantageous; in the case of the Russian-Ukrainian war it is a necessity. This article engages with a combination of lenses provided by feminist and postcolonial theories to critically reflect on the logic, as articulated by Russia's political elites, behind the invasion of Ukraine. It focuses on the role of gender and racialisation in normalising one’s place in the social hierarchy and its ‘appropriate’ behaviour, excusing occupational, violent and genocidal policies under the abstract term of ‘real politics’. This article attempts to trace the way social structures empower gendered and racialised politics, allowing invasions to be justified. Russia-led wars in Ukraine will be discussed as an example of the consequences of such a structure and ideology. This article will firstly underline a feminist and postcolonial approach that addresses the necessity of social hierarchy analysis to reveal the causes of war. Further sections will focus on unpacking Russia’s claims of the legitimacy of its colonial/great-power state project to incorporate Ukraine. I will conclude with a reflection on how the notion of the nation-state, rooted in the ideologies of social hierarchy and colonial domination, can be seen as having fuelled the ongoing war.

Coloring in the world of others: color use in visual orientalism, 1890–1920

This study investigates the impact of media on color sense: our ability to see different colors and use them to interpret the world. Specifically, we examine the role of color in the cultural construction of the Orient—an ‘imagined geography’ used to justify colonial domination—in two turn-of-the-twentieth-century types of color(ed) photographs: photochromes, where a printer added color, and autochromes, where colors were captured during exposure. While most research on visual Orientalism has focused on content, we use machine learning methods to study the most important formal element of visual Orientalism: color. After using K-means clustering to extract sixteen dominant colors from each photograph in our dataset, we train three different random forest classification algorithms to make a distinction between (A) the two color media (B) photochromes of the Orient and the Occident; and (C) autochromes of the Orient and the Occident. Subsequently, we apply Shapley Additive Explanations, an explainable AI method, to interpret the output of the classifiers. This allows us to examine how specific features (colors) impacted the classifiers’ predictions. While the algorithm can easily separate photochromes from autochromes (0.95) and Oriental from Occidental photochromes (0.93), it struggles with the same task in the autochrome collection (0.68). These findings support three interconnected conclusions: (1) color sense became mediated in the late nineteenth century, (2) in photochromes, the presence and absence of specific colors was a vital aspect of visual Orientalism, (3) the autochrome, where color was derived from light, provided a more objective picture of countries in the near and middle East than the photochrome.

Iconic architecture as vessel for political and cultural expression-Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall changing with Singapore cultural icon

ABSTRACT Architecture embodies symbolic meanings evolving across shifting socio-political landscapes. This paper investigates the multivalent transformations of Singapore’s iconic colonial landmark – the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall (VTCH). Tracing VTCH’s metamorphosing roles, functions, and identities through historical ruptures like British rule, Japanese occupation, decolonization, and nation-building, it illuminates how the complex underwent profound changes. The analysis underscores how regimes continually reimagined this architectural palimpsest to forge national narratives, consolidate collective memories, and materialize power relations. VTCH’s transition from colonial edifice to a symbolically imbued site mirrors the intricate interplay between built environments and Singapore’s spatial politics. Once symbols of colonial dominance, the buildings later embodied sovereign nationhood and nostalgic roots. Notably, VTCH recently assumed new roles driving cultural tourism and economic growth. Through a diachronic interrogation of this singular icon, the paper elucidates broader dialectics between decolonization, nation-building, and the semiotics of heritage in (re)constructing collective identities. It offers insights into how societies redefine spatial legacies to serve evolving ideological imperatives and identity discourses. Integrating the micro-architectural and macro-national enriches understandings of the mutually constitutive relationships between the built environment, political authority and national consciousness.

The Decolonial Turn in Kurdish Studies: An Introduction

This special-issue introduction highlights the burgeoning movement toward decolonizing Kurdish studies, outlining its challenges and opportunities within the academic landscape. Central to the authors’ discussion is the concept of the coloniality of power, which offers a framework for understanding the enduring oppression faced by Kurds within the context of ongoing colonial domination in the Middle East. The introduction delves into themes of historical erasure and academic marginalization, shedding light on the struggle for recognition within not only national and regional variants of area studies such as Turkish, Arab, Iranian, and Middle East studies but also the Euro-American academy more broadly. Furthermore, the introduction underlines the potential of decolonial methodologies in reshaping the study of Kurds and Kurdistan, emphasizing the significance of amplifying voices from the ground, including those of Kurdish intellectuals, activists, and politicians. Through critical reflexivity and engagement with diverse perspectives, the editors of this special issue call for a reimagining of Kurdish studies that prioritizes epistemic decolonization, centering the experiences and agency of Kurdish communities.

Decolonizing Minds and Education: Critical Pedagogy and Epistemic Disobedience in Kurdistan

This article examines the intricacies involved in the process of decolonizing education. It draws on the author's first-hand teaching experiences and observations as an activist scholar and a critical pedagogue at Bingöl University in Turkey from 2013 to 2016, during a period marked by intense political tension between security forces and Kurdish insurgencies. It elucidates a transformative pedagogical endeavor aimed at decolonizing education, with a particular focus on Kurdish students who endure colonial domination and oppression. Grounded in critical pedagogy, border thinking, and the principles of epistemic disobedience, this intervention represents a deliberate departure from traditional educational paradigms. It endeavors to cultivate a more inclusive and liberatory learning environment by drawing on theoretical frameworks articulated by renowned scholars such as Freire, Fanon, Mignolo, and Illich. At its core, this endeavor seeks to transcend the conventional boundaries of education by fostering critical consciousness, agency, and alternative worldviews among marginalized communities. Through prioritizing interactive dialogue, problem-posing educational models, and participatory learning practices, the initiative empowers students to critically engage with their social, historical, and cultural contexts. Employing innovative pedagogical strategies like the marketplace of ideas and extracurricular reading groups, students are encouraged to reclaim their own forms of knowledge and challenge hegemonic narratives perpetuated by colonial structures. This initiative underscores the transformative potential of education in dismantling oppressive structures and fostering alternative visions of social change. By amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, the intervention not only challenges the status quo but also lays the groundwork for a more equitable and emancipatory educational landscape.

Female landscapes

The aim of this article is to reflect on the presence of colonized women in photographs and other representations, such as drawings, posters, postcards, exhibition catalogues, newspapers and magazines, which were disseminated in the context of the Portuguese colonial expositions, and in exhibition spaces conceived by the Portuguese with a colonial component. Generally speaking, the exhibitions sought to put forward the progress, taking into account land, rail and sea transport, but also roads, communications, trade, industry, arts, architecture, culture, and the most recent advances in science and medicine. The exhibitions were also places where the logic of colonial models was staged, showing a clear relationship between colonial domination and gender representation. The research includes several materials produced throughout the 1930s (a fertile period regarding the Portuguese participation in this kind of international events) intended to publicize these exhibitions or serve as a complement to them. These materials may include art works or merely propagandistic works, or works that combine both components. The analysis will include materials associated with several exhibitions between 1931 and 1940, such as the International Colonial Exhibition of Paris (1931), the Lisbon Industrial Exhibition (1932), the Portuguese Colonial Exhibition in Porto (1934), the Exhibition of the Portuguese World in Lisbon (1940), and the Portugal of the Little Ones (Portugal dos Pequenitos) in Coimbra (1940). The contexts in which women appear and the way they are represented — as active beings (performing tasks), as contemplative beings (as in natural landscapes) or as objects of sexual desire, revealing the context of power (legislative, administrative, male and colonial) in which the images and the representations were produced — will be analyzed.

Productive Transfers: Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish Drama Across Borders

Abstract The article traces the production paths of three plays by Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish playwrights with a view on their specific reception in different cultural contexts. David Greig’s Dunsinane (2010), Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott (2015), and David Ireland’s Cyprus Avenue (2016) all explore the theme of connections, cultural transfer, and identity translation in social and political environments which are composed of their Indigenous cultures and the strong presence of the British idiom. The protagonists of these plays navigate linguistic and cultural landscapes shaped by the legacy of colonial domination and by the resurgence of local ethnicities. All three plays depict the search for a renewed identity in the period of devolution and cultural diversity. It is the aim of this article to analyse the successful transfers across borders of cultural environments which these plays perform, as they articulate “local” identities for the sake of home and away audiences.

The history of the Hong Kong Association of Chinese Medicine

The Hong Kong Association of Chinese Medicine was a Chinese medicine association in Hong Kong, established in 1930. It had a great influence on the modern history of Hong Kong, with its relatively long duration as a well-organized institution. Based on the manuscripts, correspondence, official letters and historical materials from Lu Juefei, the former president of the society, its history was clarified in terms of establishment background, institution evaluation, main contribution and key figures of the society. It was found that the establishment and evaluation of the association went through the period of the Republic of China, struggling for survival and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine. The society contributed greatly to defending and safeguarding the rights and status of Chinese medicine and promoting the development of Chinese medicine in the Hong Kong area. However, it was restricted by colonial domination in terms of the lack of its voice and effective administration. This indicates that it was difficult for Hong Kong Chinese medicine to fully develop because Chinese medicine physicians had to survive by mutual assistance and autonomous rules.

Addressing Fascism: A New Politics of Experience?

(1) Background: The rise of fascism in American and, indeed, throughout the world, prompts a question: why does fascism remain persistent in human existence? The question is one that Karl Jaspers might have asked regarding the origin and goal of history. The political description of fascism is not adequate to describe the lived experience of those drawn to it, and to assume such people to be irrational does not suffice. Rather, culture provides semiotic structure, which is phenomenologically embodied by people in a Mitwelt. (2) Results: Perhaps what is needed is not a political description of fascism but a communicological analysis that proceeds as a semiotic phenomenology of fascism as it is culturally embodied. Jaspers’ concept of evil frames fascism as colonialism turned against itself, disguised banally in such phenomena as Schadenfreude, as described by Lanigan. (3) I approach this question using a semiotic phenomenological method. (4) Conclusions: The fading colonial dominance in the form of cultural hegemony creates Laingian ontological insecurity and a desire for one’s inner fascist to identify itself in others. Addressing fascism requires new politics of experience.

English Studies from Global to Nepali Context: Critical Debates, Challenges and Possibilities

This paper aims to present an analysis of the critical debates in the area of English Studies emerged from the time of its initiation and still going on, various challenges that this discipline has undergone, and its future prospects. Based on library research method, the analysis of the relevant online and physical library materials related to English Studies has been conducted. The findings show how English Studies has undergone the critical debates like whether English is the subject of colonial domination or socially progressive project, whether it has to give privileges to literary studies or creative writing, and whether it has to adopt a single standarised form of English or world Englishes. In addition to it, it shows that despite undergoing a number of critical debates and challenges due to either the ongoing process of departmentalisation or the African abolitionist movements, English Studies has become refined, updated and interdisciplinary area of study. Proper redesign and reformulation of English courses, incorporation of local art, culture and literature, adoption of new technology and vocational aspects etcetera could make it more relevant, effective and impactful in the days to come.

Autonomy Through Allotment: Political Strategies of the Ottawa Tribe in Indian Territory, 1870–1892

Abstract The late nineteenth-century policy of allotting tribal lands into individually owned tracts is appropriately interpreted as a destructive federal effort to expropriate Native land and eliminate tribal identities. The Ottawa Tribe in Indian Territory, however, had divergent objectives in supporting allotment. This article argues the Ottawa advocated for allotment and U.S. citizenship to escape intrusive federal control over their lands and resources. Although they embraced policies aimed at eliminating tribal existence, the Ottawa rejected the intentions behind those policies, and instead, they drew on long-established community attributes of mobility and interconnection with outsiders to resituate their nation within American society. By centering Ottawa perspectives, this article disrupts progressive narratives that denote the pursuit of U.S. citizenship as an effort to secure equal inclusion. It underscores U.S. citizenship and allotment as tools of settler colonial domination and demonstrates how the Ottawa subversively deployed U.S. citizenship and private property rights to combat colonial administration and maintain tribal sovereignty. Examining a policy often glossed over as invariably imposed on Native nations, this article underscores the necessity of analyzing Native community dynamics and political strategies to understand the implementation and impact of allotment.