Colonial Institutions Research Articles

Imperial inventories, “illegal mosques” and institutionalized Islam: Coloniality and the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACTLooking at the architectures of governance that have characterized the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), this essay explores the ways in which imperial inventories of colonial institutions come to influence and arbitrate contemporary debates over what constitutes legitimate practices of Islam in Bosnia–Herzegovina and Austria. Examining the larger political context in which these debates emerge, including the criminalization of Muslim communities that refuse to submit to the authority of state-sanctioned Islamic religious institutions, I detail the ways in which colonial histories are recruited to curate a homogenized, continuous representational mandate for Muslim communities and practices in Austria and BiH. Attending to nostalgic invocations of the late Habsburg governance of Islam and Muslims, I argue that these discourses serve to legitimate specific Muslim institutions and actors in Austria and BiH that privilege the Habsburg legacy through the exclusion of outlawed/illegal Muslim communities and practices in both countries.

The Catholic Church in Tunisia: a transliminal institution between religion and nation

ABSTRACTSince Tunisian national independence in 1956, the Catholic Church has maintained its presence in Tunisia despite the demographic collapse of Catholics in the country and despite the Church’s historic ties to the French state under the protectorate regime. The Church in Tunisia succeeded in maintaining a position within the country after independence by transforming itself from a triumphalist colonial institution into what can be termed a transliminal institution. Situated in a liminal position with regards to both the Tunisian and the Catholic worlds, the Church in Tunisia after independence continued to exist through a constant process of translation and mediation between these two spaces. This article examines the historical development of this situation and the key dimensions which constitute the institutional Church’s transliminality.

Anti-LGBT violence and the ambivalent (colonial) discourses of Ghanaian Pentecostalist-Charismatic church leaders

This study examines the discourses used by Ghanaian Pentecostalist Charismatic Church leaders (GPCCs) to describe same sex sexual relations and anti-LGBT violence. This research was informed by the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of postcolonial theory, queer of color critique and critical intercultural communication. Consistent with the critical perspective, Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis was utilized to analyze the ideological tensions framing the discussions of same-sex relations in Ghana. Findings show that the prior relationship between Christianity and colonialism have made GPCCs an influential colonial institution currently masquerading as an innately "African" institution protecting the interest of all Africans. The author concludes that social justice programs and initiatives in Ghana and other African countries with similar sociopolitical contexts should create spaces for counter narratives that center the voices of queer Ghanaians/Africans.

On the record with Judge Jody Kollapen

With the revelations by Bosasa officials at the State Capture Enquiry, held in early 2019, laying bare the corrupt links between prisons, detention centres and border control, and high ranking political and government officials, the time is ripe to excavate the capitalist interests that fuel incarceration in this country. How did the prison industrial complex overtake the lofty principles that ushered in the South African democratic era? Judge Jody Kollapen is well-placed to speak to about the evolution of the South African prison from a colonial institute that served to criminalise and dominate 'natives', to its utility as instrument of state repression under apartheid, to its present manifestation in the democratic era. He has laboured at the coalface of apartheid crime and punishment through his work as an attorney in the Delmas Treason Trial, and for the Sharpeville Six, and also worked as a member of Lawyers for Human Rights, where he coordinated the 'Release Political Prisoners' programme, Importantly, Justice Kollapen had a ringside seat at the theatre of our transition from apartheid to democracy as he was part of the selection panel that chose the commissioners for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Many questions can be asked of the South African TRC including whether it was the best mechanism to deal with the past and whether it achieved reconciliation. What concerns us here is its impact on crime and punishment in the democratic era. If our transition was premised on restorative justice, then shouldn’t that be the guiding principle for the emerging democratic state? In line with this special edition’s focus on the impact of incarceration on the marginalized and vulnerable, Judge Kollapen shares some insights on how the prison has fared in democratic South Africa, and how imprisonment affects communities across the country. As an Acting Judge in the Constitutional Court, a practitioner with a long history of civic engagement, and someone who has thought and written about criminalization, human rights and prisons, Judge Kollapen helps us to think about what decolonization entails for prisons in South Africa.

On the record with Judge Jody Kollapen

With the revelations by Bosasa officials at the State Capture Enquiry, held in early 2019, laying bare the corrupt links between prisons, detention centres and border control, and high ranking political and government officials, the time is ripe to excavate the capitalist interests that fuel incarceration in this country. How did the prison industrial complex overtake the lofty principles that ushered in the South African democratic era? Judge Jody Kollapen is well-placed to speak to about the evolution of the South African prison from a colonial institute that served to criminalise and dominate 'natives', to its utility as instrument of state repression under apartheid, to its present manifestation in the democratic era. He has laboured at the coalface of apartheid crime and punishment through his work as an attorney in the Delmas Treason Trial, and for the Sharpeville Six, and also worked as a member of Lawyers for Human Rights, where he coordinated the 'Release Political Prisoners' programme, Importantly, Justice Kollapen had a ringside seat at the theatre of our transition from apartheid to democracy as he was part of the selection panel that chose the commissioners for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Many questions can be asked of the South African TRC including whether it was the best mechanism to deal with the past and whether it achieved reconciliation. What concerns us here is its impact on crime and punishment in the democratic era. If our transition was premised on restorative justice, then shouldn’t that be the guiding principle for the emerging democratic state? In line with this special edition’s focus on the impact of incarceration on the marginalized and vulnerable, Judge Kollapen shares some insights on how the prison has fared in democratic South Africa, and how imprisonment affects communities across the country. As an Acting Judge in the Constitutional Court, a practitioner with a long history of civic engagement, and someone who has thought and written about criminalization, human rights and prisons, Judge Kollapen helps us to think about what decolonization entails for prisons in South Africa.

New Digs: Networks, Assemblages, and the Dissolution of Binary Categories in Anthropological Archaeology

ABSTRACTAnthropological archaeology has long been a process of categorization. The history of the subdiscipline could be rendered in terms of an ongoing project to create, critique, and then refashion the categories by which archaeologists understand and explain social and ecological processes. Despite ever‐changing theoretical tides, many archaeologists have continued to adhere to a lingua franca that demarcates their object of study, whether “the past,” “nature,” complexity, material culture, or historical knowledge. In 2018, strong currents in archaeological scholarship have both challenged and washed out the boundaries of many of these epistemological mainstays. This was more than a postmodern exercise to question metanarratives of history or to destabilize supposed social universals. The recent scholarship develops innovative theoretical perspectives and sophisticated methodological tools to shed light on the varied human interactions, practices, and projects that were previously occluded by research too sharply focused on bounded categories such as periods, polities, adaptations, and meanings. Furthermore, archaeologists are now more than ever critically examining the colonial institutions that they perpetuate and seeking to establish new common ground with Indigenous communities. A decidedly archaeological perspective seems to be taking shape. This is a view that sees social life from the ground up in terms of complicated relationships between people, things, and other organisms that cannot be reduced to catchall categories. [year in review, archaeology, archaeological theory, current issues, Indigenous archaeology, environmental anthropology]

Putting on a show; Collecting, exhibiting and performing wayang at the Tropenmuseum from colonial times until the present

The Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam has a rich history in collecting, exhibiting, and presenting wayang performances. This paper traces this history of collection, exhibition, and performance practice of wayang at the Colonial Institute, from 1950 known as Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from colonial times until the present. It demonstrates the entanglement of colonial and postcolonial power structures, collection, and exhibition legacies of the colonial past. The paper will show that from the moment wayang puppets entered the museum’s collection there has been continuous interaction between collecting and exhibition practices and performance practices. The emphasis on tangible elements of performance practice in collection and exhibition practices contributed to a dominant and static understanding of wayang.

The Death of Brazil’s National Museum

On September 2, 2018, a fire destroyed the 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, along with the vast majority of the nearly 20 million items it housed. Located in the historic São Cristóvão Palace, the museum originated as a colonial institution, and its history was intertwined with that of the Brazilian nation. Among the millions of items consumed in the flames were more than 40,000 indigenous artifacts, as well as a rich Africana collection reflecting the relationships developed between Brazil and the African continent during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. This article summarizes the history of the National Museum and its holdings, details Brazil’s long-term neglect of its tangible heritage, and highlights the magnitude of the museum’s loss—a loss not just for the national and international scholars who researched its collections, but also for the low-income residents in the neighboring areas for whom it was the only accessible institution of its kind.

Engaging with Indigenous Research

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) within Indigenous communities aims to share project responsibilities and benefits equitably among community members and researchers. CBPR relies on authentic relationships that take time to build; so how does a student from a colonial institution such as Queen’s University build the necessary relationships? As a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) student about to begin my graduate degree focusing on health promotion through a CBPR partnership with Indigenous communities, I will share my story and background of disconnect, as well as the identity-struggles I had prior to deciding that this field of research was right for me. Through this presentation, I will discuss the upfront process of being involved with Indigenous research as an Indigenous student, an advocate, and an ally. Regardless of Indigenous status, examining the research process in the context of individual positionality and researcher self-awareness is critical to successful CBPR research. My goal is to provide both Indigenous and non-Indigenous research trainees with important insight about positionality, identity, power, and relationship-building as vital components of community-engaged research. I will discuss how the principles of CBPR align with Indigenous ideals and how these can be leveraged to establish connections that can support meaningful research with Indigenous communities.

Collections in the Expanded Field: Relationality and the Provenance of Artefacts and Archives

In 2017 archaeological evidence was published which indicates that modern humans first arrived in Australia around 65,000 years ago. Through the countless generations since, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples built deep connections to the landscape, developed rich material culture infused with story and myth, and used oral and ceremonial traditions to transmit knowledge over thousands of years. Yet, since European invasion at the end of the eighteenth century, the provenance of ethnographic and institutional collections has largely been documented with reference to white collectors and colonial institutions. Attitudes are starting to change. Recent decades have seen significant moves away from the idea of the authoritative institution toward relational museums and the co-creation of knowledge. But the structure and content of much museum documentation continues to lag behind contemporary attitudes. This paper looks at the documentation of Australian ethnographic and anthropological collections through the lens of changing perspectives on provenance, including archival notions of parallel and societal provenance. When placed in the context of recent developments in material culture theory, these collections help to highlight the limitations of existing documentation. The paper concludes with a call for community involvement and a more relational approach to documentation which better encompasses the complexities of provenance and the entangled institutional, archival, oral, and community perspectives that accumulate around artefacts in museums.

What Were the Consequences of Decolonization?

Extensive research suggests that European rule negatively affected political and economic development in their colonies. But did outcomes improve after colonial rule ended? Studying post–World War II independence cases, we statistically examine consequences of postwar decolonization—which includes both colonial autonomy and independence—for democracy, internal conflict, government revenue growth, and economic growth using two-way fixed-effects models. We find that democracy levels increased sharply as colonies gained internal autonomy in the period immediately before their independence. However, conflict, revenue growth, and economic growth did not systematically differ before and after independence. Accounting for varieties of colonial institutions or for endogenous independence timing produces similar results. Except for democratic gains, the overall findings—juxtaposed with existing research—suggest that, although European colonial empires created deleterious long-term effects, decolonization exhibited less pronounced political consequences than sometimes thought.

The Levantine British: Defying Imperial Race Categories in Colonial Alexandria

This treatment of the Levantine British, based on family diaries and consular reports, asks why a British colonial, Michael Barker, exiled from Egypt in 1956, continued to identify with the Alexandria locality. His last wish was to be buried in Alexandria. While the conventional image of the British colony is one shaped by ‘Orientalist’ descriptions of the ‘foreign’ as external to ‘Britishness’, the evidence suggests an enduring identification of members of the colony with the Levantine community of Alexandria. In conventional imperial discourses of the colonial era the ‘Levantine’ had negative connotations; it was a signifier of a loss of British identity and immersion into a culturally different, foreign category. Yet, the memoirs of Michael Barker, as well as consular reports on colonial institutions and the application of the Ottoman Capitulations, indicate that the boundaries of the colony were porous. Official policies insisted on a culturally distinct British identity; however, there are documented instances where the definition of ‘Britishness’ was widened to include the ‘Levantine’. The Levantine identification of Michael Barker had political ramifications, apparent in his family's decision to remain in Egypt when others emigrated out, to continue to invest in the Egyptian economy when others divested, to enable the emigration of Levantine British to British territories after Egyptian independence, and to cling to the remnants of symbols of belonging to Alexandria, the very last of which was the family tomb. That act memorialized colonial lives that stood in marked contrast to the ascendant narratives of nation and empire.

British colonialism and democracy: Divergent inheritances and diminishing legacies

Did British colonial rule promote post-independence democracy? We provide evidence that the relationship follows a strong temporal pattern. Former British colonies were considerably more democratic than other countries immediately following independence, but subsequent democratic convergence has largely eliminated these differences in the post-Cold War period. Existing theories expounding superior British culture or alternative colonial institutions cannot account for divergent inheritances and diminishing legacies. To explain the time-varying pattern, we analyze European powers’ varying policy approaches to decolonization as well as changes in the international system. Britain more consistently treated competitive democratic elections as a prerequisite for gaining independence, leading to higher initial democracy levels. However, nascent democracies that lacked deep-rooted societal transformation faced challenges to democratic consolidation because of Cold War superpower competition. Later shifts in the international system toward promoting democracy further contributed to convergence by destabilizing colonially rooted dictatorships.

Regime types and regime change: A new dataset on democracy, coups, and political institutions

Social scientists have created a variety of datasets in recent years that quantify political regimes, but these often provide little data on phases of regime transitions. Our aim is to contribute to filling this gap, by providing an update and expansion of the Democracy-Dictatorship data by Cheibub et al. (Public Choice, 143, 67–101, 2010), originally introduced by Alvarez et al. (Studies in Comparative International Development, 31(2), 3–36, 1996), where we add the following three features: First, we expand coverage to a total of 192 sovereign countries and 16 currently self-governing territories between 1950 and 2018, including periods under colonial rule for more than ninety entities. Second, we provide more institutional details that are deemed of importance in the relevant literature. Third, we include a new, self-created indicator of successful and failed coups d’etat, which is currently the most complete of its kind. We further illustrate the usefulness of the new dataset by documenting the importance of political institutions under colonial rule for democratic development after independence, making use of our much more detailed data on colonial institutions. Findings indicate that more participatory colonial institutions have a positive and lasting effect for democratic development after transition to independence.

Ботанический сад как колониальная институция: В. М. Арнольди o поездке в Бейтензорг в 1909 году

Ботанический сад как колониальная институция: В. М. Арнольди o поездке в Бейтензорг в 1909 году

Income Inequality in French West Africa: Building Social Tables for Pre-Independence Senegal and Ivory Coast

Sub-Saharan Africa is home today to some of the most unequal countries in the world, in Southern and Central Africa, as well as others that are close to the world average, in Western Africa. Yet, there is no consensus regarding the historical factors that led to such a situation. Given limited data on income distribution during colonial times, we do not know whether present-day inequality patterns can be traced back to the colonial period and which role was played by colonial institutions. Most of our knowledge comes from information on British colonies, while territories subjected to other colonial powers are much less well known. To address this gap, we analyze trends in income inequality for colonies in French West Africa, building social tables for Senegal and Ivory Coast during the last decades of colonial rule. We find that income inequality was high during the colonial period, because of the huge income differential between Africans and European settlers (especially in Senegal) and of high inequality within the African population (especially in the Ivory Coast). Nevertheless, it tended to reduce during colonial rule – but the trend inverted after independence. Our findings cast in a new light the connection between colonialism, extractive institutions, high inequality and inequality extraction ratios.

Decolonisation and the Pacific: Indigenous Globalisation and the Ends of Empire by Tracey Banivanua Mar

Reviewed by: Decolonisation and the Pacific: Indigenous Globalisation and the Ends of Empire by Tracey Banivanua Mar Trish Tupou Decolonisation and the Pacific: Indigenous Globalisation and the Ends of Empire, by Tracey Banivanua Mar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. isbn cloth 978-1-1070-3759-5; paper 978-1-1087-0578-3; e-book 978-1-3166-8506-8; xi + 280 pages, bibliography, index. Cloth, us$105; paper, us$29.99; e-book, us$24.00. Tracey Banivanua Mar’s Decolonisation and the Pacific offers an in-depth look at the interconnections of Oceanian people that transcend nation-states of the Pacific. Centered on the movements of people and communities who worked to decolonize the Pacific during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and beyond, Mar pushes the boundaries on decolonization [End Page 580] and postcolonial scholarship by reminding us that personal experiences can also be intimately political. Methodologically, Mar’s use of the ocean as a connecting tool of inquiry pays homage to Oceanian scholars Epeli Hau‘ofa and Albert Wendt in extending their academic genealogy of an Oceania-centered lens. The stretch and fluidity of the ocean perfectly relates to Mar’s contentions of decolonization as process—as something pliable that transcends nation-state boundaries and engages in mobilities and connectivity. Mar traces concepts of decolonization through individuals’ stories—prefaced by the story of Mar’s great-aunt Babu Taka—as a way to demarcate the influences of empire and decolonization during lifetimes. This emphasis on people and community continues throughout the book, especially at the beginning of each chapter, and showcases one of Mar’s main contributions: In order to understand the workings of Oceania, one must recognize that interconnected people and places in the Pacific carried (and continue to carry) these shifting tides of social movements both externally and internally, irrespective of colonial borders. Not only does this call for the rereading of decolonization discourse, it also aligns with other re-representations of Oceania, such as reading spaces outside of hegemonic boundaries. As such, Mar also uses deep time to trace decolonization through a broader timescale than is usually explored in decolonial texts. The first half of Decolonisation and the Pacific follows connections through the various Oceanian diasporas and mobilities of peoples displaced by missions, labor, and other colonial institutions that cleared away or disrupted long-standing settlements of indigenous communities. Through chapters one, two, and three, Mar cements her argument that the remaking of Pacific borders through the spread of peoples was destructive but also integral for the “cross-fertilisation of ideas and the articulation of resistant politics, cultures and languages” among Pacific peoples (17). In a sense, “empires and decolonisation were co-produced”(18). Chapter one largely looks at the development of cross-Oceanic connections, especially through changes in language, as a consequence of the vast movement of Pacific peoples in the 1800s. This chapter highlights the sweeping mobility of the Pacific, outlining the growth in the trans-Pacific trade that saw indigenous Pacific peoples moving around the globe at the intersection of settler colonialism and labor exchange. As an example, Mar traces indentured laborers from Tonga to Uvea, through the Western Pacific, and as far as Pohnpei (33). Such an examination of the complex histories of indentured laborers that went to Australia, many dying while working under horrendous conditions, calls us to reflect on the current movement of labor from Islands in the Pacific to Australia and New Zealand under controversial programs such as the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. As Mar mentions, the out-flux of bodies from the Islands had “implications for agriculture, subsistence, genealogies, [and] cultural transmission” (36). The fact that these patterns of labor mobility from the nineteenth century are somewhat continued today allows us to question the [End Page 581] continued economic dependency on colonial powers with more breadth. As Mar posits, the trading of people “ensured that the lives and futures of Indigenous peoples across oceanic divides and borders were increasingly entangled and entwined, and the appropriation of land and labour were interdependent processes” (38). While acknowledging that in reality working overseas temporarily can sometimes be the only way to support families back home, we should still consider how...

Ethnicity and Power in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Colonial Institutions Still Matter?

It has been sixty years since the first sub-Saharan nation declared independence. Over the past three decades, the region has undergone significant changes. Though few, if any, would question that colonial histories shaped African societies, it is unclear to what extent these legacies continue to be relevant to contemporary inter-group relations. Does it still make sense to speak about colonial legacies? And if so, which ones? This article explores these questions by examining whether ethnic groups who were privileged during the colonial period are more likely to hold political power decades later. To do so, I conduct a multiple case study analysis of twenty-five sub-Saharan countries from which I create an original dataset of how ethnic groups were positioned during the latter stages of colonialism. With these data, I run auto-regressive logistical models correlating former colonial position to executive power since independence. I find that many of the assumptions made in the scholarship about the importance of colonial privilege are not supported by these models. However, colonial institutional legacies may still help us understand inter-group dynamics and be the source of contemporary political grievances.

Colonial Legacy and State Institution in China, Revisited

Colonial Legacy and State Institution in China, Revisited

Public Health at the Zimbabwean Border: Medicalizing Migrants and Contesting Colonial Institutions, 1890-1960

As colonial powers in Africa consolidated their authority, borders became significant areas of focus for nascent colonial administrations. Border monitoring and regulation sought to control the cross-border movements of people, animals, and goods for varied reasons, including public health. In Zimbabwe, colonial public health measures at the border comprised the “medicalization” of African migrants, perceived by colonial authorities as diseased. These measures involved medical inspections or examinations, diagnosis, treatment, vaccinations or immunizations, and detention and quarantine, relating to diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness, plague, tuberculosis, smallpox, and syphilis. Yet, while colonial authorities in Zimbabwe advanced these explanations for regulating borders, some African migrants crossing the Zimbabwean border from neighboring countries often had their own understandings of the medical encounter and imperial boundaries. They questioned colonial governments’ motives, contesting both public health measures and the border itself, both of which they considered oppressive and discriminatory.