Colonial Government Research Articles

‘Solidarity of Action:’ Is Africa Reclaiming Its Historic Role as the Center of Palestinian Solidarity?

Solidarity against the colonial regime is one of the keys to overcoming the oppressor. This is why the 20th century, which is seen as the century of decolonization, experienced many demonstrations of solidarity from Africa to America. Palestine’s long resistance against the Israeli colonial project should be considered as another decolonization movement. Unfortunately, many Arab regimes have not shown solidarity with Palestine in recent years. While the Arab states have hesitated to show full solidarity, it is the African continent that has stepped in, internationalizing the debate regarding genocide. This is, indeed, not limited to Africa. South American states also show their support for Palestine and have halted their relations with Israel. How do we make sense of this solidarity, from Namibia to South Africa and from Nicaragua to Cuba? This commentary analyzes the evolution of Global South solidarity with Palestine since the foundation of Israel, with a more focused focus on the African continent. It demonstrates that as decolonial nations, African states have once again shown their solidarity with Palestine, even though there have been some hesitant times due to realpolitik and the U.S. role in protecting Israel’s status.

The Persistence of Traditional Healing for Mental Illness Among the Korekore People in Rushinga District, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Despite concerted attempts by colonial governments to stamp out traditional healing practices, the Korekore-speaking Shona people have continued to seek healing for mental illness from traditional healers in present-day Zimbabwe. In this article, I discuss the health-seeking trajectories of Korekore people when confronted with mental illness, particularly when and why they seek out traditional healing, and the role that traditional healers play in the quest for therapy.

The Role of Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) in Deforestation Issues in Endau-Rompin, 1970-2000

Tropical Rainforests in Peninsular Malaysia have a very important role in social, economic, and ecological development locally and transnationally. During the British colonial period, the forests in Peninsular Malaysia were heavily exploited until the idea of conservation came into existence to avoid the depletion of forest resources in the future. The colonial government subsequently established the Forestry Department by designating certain areas as forest reserves. However, after Independence, these forest areas continued to remain under threat to the extent that it has resulted in a decline in forest cover in addition to damage, fragmentation, and degradation of forests in favour of government policies that prioritized economic development. The rush for economic growth has created a conflict between forest stakeholders, particularly the state government and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). The objective of this paper is to present the role of ENGOs related to issues in deforestation and forest protection efforts within Endau-Rompin between 1970 where the EndauRompin controversy began until the establishment of Endau-Rompin State Park (Pahang) in 2000. This study used a qualitative approach, that is primary sources such as Parliamentary Hansard and newspapers, and secondary sources such as books and journal articles. In addition, field research was carried out through the observation of forest-related activities organized by several ENGOs. The findings of the study showed that one of the most critical roles of ENGOs in dealing with the issue of deforestation is to prevent activities that damage the forest, especially legal activities that involve decisions made by the state government. The involvement and role of ENGOs can only delay or prolong the process of losing forest cover. This happens because the state government has authority over the land (forest) matters according to the Federal Constitution which cannot be disputed from a legal point of view. The efforts to save the forest can only depend on the political will on whether the state government wants to address or ignore the concerns voiced by ENGOs in issues related to deforestation.

Colonial Governance in the Mining Sector: Las Bambas’ RSC and the Conflicts with the Communities

ABSTRACT Mining is an essential component of Peru's social metabolism and the main export item in monetary terms. Copper accounts for half of exports, and its demand is expected to increase because of the energy transition. Mining extraction causes permanent and numerous socio-environmental conflicts, particularly affecting indigenous populations whose integrity is at risk. The Chinese mining company MMG owns the Las Bambas mining project and has ongoing conflicts with affected communities. Affected communities are vulnerable to the mining giant and government repression. Despite promises of community participation, the company has failed to deliver. A long process of complaints and protests begins, to which more communities affected by the mining project are joining. Based on an analysis of the mining company's corporate social responsibility, we will show its colonial governance, demonstrating that its corporate social responsibility does not resolve the conflict, but on the contrary, favors the monetary claims of the communities supporting a corporate colonial behavior.

Which Stranger's Disease? Immigration, Immunization, and the Whitening of Cuba in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions.

In 1804, Cuban physician Tomás Romay tried and failed to create the first yellow fever vaccine. The article analyzes his experimental efforts, foregrounding the enslaved and enlisted subjects at the center of this early vaccine trial. Though a scientific failure, this brief experiment, the desires and logics embedded within it, and the measures deployed in its wake - in the form of European whitening campaigns - allow us to consider the political uses of immunity during the Age of Atlantic Revolutions. Historicizing these events within the wider geopolitics of the Caribbean, the article explicates the central role that yellow fever immunization played in Cuban authorities' attempts to shore up their political and economic sovereignty in the midst of anti-colonial and anti-slavery resistance. As such, it shows how yellow fever and its threat to social and economic order fits within a broader history of vaccination as a mechanism of colonial governance. Finally, by situating Cuban efforts to prevent yellow fever alongside the health concerns of enslaved people - concerns that arguably informed their resistance to slavery - the article also demonstrates how ideas about immunity and political belonging increasingly intersected through whiteness as an elite ideal in the era that Cuba first became a slave society.

Thoughts on the ink: a critical discourse analysis of women’s petitions in colonial Ijebu, Nigeria (1918–1953)

ABSTRACT Petitions were a prominent platform of engagement between colonial officers and Ijebu women during the colonial period in Nigeria. Studies on Ijebu women have been silent on how lexical choices in their structured petitions against the colonial government reveal inherent contextual issues. To address this void in scholarship, this study investigates petitions in colonial Ijebu with a view to describing the connection between women, power and protest. Engaging insights from critical discourse analysis, complemented with postcolonial feminism theory, twenty petitions constituted the study population. However, eight petitions were purposively selected to describe patterns of Ijebu women’s resistance against colonial hegemony and their implications for petition discourse in Ijebu land. The study notes that petitions in colonial Ijebu are contextually imbued with lexical choices which covertly negotiate power, threat and resistance. The petitions are replete with covert negotiations of power struggles between the colonial officers and Ijebu women.

Visualising the iconography of anti-colonial and anti-apartheid heroes and heroines in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa

Amidst the plethora of statues and monuments constructed as part of the post-apartheid monumental project in Pretoria, photographs of anti-colonial and anti-apartheid heroes and heroines are often used to remember and celebrate the contributions they made to the attainment of the new dispensation. Photographs (presented through statues and monuments) are crucial instruments used in conveying messages about these heroes and heroines, and at the same time denouncing issues of injustice and segregation that were the hallmarks of the colonial and apartheid regimes in Pretoria and South Africa. However, while a vast amount of literature has been published on anti-colonial and anti-apartheid monumentalisation in South Africa, not much attention has been given to iconography of the statues as an aspect that could inform research and understanding of how post-apartheid monumentalisation is not a break with the past, but, rather, a continuation of the pre-1994 practices. Drawing from eight photographs taken from the ‘Long March to Freedom’ statues park at the former Groenkloof Nature Reserve in Pretoria, this visual essay highlights the role played by some of these heroes and heroines at their time. The photographs were taken during two months of research conducted at the park from July to August 2016.

The African Human Rights Perspectives Through the Lense of Oral Narratives

Human rights existed in African tradition for societal order and for community responsibility of success and failures. People enjoyed freedom and preserved freedom according to community beliefs and customs. Advocacy was expressed through singing, drama, storytelling and assignment of roles based on age gender and ability. This paper unfolds human rights advocacy oral narratives. Hausa dated as far as BC 14th or 15th Century Arabic writing with the first poets Ibn al- Sabbagh and Muhammadual- Barnawi, other writers of the time were Abdullahi Sikka and Shekh Jibril ibn Umar. The first novels written in Hausa were the result of a competition launched in 1933 by the Translation Bureau in northern Nigeria. One year later the bureau published Muhammadu Bello’s Gandoki, in which its hero, Gandoki, struggles against the British colonial regime. Bello does in Gandoki what many writers were doing in other parts of Africa during this period: he experiments with form and content. His novel blends the Hausa oral tradition and the novel, resulting in a story patterned on the heroic cycle; it also introduces a strong thread of Islamic history. Didactic elements, however, were awkwardly interposed and severely dilute Gandoki’s aesthetic content (as often happened in other similarly experimental African novels). But Bello’s efforts would eventually give rise to a more sophisticated tradition of novel writing in Hausa. His experimentation found its most successful expression in Amos Tutola’s English-language novel The Palm-Wine Drunkard (1952). The Oral narratives understudy Include: Falsehood is More Profitable than Truth (translated from Hausa) One cannot Help an Unlucky Man (translated from Hausa) Wacici and her Friends (translated from Kikuyu). The selected oral narratives experiences displayed injustice of belief in telling lies and trickery, jealousy against the natural beauty and the bad lack aspect due to ignorance and inability to make right judgment for personal benefit. The study was aimed at unfolding antisocial behaviour that existed in in Africa as portrayed in the selected oral narratives. The expression of reaction and action taken to bring social order were represented in the Hausa selected narratives. The study used qualitative method and textual analysis to arrive at the injustice and measures used to condemn injustice as a means to preserve social order

On the Origins of Invalidation of British Colonial Legislation by Colonial Courts – the Van Diemen’s Land Dog Act Controversy of the 1840s – Part Two

ABSTRACT The first part of this paper examined the background to and conduct of a case called Symons v Morgan before the Supreme Court of Van Diemen’s Land. Symons appears to be the first case in which a colonial court asserted jurisdiction to invalidate a colonial ‘statute’ on the basis that the legislation concerned contravened the colony’s constitution. The Supreme Court claimed the jurisdiction as a matter of inference. There was no imperial or colonial legislation expressly granting such a power, nor any judicial authority – whether colonial or imperial in origin – supporting the Supreme Court’s conclusion. The second part of this paper analyses the responses of the colonial government to the Symons judgment, and consequently the responses of the imperial government and Parliament to those colonial initiatives. The actions of the imperial government and Parliament show acceptance of the principle that colonial courts could review the validity of colonial legislation.

1920~1930년대 초량토목출장소 낙동강개수공사의 시행과 성격

The Nakdong River Improvement Project, part of the larger Joseon River Improvement Initiative, spanned fifteen years and was largely coordinated through irrigation associations, which included lands owned by Japanese and some Korean landlords and capitalists. Despite the project’s ostensible goal of protecting the lives and properties of local residents—including both Koreans and Japanese—from flood risks, it was principally designed to advance the interests of the colonial regime and the landlord-capitalist class. This project showcases the blend of colonial and modern elements in infrastructure development, led and executed under Japanese direction with their technological expertise. The Choryang Civil Engineering Office and related facilities operated within a colonial employment structure, relegating Koreans mostly to unskilled manual labor and minimizing their roles in management or skilled positions. Contractors and suppliers were predominantly Japanese, using non-competitive contracts that largely excluded Korean involvement. Consequently, the main beneficiaries of the hydraulic and irrigation improvements were primarily the landowning classes, specifically Japanese and some Korean landlords and capitalists. The implementation of the Nakdong River Improvement Project catalyzed a multifaceted interplay of interests that extended beyond basic ethnic or socioeconomic dichotomies such as Korean versus Japanese or capitalists versus laborers. Despite this complexity, the execution of the project distinctly embodied the dynamics of colonial power, demonstrating the modern correlation of capital and technology with authority.

Marga Belitang Dalam Pemerintahan Onder Afdeeling Komering Ulu : Dinamika Sosial dan Budaya

This research is a local historical research that explains the Belitang clan in the Onder Afdeeling Komering Ulu government in terms of the history and social and cultural dynamics of the community. Marga is a form of government which is currently at the level of a sub-district and was established during the Dutch colonial government. The main issues are first, what is the history of the formation of the Belitang clan and second, what are the social and cultural dynamics of the Belitang clan community. This research is a qualitative descriptive research with data collection through observation, documentation, interviews and literature study. The results of this research conclude that (1) The origins of the Belitang clan began with the oldest hamlet in the area with residents who were descendants of the original Lampung Pepadun tribe. The community in the village is led by a clan balancer, namely Ratu Bagus Baginda, and lives in the Tanjung Raya Palace. He proposed the establishment of a clan government system in Belitang to the Dutch government and it was inaugurated in 1930 AD. (2) The social and cultural dynamics of the Belitang clan community have actually existed since the time of the Palembang Sultanate, for this reason the customary rules that apply in the community are almost the same as the rules mentioned in the Simbur Cahaya Law.

Subversive Liturgical Song: Jonas Manjengwa’s “Ndofamba Ndofamba” Song in the Methodist Episcopal Church and Colonial Regime in Southern Rhodesia

Abstract This article interrogates the work of Jonas Mandara Manjengwa, an African convert in the early movement of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) in Rhodesia. The article examines the ingenuity of Manjengwa, an MEC African pastor-teacher, in challenging the church’s ideological conceptions through his song “Ndofamba Ndofamba.” By prioritizing Manjengwa’s song, the article explores the appropriation of indigeneity in music writing as a challenge to the MEC’s theological and ideological conceptions. Utilizing James Scott’s “hidden transcript” theory, the article submits that “Ndofamba Ndofamba” is a subversive composition within the matrix of missionary liturgical hegemony. The subversion follows what Lamin Sanneh calls the “indigenous discovery of Christianity”—a prioritization of indigenous cultures in understanding Christianity. The article concludes that “Ndofamba Ndofamba” connotes subversion against the church’s ideology and the broader sociopolitical and economic realities in the Rhodesian colonial hegemony.

On Micropolitics: Climate adaptation and Indigenous governance in Western Alaska

Climate adaptation for Indigenous communities is not as simple as making good policy; it is equally about how policy is implemented and how collaboration unfolds between settler governments and Indigenous stakeholders. Rural Alaska Native villages are among the most environmentally threatened communities in the United States. Their ability to effectively manage environmental change and preserve sovereignty depends upon successful collaboration with a range of stakeholders, especially federal agencies. For more than two decades, academics and government agencies have documented a consistent pattern of failures, particularly by federal actors, to effectively manage adaptation challenges. These obstacles are sometimes misrepresented as policy failures. While poor policy is certainly involved in these poor outcomes, this paper highlights a set of barriers to successful collaboration that are not policy issues, per se, but rather micropolitical issues; that is, they pertain to the conduct of government in the context of Tribal relationships. Unaddressed, these micropolitical issues have created obstacles to Alaska Native communities’ self-determination as they adapt to a changing landscape. These barriers are explored in a case study drawn from Typhoon Merbok, which struck Western Alaska in 2022, and empirically grounded in a series of interviews and participant observation with experts, elders, elected officials, and Tribal staff. This article concludes with several concrete recommendations to improve the practice of domestic diplomacy between Indigenous communities and colonial governments.

Uncovering the Relationship between Political Policy and Religious Understanding with Political Participation: A Historical Approach

Political participation is one of the factors that can affect government policies. However, public political participation is volatile, depending on influencing factors. This research aims to uncover the relationship between political policy factors and religious understanding and political participation. The research was conducted on the Samin community of Tapelan Village using an oral history research method through interviews with 5 resource persons, including 2 Samin figures from Tapelan Village, 1 official from Tapelan Village, and 2 Muslim leaders from Tapelan Village. The results of the study show that there is a relationship between political policy and religious understanding of political participation. The policy of taking over the management of the Bola teak forest during the Netherlands colonial government encouraged the growth of Saminism (Agama Adam) where the political participation of the Samin community was apathetic. Meanwhile, the development program on the spiritual and mental aspects encourages the religious conversion of the Samin community to Islam where the political participation of the Samin community is spectators and gladiators which is indicated by participation in election activities, active lobbying, and establishing contact with Tapelan Village government officials to convey the aspirations of the community, and active in organizational activities even though it is only at the village government level.

The Separation of Church and State as an Imperial Project in the Philippines during the Early American Colonial Period

This paper examines the separation of church and state in the Philippines during the early American colonial period, contextualizing it within the process of American overseas expansion and considering it as one of the projects of imperial hegemony construction. After the Spanish–American War, the United States substituted Spain as the new colonial ruler of the Philippines, legitimizing its regime as the spread of ‘civilization’ to the Filipinos. On this basis, the Americans enacted laws guaranteeing religious freedom and introduced an American-style institution dealing with church–state relations. Beyond the legal and administrative initiatives, the new regime also constructed an official narrative of the transformation of political–religious relations in the Philippine that emphasized the absolute ‘difference’ between the American human rights principle, which guaranteed freedom of worship, and the Spanish theocracy, which was dedicated to the consolidation of privileges. By legislating the separation of church and state, buying up church properties, recognizing the equality of denominations, and constructing the official imperial narrative of church–state relations, the Americans hoped to ‘teach’ Filipinos that the ‘true’ belief was rooted in the inner convictions of individual Christians, not in the authority and coercion of the hierarchical church. By disciplining the construction of ‘difference’ under tutelary colonialism, the separation of church and state movement initiated by the American colonial government in the Philippines became an important source of imperial self-endowed legitimacy.

Integration of Gentry and Merchants in Singapore’s Chinese Community and Their Realist Policies (1877–1941)

In colonial times Chinese merchants in Singapore aspired to the status of gentry, played the role of gentry in society, and performed social functions of gentry. At the same time, some gentry became involved in trade to gain, maintain and expand their power and prestige. We call the phenomenon the integration of gentry and merchants. In the traditional research paradigm scholars have analyzed the phenomenon in terms of national, political, and cultural identity. It is true that Chinese merchant leaders in Singapore of that time considered themselves patriots of China and were devoted to China at heart. But this article reinterprets some aspects of the Chinese diaspora in Singapore. The authors outline three major sources of power: personal business networks, the Chinese government and consulate, the colonial government. To gain power, merchants used five main strategies: expanding cultural nexus of power, interlocking officership, leading political or cultural movement, political loyalty, family legacy and marriage alliances. There were four main organizational models: dialect group association, chamber of Commerce across dialect groups, British-Chinese association, and modern political organizations. Their activities are divided into four types: philanthropic business, political movements, social reform, comprehensive activities. The integration of gentry and merchants and their realist policies reflected social needs, traditional Chinese values and psychological needs. It was the essence of their economic, social and cultural activities to acquire, maintain and expand their wealth, power and prestige.

Decolonisation and Downshift-Knowledge Reproduction in Africa

Colonialism established a system of racial oppression, both mentally and physically, by impeding pre-colonial African education, which was originally intended to reflect the realities of pre-colonial African societies. Before the colonial administration, Africans were already developed people with different educations for different age groups, making them functional and inclusive within the larger political sphere. Decolonisation only reflects a shift in political power and the withdrawal of colonialists from African territories, but it has not resulted in any fundamental shift in the mentality of political leaders and nation-building in the decolonised nations. The education curriculum left behind by colonial governments was designed to make African nations economically and technologically dependent on developed nations. Such a pattern of education was not geared toward African technological development, but rather conditioned African nations to be consumers rather than producers, with the resulting loss of initiative among the Africans. The curriculum is insidious in terms of principles and implementation across all levels of educational institutions, slowly destroying the economies of African nations that were once ahead of European nations during the pre-colonial epoch. Instead of accelerating the socio-economic development of decolonised African nations, the curriculum based on Western principles and ideas further subjugates African economies to imperialist influence and hegemony through the instrumentality of international financial institutions, which frequently dictate exploitative asymmetric relationships between the developed and developing African nations. African nations must therefore look inward for an African-oriented and culturally appropriate educational curriculum to meet the demand for socioeconomic advancement and growth.

The United States in the World Today: How Sociologists Think About It and Why It Matters

The study of policy alone often means domestic policy, of interest to generalist sociologists interested in how political ideas are turned into domestic legislation, executive action, and/or court litigation. Foreign policy, as the financial, commercial, diplomatic and military relations of a state with foreign states, remains a niche subfield. But foreign relations should be conceived of as the broader set of entanglements between societies, encompassing transnational movements, expert networks, and fields. Then, sociological theories of foreign relations can interest generalist sociologists. In this review, we illustrate how this broad view of foreign relations applies to the study of the United States in the world today (USitWT) by first surveying how sociologists of the world society and world system have focused on transnational relations and the place of the United States in their dynamics, and how they have engaged with the question of power. We then demonstrate how field theorists’ study of transnational fields can allow sociologists to reconceptualize the historical role of the USitWT by highlighting continuities between European colonial governmentalities and current US transnational practices. This field perspective can allow sociologists to understand the USitWT as transnational, postcolonial, or neo-colonial governmentality, depending on the sociological and historical depth and range of its relation with different parts of the world.

The Cultural Tradition of Zombification in Haiti: An Example of Film White Zombie

The well-known narrative of zombies, the reanimated monsters of contemporary popular culture, can be traced back to the late 1960s, or more specifically to the release of the film Night of the Living Dead (1968) by American director George A. Romero. However, at the time of the film's inception the term zombie was already widely present in American popular culture: the cinematography of voodoo zombie, created in Haiti through magic and psychoactive substances, appeared in America in 1932, with the release of the film White Zombie, based on the travelogue The Magic Island (1929), by American missionary William Seabrooke. The paper initially points to the social and historical circumstances that led to the spread of zombies in Haiti: as the first independent nation of the Western Hemisphere, Haiti at the beginning of the twentieth century became the subject of American imperialist strategies and a threat to the maintenance of hegemony, therefore in the texts of colonial travel writers it was described as a nation of savagery, black magic, powerful voodoo cults, and the reanimated dead. Cultural and racist stereotypes that were transmitted to the United States justified the American "civilizing" mission, i.e. political and economic interventions. The role of zombies in Haiti was that of a slave, a profitable workforce, used by local urban elites, voodoo sorcerers, and colonial regimes since the eighteenth century. In this regard, my analysis highlights the ways in which White Zombie reproduces the established image of Haiti as an exotic place filled with mystery and dangers, adopts the dominant American viewpoints marked by discrimination and racism, and sets cultural norms of distinguishing between the civilized and the barbaric, whereby the white color of the skin reflects the norm of the civilized. To this end, the dialectic of slavery is emphasized in the film by the zombification of a young white woman, thus manifesting the tensions that existed between the imperialist powers and their "subjects" of enslavement, and emphasizing the unequal power relations between subordinate Haitian slaves and Westerners in high positions. Finally, the changes that have taken place over the decades of the zombie monster's development are highlighted: the zombie moves away from Haiti and approaches the modern world, and becomes a reanimated, highly infectious, cannibalistic monster of consumer society, that is, a monster of the global capitalist system.

Analysis of the Influence of Organizational Culture, Transformational Leadership Style and Employee Performance Assessment on Employee Satisfaction at Bio Farma

Bio Farma (Persero) is a state-owned pharmaceutical company that was established in 1890 as a bacteriology laboratory by the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies and has undergone many transformations until it became Bio Farma (Persero) in 1997. This study aims to examine the influence of leadership style, organizational culture, and performance assessment on the satisfaction of permanent employees at Bio Farma. In this scientific paper, the influence of employee participation through latent variables Power Distance Index (FOC1), IDV (FOC2), Masculinity versus Femininity (FOC3), Uncertainty Avoidance Index (FOC4), Ideal Influence (FOC5), Individual Consideration (FOC6), Inspirational Motivation (FOC7), Intellectual Stimulation (FOC8), Validity (FOC9), Approval (FOC10), Reliability (FOC11), Objective (FOC12), Salary (FOC13), Promotion (FOC14), Co-workers (FOC15), Boss (FOC16), and Employment (FOC17). The researcher used Partial Least Square to see the influence between variables by testing the outer model as well as testing the inner model. Penelitian ini dilakukan terhadap 120 responden karyawan Bio Farma. The results of the study show that the three independent variables had a direct influence on employee satisfaction (p-value < 0.05), meanwhile, the simultaneous influence of the three variables showed no real influence (p-value = 0.639) with a p-value limit of < 0.5.