Colonialism Research Articles

Literary-social Interpretations of the ‘Stagnation’ Period in 20th Century Uzbek Literature

The period from the 1960s to the 1980s under Brezhnev is stamped in history, both Soviet and Uzbek, as “stagnation.” Particularly for Uzbekistan, this period is known for such stigmatized events as the “cotton” or “Uzbek” scandal – the investigation into Uzbek First Party Secretary Sharaf Rashidov (1917-1983) for misrepresenting cotton harvest results during his twenty-four-year tenure – and the Afghan war (1979-1989). The experience of striving to save the nation from the aggressive system and stereotypes of society, from the "values" of slavery and subordination, is reflected in some examples of 20th-century Uzbek literature. The most prominent figures in XX Century’s Uzbek literary history, Said Ahmad (1920-2007) in his novel Silence (Jimjitlik, 1988) and O‘tkir Hoshimov (1941-2013) in Lives Passed in Dream (Tushda kechgan umrlar, 1992) fell apart from the literature written as the Soviet Union describes the events of this period through a prism of moral monikers. Their understanding of their place in the world has always been through their connection to the nation. Social anxiety for them is inextricably linked to artistic anxiety and vice versa. Writers took it upon themselves to unmask the sins associated with this period, such as “two-facedness” (qiyofasizlik), bribery, fraud, cruelty, and bloodthirstiness (in reference to the Afghan war). The novels focusing on the “stagnation” period played an important role in transforming these moral criticisms of Soviet rule into criticisms of Soviet rule as colonial exploitation and serve as an attempt to unmask the horrors and misdeeds behind Soviet officialdom that have long gone unnoticed. In this paper, I will examine some of those moral constructions and how they framed the period in the minds of post-Soviet Uzbeks. The literary interpretations of the problems in stagnation will be analyzed in the historical, cultural, political and literary context. I hope this paper contributes to the research carried out on Central Asian studies, including Uzbek Literature Literary history, which is known very little worldwide.

Expansion of Japanese Ceramic Industry in Manchuria and Colonial Exploitation in the Early 20th Century

Towards the end of the Qing Dynasty and into the early Republic of China, the ceramics industry, a vital component of China’s economy, faced stagnation. In response, the central government embarked on modernization efforts to rejuvenate the industry, achieving tangible progress such as establishing modern systems through the Porcelain Company. Despite these efforts, Japan aggressively exported goods to China, aiming to expand its trade and dominate the Chinese market. Additionally, the ceramics department within the central laboratory of the South Manchurian Railway Company was established to mass-produce ceramics for heavy chemical use, utilizing resources from Manchuria to meet the substantial material demands for foreign invasions. Furthermore, modern Japanese apprenticeships were extended to Chinese laborers to meet the daily ceramic needs of Japanese residents in the northeastern region. Thus, on the surface, the ceramics industry in the Northeast appeared to have expanded in various aspects.The Chinese ceramics industry underwent significant changes in production scale, distribution, technology, and infrastructure. However, these developments were not the result of natural growth but rather arose from the allocation of raw materials and products essential for Japan’s ceramics sector. Moreover, they were fueled by the harsh exploitation of laborers in the northeastern ceramics industry, serving as a key aspect of Japan’s broader strategy of mass colonization.

Beyond A New World in Space: Critical Astral Frontiers in Octavia Butler and Adam Garnet Jones

This paper explores two contemporary literary visions of space settlement to gauge their potential within an emancipatory feminist and antiracist imaginary of the future. In doing so, it engages with the broader question of whether literary interplanetary dreams are necessarily tied up in a colonial rhetoric of violent expansion, or if they can also be organized to serve the interests of oppressed and underserved groups in an Anthropocene context. The text examines and compares two recent narratives of space settlement, the one found in Octavia Butler’s ‘Earthseed’ series and Adam Garnet Jones’ short story ‘History of the New World.’ Based on a comparative close reading of both, this paper argues that both stories frame the project of resettling in space as a hopeful alternative to life within a collapsed natural world and the precarious socio-political framework that has arisen from it, albeit with distinctly different outcomes. This comparison focuses specifically on the organization of such utopian extraplanetary societies and the roles they fulfill in the present. Crucially, this paper considers how both stories evaluate the possibility of choosing not to leave for the astral frontier.

From Kabylia to Marrakech: art, orientalism, and the transcolonial career of Azouaou Mammeri

ABSTRACT Over his lifetime (c. 1890–1954), the Algerian painter and administrator Azouaou Mammeri traced an impressive transcolonial geography that simultaneously revealed the limits and possibilities for colonised subjects to enact agency within a colonial system. Mammeri’s physical and figurative movements between Algeria, Morocco, and France, between ‘fine arts’ and ‘native arts’ worlds, and between colonised subject and colonial administrator also indicated a transgression of boundaries of identity, race, and power. This was something that contemporary French colonial officials and arts critics observed and commented upon, often with deep ambivalence: how to accommodate someone like Mammeri in ways that did not fundamentally trouble or upend the rigid and hierarchical categories of the French Empire? In this article, I take Mammeri’s mobility as a case study for liminal subjects who alternately challenged or were absorbed into colonial systems predicated on European supremacy, and consider the ways in which Mammeri’s agency, racial positioning, and personal ‘merit’ shaped the dynamic of his movements.

Unmasking the Master Narrative: Exclusionary Practices and the Enslaved African Muslims Omar ibn Said, Bilali Muhammad, and Abdulrahman Ibrahima Sori

This study aims to investigate the exclusionary practices encountered by enslaved African Muslims in the antebellum United States, with an emphasis on how these practices shaped their lives. The significance of this study is that it sheds light on the challenges faced by individuals such as Omar ibn Said, Bilali Muhammad, and Abdulrahman Ibrahima Sori, offering insights into the workings of historical power structures. The guiding research question is: “In what ways did exclusionary practices impact the lives of the enslaved Muslims under study?” Utilizing a decolonial framework, inspired by the works of Walter Mignolo and Anibal Quijano, the study engages with concepts including the ‘master narrative’, ‘coloniality of power’, and ‘exclusionary practices’ to assess the legacy of oppression. The study contributes to the scholarship by providing a focused analysis of the experiences of enslaved Muslims, a topic that has received limited attention in historical and archival research. The conclusion will synthesize the discussion on exclusionary practices and the ‘master narrative’, reinforcing their importance in historical analysis.

From infamy to truth. Epistemic coloniality and knowledges in resistance: an approach to the cases of Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to show the regime of truth in the institutional commissions that have the objective of restoring history by establishing a democratic, equitable, comprehensive, inclusive and fair criterion against the attempts of re-victimization and suppression of memory that Western political and cultural traditions have installed through their mechanisms of power.Design/methodology/approachBased on the analysis of the cases of Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú, they establish the material conditions from which prejudices and hegemonic stereotypes are intertwined to reproduce serious violations of human rights in democratic political and epistemic frameworks. The colonial function of the truth commissions in Mexico is analyzed, which are presented as mechanisms for social development, political and colonial reproduction of liberal democracy.FindingsThe qualitative results allow considering the way in which the different truth commissions in Mexico have been strongly linked to epistemic mechanisms in which truth and justice favor the reproduction of established relationships based on race, social class and gender. Especially in the so-called democratic transition, violence, truth and justice come together to highlight power relations in situations that have been disavowed by the intelligentsia.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the research are found in the historical configuration of the truth commissions in Mexico. The data, references and assessments are crossed by the initial function of the truth commissions and the establishment of apparatuses and mechanisms based on transitional justice. Based on this, it can be considered a methodological oversight to shift the analysis of truth commissions toward a critical assessment of the truth as a regime of government and hegemonic and colonization criteria from two very specific cases.Originality/valueThe originality of the work is found in the critical discernment of truth as a political category and the coloniality of power.

Robert Byron: An Iconoclast on the Road to Appreciation of Islamic Architecture

England in 1933 was a claustrophobic, desolate, and enervating country generating a generation of discontents like Robert Byron. Unsatisfied with the received ideas of Western aestheticism, he aligned himself with Islamic aestheticism and departed for Oxiana to study Islamic architecture resulting in his The Road to Oxiana, a masterpiece in travel writing. This study contends that Byron is an iconoclast who undermines the rhetoric of colonialism and imperialism in his travel book. To elaborate its analysis, the study employs Holland’s and Huggan’s idea of countertravel writing along with psychoanalysis. It argues that Byron’s countertravel writing in his narrative manifests in two ways. Firstly, when he critiques the reductive picture of Islamic architecture by exalting and appreciating its beauty, especially its Kufic inscriptions. Secondly, when he extols Gohar Shad, a renowned patroness of architecture by acquitting her of the orientalist charge and acknowledging her contributions to Islamic architecture. In doing so, he reveals that she is his ‘anima’ and archetypal mother.

Eurocentrism and Coloniality of Power in Knowledge Production in Postcolonial States

Eurocentrism and Coloniality of Power in Knowledge Production in Postcolonial States

A Post-Colonial critique on A Passage to India by Edward Morgan Forsterand Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

This study is centralized on the significance of post-colonial criticism implanted in Edward Morgan Forster’s A Passage to India and Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable employing varying quintessential post-colonial theories coined by important post-colonial theorists. The following research involves scrutinizing the post-colonial space and the major critics in it corresponding with the horrifying ramifications of imperialism that alters the socio-political, cultural, and economical dogmas of a nation including the linguistic approach which plays an important role in the development of the literary canon. This research explores the subject of colonial implications presented by two different writers originating from far away poles which conclusively examines how two distinct categories of colonial exploitation work one being triggered by foreign agents and another being planted inside the premises of a nation making a distinction between the mechanism of oppression. The two primary texts’ projects justify the outlook on the aftermath colonialism and also portray important theories of Hybridity, Oppression, and Othering.

“[My] soft, smooth skin… cut deep”: Using Filmmaking to Imagine, Feel and Perform Colonial Natural History in the Museum

Museums internationally continue to engage in urgent debates about the need to decentre the epistemological foundations of collections and institutions built on colonial expansion. Industrial cities like Manchester are only just beginning to address the uncomfortable legacies of colonial exploitation within their educational and cultural institutions. Contributing to this discussion, this article examines a project at the Manchester Museum that invited students from a local school to collaborate in the production of a film inspired by taxidermy specimens originating from a 1929 hunting safari in Sudan. Recounting the methods and outputs of this practice-based research project, I suggest that a cross-collections, creative approach to engaging audiences can generate new forms of imaginative and performed knowledge about the colonial histories of collections. Not only can these new forms of knowledge challenge existing accounts of provenance, they can be a tool to address historical injustices: inviting audiences to re-tell the histories of these things in their own words and making permanent space for these creative outputs within collections.

Patrón de poder colonial: síntesis y porvenir Sobre el artículo de Aníbal Quijano: “Colonialidad del poder, cultura y conocimiento en América Latina”, 1999

The work of Aníbal Quijano has played a pivotal role in bridging the gap between dependency theory and the decolonial movement. This premise finds its primary foundation in Quijano’s seminal article, “Coloniality of Power, Culture, and Knowledge in Latin America.” In this article, Quijano elucidates the historical evolution of the “pattern of colonial power,” a concept of profound significance and widespread recognition within decolonial discourse. For the sake of didactic clarity, this exposition distills three fundamental aspects of the colonial power pattern. These aspects not only elucidate the intricate connection between dependency and decoloniality but also delineate the overarching themes of the decolonial movement. These themes encompass a critique of modernity, Eurocentrism, and individualist capitalism, culminating in the articulation of a Latin American utopia struggling to establish its own legitimacy for critical examination. This, in turn, paves the way for a reconfiguration of the epistemic framework necessary for emancipation and social liberation. The three core facets of the decolonial current, as expounded in this article, include: a) The Intersection of Race and the Colonial Power Pattern, b) Subalternity and Its Relationship to Imitation, c) Eurocentric Hegemony and the Nexus of Material and Subjective Dependence. This article, while concluding with an open-ended perspective, underscores the enduring influence of Aníbal Quijano’s legacy within the realm of decolonial scholarship.

A STUDY OF COLONIAL RESOURCE EXTRACTION IN SOUTHERN ASSAM

This article studies the impact of an extractive colonial economy on the local ecology especially timber resources in Cachar, located in present-day southern Assam. It engages with untamed colonial exploitation of the huge forest reserves, thereby depleting the region of its critical resources. Reports of various colonial official surveys created an appetite for the British Raj to develop an interest in the natural resources of Cachar. Equipped with information about navigable rivers, the colonial rulers began to see the commercial prospects of exploiting the natural resources, especially timber. When the Assam Forest Department was established, the exploitation of this wood in Cachar and elsewhere in Assam became more systematic and streamlined. This is evident with the construction of the Assam-Bengal railway in 1898 in opening up Cachar to an extractive colonial economy.

Sociology of the Contrapuntal: The Holocaust and the Rhetoric of Evil

The essay dwells on the construction of a sociology of the contrapuntal that revolves around the social and symbolic patterns concerning the representation of mass human annihilation, as in the case of the Holocaust. In this view, Roger Silverstone’s metaphor of media contrapuntuality – inspired by the analysis of some narrative masterpieces focused on imperialistic and colonial exploitation – may support the development of a sociological pathway supporting the analysis of the “rhetoric of evil” historically permeating the reflection on the refusal and the oppression of Otherness. Contrapuntuality deals with communication, memory and identity, since the rhetoric patterns of media discourse are shaped not only by the negative issues, but also by good deeds and intentions that rarely are attractive to journalists. The proposal of such a sociology of the contrapuntal, inspired by the counterbalance of good and evil in the public sphere, complies with the increasing complexity of our mediascapes, in which mass massacres and identity annihilation, including the Holocaust, are constantly media represented, in line with the need to contrast cultural marginalization and existential displacement.

A Place of "Re-collect": Zainichi Experiences with/in Utoro, Japan

Abstract: As a memory place that exemplifies contemporary Zainichi experiences, the Utoro district in Kyoto, Japan, entails stories of Japan's colonial exploitation and postcolonial oppression, yet simultaneously reveals human hope, cooperation, and solidarity. First formed for the Korean workers and their families mobilized for the construction of a military airport during World War II, Utoro was left abandoned for decades in postwar Japan. Its Korean residents have suffered from continuous eviction suits, harassment, and violence including the most recent arson attack in 2022. At the same time, these intricacies of colonial origin and postcolonial controversy also invited networked grassroots efforts among the Japanese and Koreans to remember and reconstruct the place's sociohistorical meanings, resulting in the construction of the Utoro Peace Memorial Museum in 2022. This paper highlights the significance of Zainichi experiences with/in Utoro through an analysis of identity, discourse, and representation of the place. Drawing upon collective memory scholarship and adopting a theoretical framework of re-collection, the paper unravels complex meanings of a site in relation to human acts of remembering, making sense of, and finding significance to our past experiences with/in it. By situating visual and discursive voices of the Utoro community (Zainichi in Utoro ), such as its former residents' oral testimonies and museum displays, this study elucidates the significance of Utoro in Zainichi history. This paper argues that Utoro projects contradictory positionalities of Korean subjects as both integral and excess in the history of colonial and postcolonial socio-politics of ethno-racial Other in Japan.

Рец. на кн.: О.П. Коломиец, И.И. Крупник (отв. ред.). Прикладная этнология Чукотки: народные знания, музеи, культурное наследие (К 125-летию поездки Н.Л. Гондатти на Чукотский полуостров в 1895 году). М.: PressPass, 2020. 468 с.

This collective monograph, edited by O. P. Kolomiets and I. I. Krupnik, is dedicated to the memory of the colonial administrator of the Anadyr district Nikolai L. Gondatti as one of the founders of the ethnographic study of Chukotka. The collection of papers is the result of the work of a team of 18 authors and includes texts of different genres: analytical works, including historical and sociolinguistic papers, publications of archival documents by N. L. Gondatti, field essays, memoirs, biographical sketches, essays, letters, and articles about museum collections. In addition to the biography and heritage of Gondatti, the authors focus on traditional ecological knowledge, the local history of the settlements of Chukotka, indigenous languages, and cultural heritage. The authors propose rethinking the concept of applied ethnology and understanding it more broadly. The book is an example of co-authorship with representatives of indigenous communities. The review provides an overview of the chapters of the monograph, the structural features, and genre diversity of the articles in the book. Also in focus is the authors’ understanding of the term “applied ethnology” and, in particular, the expansion of this concept.

The Long-term Effects of Colonialism on Poorer Nations and What is Owed to Them: Monetary Restitution, Archaeological Artifacts, and climate change

This paper explores the enduring impact of colonialism on global wealth distribution, addressing whether affluent former colonial powers have a moral duty to provide reparations to their impoverished former colonies. It argues for direct payments to affected nations and individuals, repatriation of looted artifacts, and financial support for climate change adaptation. The study highlights historical atrocities, like the Namibian genocide and the British exploitation of India, to emphasize the depth of suffering caused. Ultimately, the research underscores the ethical obligation of wealthier nations to address the persistent legacies of colonial exploitation, encompassing economic, cultural, and climate-related restitutions.

The Pandemic’s Golden Touch: (Neo)Extractivism, Coloniality, and Necropolitics on Brazil’s Indigenous Territories

AbstractMining has been at the forefront of coloniality for hundreds of years in Brazil, representing one of the main threats to the integrity and health of Indigenous lands. The 1988 Brazilian Constitution recognized Indigenous peoples’ rights to the lands they occupy, and their natural resources, according to their traditions, uses, beliefs, and practices. Constitutional provisions, however, have not impeded governments and lawmakers from actively enabling extractive activities in Indigenous territories and their surroundings. Recently, the Bolsonaro government proposed a package of laws and policies to legalize mineral exploitation on Indigenous lands, using the economic uncertainties generated by the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification. However, this action must be explained through the paradigms (or philosophical frameworks) of the extractive economy and coloniality of power, operationalized by necropolitics. The article’s main argument is that the Constitution requires the government to engage in practices of decoloniality that express Indigenous legal traditions. Even though a newly elected government has been revoking many of Bolsonaro’s proposals, the paradigms of the extractive economy and the coloniality of power have a profound, structural influence on the Brazilian legal and political systems and must be challenged by a revival of decolonial ways of thinking and acting.

An Afrocentric Ecoreading of ‘Coloniality of Power’ in Prophet Hosea’s Narrative

This work examines the environmental challenges occasioned by Samaria’s ‘imperial singleness’ in prophet Hosea’s text from an African perspective. The interaction between the ‘seat of power’ in Samaria and imperial forces in Hosea’s time appears to have negatively influenced Israel’s attitude towards land use (Hos 12:1, 2; 1 Ki 21:1–28; 2 Ki 9:26). Such interface becomes evident in a shift, by Samaria’s ‘seat of power’, from Yahweh’s prescribed land-use policy to those of their imperial masters—Assyria and Egypt. Despite Israel’s liberation from Egypt by Yahweh during the exodus (Hos 11:1), their susceptibility to treaty alliances with these imperial forces remains vivid in Hosea’s narrative (Hos 7:1–16; 12:1–2). Echoing the words of Ngwa, such an alliance seemingly classifies Samaria’s monarchy as a ‘localised imperial singularity’ and a ‘single hero’ as against the ‘communal oneness with the divine, humans and the earth itself’. This ‘localised imperial singleness’ and its effect on Israel’s land was subjected to a critical engagement premised on the principles of interconnectedness and the voice of the earth, while a combination of Mburu’s African Hermeneutics and Kavus’ Ecological Hermeneutics is employed for the purpose of critical decolonial discourse.

Supported Open Learning and Decoloniality: Critical Reflections on Three Case Studies

Open education has been highlighted as a route to social justice and decolonisation. This paper presents reflections on decolonisation processes pertaining to three educational technology projects conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa, Myanmar and Kenya, each of which featured contributions by The Open University (UK). Through recognising the importance of under-represented Global South perspectives, we consciously and critically reflect on our cases from a Global North framing to assess the extent to which the Supported Open Learning (SOL) model for engagement supports decolonisation and related processes. We use the categories of coloniality of being, coloniality of power, and coloniality of knowledge to structure our reflections. As open educational practice (OEP), the SOL model can offer a practical approach which emphasises equity and inclusion. SOL involves both an ethos and a set of pedagogical practices. This can support meaningful critical reflection and exchange while offering a pragmatic approach to the delivery of educational technology initiatives. In conclusion, a framework mapping features of SOL and their relation to decoloniality is offered.

Resilience of traditional midwifery in Southern Cameroons: 1922-1961

It is instructive that well organized healthcare systems existed in Africa before contacts with the outside world. During this period, midwifery services were prioritized because societal wellbeing depended on the quality and availability of child and maternity services. The arrival of European colonial imperialists with their assumed superior culture/civilization and their colonial economic agenda caused the introduction of Western biomedicine. This was intended in part to maintain a constant and healthy work force for colonial exploitation. Drawing from the case of Southern Cameroons, this paper sets out to examine the resilience of local midwifery practices in the face of an imposed Western biomedicine. The paper was informed by both primary and secondary sources. Archival information and oral interviews made up the primary sources while books, published articles and dissertations constituted the secondary sources. The discriptive historical approach was employed in the analysis of the work. This study submits that: African women were not passive subjects on issues of their reproductive life but agents that could reject imposed values and stick to their tested practices. The ideological and cultural arrogance that characterized the introduction of Western biomedicine had the unintended impact of galvanizing an unexpected resilience of traditional medical practices. Consequently appreciable change in favor of Western biomedicine was only witnessed in the period after independence.