Colonial Framework Research Articles

Gabe Masao in Translation

The following section includes an introduction to the work of Okinawan historian Gabe Masao by Wendy Matsumura and Tze M. Loo, along with translations of two of his articles that were previously available only in the original Japanese. First, Matsumura and Loo’s introduction situates Gabe’s work within the historiographical literature on the Ryūkyū kingdom’s annexation by the Japanese state, arguing that although he eschews the word “colonialism” to describe the process through which the newly formed Okinawa prefecture is incorporated into the empire, his work provides compelling evidence to support the application of a colonial framework to understand Japan’s rule of the prefecture. Next is Gabe’s essay “From Ryūkyū to Okinawa,” as excerpted and translated by Matsumura. Last is Loo’s excerpt and translation of Gabe’s “Actions toward Modern Japanese National Consciousness: The Case of Ryūkyū-Okinawa.”

Help, The Women are Naked: Bodies, Power & Resistance in ‘Post-colonial’ Uganda

This paper engages with acts of naked protest in Uganda to explore their effect and affect as a decolonial praxis for both gender and human rights. In this paper, the successes of such rights activism by Ugandan women are made clear. With regard to womanhood, this paper discusses how naked protest questions Western epistemologies of gender in colonized Uganda – troubling an exclusionary and racialized sex/gender dimorphism through its anachronistic performance that relies on bringing a specific pre-colonial power imbued in Ugandan womanhood into a ‘post-colonial’ present. With human rights, this paper proposes that both human rights and gender are inextricably linked and must be read in tandem to truly actualize the significance of naked protest. Where claims to womanhood are made, inevitably, claims to a denied humanness are too. Decolonizing the human in human rights requires reconceptualization that consequentially returns us to Wynter’s question: what does it mean to be human? This paper attempts to offer some preliminary answers by necessarily reading this decolonial movement with an epistemic disobedience and by emphasizing the importance/power of the category ‘human’ in ‘post-colonial’ Uganda. Notably so, the ‘limitation’ of naked protest is also explored, particularly its participation within a colonial framework for the way in which naked protest fails to move beyond established gender boundaries. That said this paper questions whether this circumstance marks an inadequacy or, given that naked protest infuses agentic and political meanings to what it means to be a Black Ugandan woman, a necessary utility. Altogether, this paper is interested in reading the performance of naked protest through a lens that goes beyond the corporeal, or more precisely, that reads this corporeal performance in a metaphysical or macro-societal arena paying particular attention to the ways that it utilities pre-colonial cultural meanings as a source of power to demand rights and lay claim to the categories woman and human.

Miscegenation and militarization: undoing racial colonial citizenship for the next century

ABSTRACT This essay considers the Immigration Act of 1924, otherwise known as the Johnson-Reed Act (JRA), within historical and contemporary contexts of anti-miscegenation and Indigenous erasure that are undercurrents of citizenship and immigration processes. By using a framework of settler colonialism carried out by the U.S. nation-state, we explore connections among racialized peoples in U.S. American empire and the push for racial purity through systems of blood quantum and anti-miscegenation laws. With attention to how colonialism from the continental USA flows to locales such as Guåhan/Guam, a place enacting sovereignty despite occupation and colonial possession, we consider how immigration and citizenship are wielded as tools of U.S. American militarization. Ultimately, we argue that critiquing miscegenation and militarism is necessary to overcome racial and colonial violences of empire.

Neither Naïve Nor Fatalistic: Decolonizing Mining Partnerships With Indigenous Communities in Mongolia and Australia

Mining partnerships have often been promoted as opportunities for meaningful collaboration between corporations and Indigenous communities. However, these partnerships frequently lack a nuanced understanding of the colonial assumptions that underpin power imbalances and divergent perspectives. This study addresses this gap by examining how a multinational mining corporation, Indigenous communities, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) representing these communities (de)legitimize their mining partnerships within the framework of global stakeholder colonialism in Australia and Mongolia. The study shows how stakeholder colonialism coerces Indigenous communities into accepting a social reality where mining is inevitable, either with or without partnerships. This dynamic reflects the hegemonic power of mining corporations, which is sustained not by a balance of coercion and consent but by discursive coercion without consent. This implies that there is a failure of this hegemonic power to fully establish itself, opening the door for subaltern resistance and counter-hegemonic struggles by Indigenous peoples. By highlighting Indigenous perspectives that challenge the prevailing managerial views in mining corporations, this study disrupts the corporate narrative that portrays the sole social objectivity where mining is inevitable. Instead, it advocates for a more nuanced understanding that goes beyond a simplistic view of mining partnerships as either naïve democratic deliberation or fatalistic stakeholder colonialism.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FRENCH AND ZIONIST SETTLER COLONIALISM IN ALGERIA AND PALESTINE

The paper explores and analyzes similarities and differences between French settler colonialism in Algeria and Jewish Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine. This study focuses on the history and historical development of French settler colonialism and Jewish Zionist settler colonialism by deploying the analytical framework of settler colonialism, and the comparative history of settler colonialism. Settler colonial studies and comparative settler colonialism allow for gaining insight into the genesis, and development of settler colonies. The intention behind the application of comparative settler colonialism, specifically in juxtaposing French settler colonialism in Algeria and Jewish Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine is to identify overlaps, similarities as well as differences between these settler polities. The results of this study have shown that French and Zionist settler colonialism share numerous similarities and features. The most important feature that these settler colonialisms adhere to is the logic of elimination, which is defined as policies and practices of settler colonial policies aimed at the dispossession, displacement, ethnic cleansing, genocide, as well as cultural assimilation of the indigenous populations. In this case, both French and Zionist settler colonialisms have subscribed and followed the logic of the elimination of the natives. Yet as opposed to French settler colonialism, Zionist settler colonialism has been less interested in cultural assimilation and integration of the indigenous people of Palestine into settler society. Another conspicuous difference between French and Zionist settler colonialism is that while French settler colonialism is already defunct, Zionist settler colonialism has managed to survive and persist. The current study contributes to settler colonial studies and the comparative history of settler colonialism. Moreover, our research can inform other studies in the field of settler colonialism, and we suggest that more research into comparative settler colonialism needs to be undertaken.

Hindu Nationalism and the Converging, Diverging and Intersecting Identities of Caste and Race in India: Dialogue, Dilemma and Discourse

This essay unpacks how Hindu nationalism has understood the concepts of caste and race through its ideologues’ textual strategies. It is divided into three sections. The initial section uncovers how Hindu nationalism’s dialogue with the colonial framework of knowledge produced several conceptual dilemmas inconsistent with its core objectives. The second part demonstrates how to counter such dilemmas proponents Hindu nationalists indulged in myriad intellectual manoeuvres to arrive at such notions of the interrelationship between caste and race, which are complimentary to its principal agenda. The final section unravels how their intellectual strategies produced a largely conservative outlook of passive reformism.

Retribution for tribal sovereignty: Settler colonial policing and civil justice impacts

Unique among marginalized groups, American Indians are both citizens of the United States and citizens of sovereign tribal nations, as recognized (but not granted) by federal Indian law. However, even as tribal nations exert increasing economic and political power, criminal legal outcomes for tribal members—who interface with an array of tribal, local, state, and federal law enforcement and justice systems—remain detrimental or are worsened. These outcomes also include increased contact with state courts and the delegitimization of tribal courts, which uniquely implicate the civil justice context. We use the settler colonial framework to investigate how tools of state criminal law, such as heavy policing and disparate punishment, may impact the civil justice needs of Indigenous people, and more broadly, the very sovereignty these policies aim to protect. Drawing on interviews and observations in tribal and county-level courts, we examine the experiences of American Indians and other stakeholders in Indian country. We identify how enforcement practices, surveillance of space, and the complexities of layered policing within a “jurisdictional maze” contribute to the deterioration of tribal sovereignty. We contextualize our findings by considering the historical, cultural, and socio-economic factors that influence the experiences of American Indians in the criminal justice system, and by examining the civil justice implications.

Indigenous social infrastructures and affective experiences of resettlement in Hasankeyf town after the Ilısu Dam

This study draws attention to the role of urban redevelopment practices in shaping indigenous social infrastructures and community life in the post-displacement and resettlement period. From decolonial and relational perspectives, I explore how relations with social infrastructures change because of urban redevelopment practices following displacement and resettlement in Hasankeyf caused by the Ilısu Dam. To understand the relations between Indigenous resettlers and social infrastructures, I focus on residents’ lived experiences, practices and sense of belonging by examining the affective implications of the changes in the social infrastructures and affordances resulting from urban redevelopment practices (before and after the flooding of Hasankeyf in 2020 and resettlement in 2021). A mix of qualitative methods was used by combining a decolonial method of cuerpo-territorio, interviews and observations. The intertwining of the colonial framework with the practices of urban redevelopment in Turkey is evident in the process of the resettlement of Hasankeyf. The downplay of the reconstruction and protection of indigenous social infrastructures during urban redevelopment after the Ilısu Dam has damaged the sense of belonging, community relations, affective experiences, indigenous cultural practices and social development of the resettlers. I extend the understanding of indigenous social infrastructures in the social infrastructure literature introduced by Klinenberg and by Latham and Layton. I outline five key aspects that highlight the need for and importance of indigenous social infrastructures in the context of urban redevelopment through resettlement.

Between two fires: Turkana chiefs in the colonial ‘contact zone’

ABSTRACT Drawing on archival material, supplemented by oral history interviews done in Turkana in 2018 and oral history work by Lamphear from the mid-1970s, this article investigates the different dilemmas and challenges faced by the chiefs in Turkana District during the colonial occupation from the 1910s to 1963. Through the lens of Pratt’s ‘contact zone,’ I show how two Turkana chiefs, Abong and Ekadille, acted as both colonial agents and legitimate local leaders simultaneously, and how they navigated the peculiar space between the colonial government and their local communities. Chiefs like Abong mastered this space, leveraging the colonial structure to advance their agendas. Negotiating local and colonial demands posed a delicate balance, often conflicting with their communities’ interests. Chiefs faced life-and-death loyalty choices when enforcing colonial measures contrary to local practices. Abong, backed by colonial support, strengthened both the administration and himself. In contrast, Ekadille dealt with a rebellious community and insufficient colonial backing. Both chiefs shaped the chieftaincy structure through actions and dialogs with European officers and their communities. This dynamic process reflected their different backgrounds, resulting in diverse outcomes. The article underscores how these chiefs adeptly operated within the colonial framework, influencing Turkana's power dynamics in distinct ways.

Co-management as an Ethical Space of Engagement: Prospects for Reconciliation in Vuntut National Park

Parks Canada’s commitments to reconciliation marks a significant shift in the governing paradigm of national parks, moving away from a colonial framework towards models that respect and elevate Indigenous forms of governance and knowledge systems. However, the extent to which a land claims–based co-management model, as the dominant mechanism of governance and engagement employed by Parks Canada, can serve as a vehicle for reconciliation is an open question. This paper endeavours to better understand the relational dynamics of co-management for their potential to advance reconciliation in national park settings. Using the lens of ethical space, we identify factors that either facilitate or impede relationship building between Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and Parks Canada in the co-management of Vuntut National Park. Insights from semi-structured interviews conducted in 2021 with 11 community members and park managers indicate that an evolving-management relationship is sustained through extensive community engagement and Parks Canada’s support for strengthening community connections to the land. By adopting an ethical space framework for analysis, we were able to highlight different conditions and elements necessary for a protected-area co-management arrangement to serve as a solid foundation for reconciliation. Our analysis also revealed various structural impediments to the establishment of an ethical space conducive to reconciliation, particularly in the context of co-management arrangements based on land-claims agreements. These challenges included: discrepancies in approaches to protected-area management between Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and Parks Canada, further complicated by the governance system employed by Parks Canada; issues of scale related to Parks Canada’s nested management structure, which affected relationship building between co-managers; financial constraints; and capacity constraints.

From Crossroads to Holistic Impact: Charting a Praxical Course for Transforming Theological Education in Africa

Theological education in Africa is currently at a crossroads and requires a thorough re-evaluation. The framework for teaching and learning introduced by missionaries during colonial times, which often prioritized Western perspectives and ignored indigenous African contexts, does not adequately address the complex issues and needs of African communities today. As a result, the impact of theological practice lacks both relevance and sustainability within grassroots communities. There is therefore a need for a theological framework that is more relevant, contextual, and responsive to the realities and aspirations of African people in the present context. This article advocates for the decolonization of theological education for a praxical approach rooted in lived experiences. It is essential to firmly anchor theological reflection and action in African traditions in order to effectively address contextual issues. This calls for action beyond academic reform towards meeting the pressing needs of the population. This article sheds light on the inadequacies of the colonial framework within theological education, serving as crucial indicators for holistic and sustainable transformation within the field. Case studies drawn from theological institutions, and local churches from selected countries in East, Central and Southern Africa provide nuanced insights into the importance of this transformative process.

Ruy Cinatti e a representação do "outro": ambiguidades e contradições

The Portuguese poet, essayist, and man of science Ruy Cinatti (1915-1986) developed professional activity as a high official of the colonial administration and, although integrated in the official structure of the regime and subscribing to the narrative about Portugal’s historical mission to civilize and educate the indigenous peoples from the colonized territories, he has developed, in parallel, a fascination for Timor and its people. Cinatti defended, albeit within the colonial framework, a territorial development able to favor the growth of the Timorese without offending their cultural traditions. In this essay, we reflect on whether Cinatti, by discursively inaugurating a new relationship of otherness, could be, from an epistemological point of view, anticipating the theses of Orientalism, a doctrine that, in the following decades, would affirm that the perception of the Orient constitutes a stereotyped image of the Western man, constructed to justify an alleged ethical and civilizational superiority of Europeans and to legitimize colonial domination.

French Colonial Policies in West Africa: Power Dynamics, Cultural Impositions and Economic Legacies

The complex dynamics of French colonial policies in West Africa during European imperialism played a crucial role in streamlining administrative procedures and consolidating control over the indigenous African population. This colonial framework not only imposed a distinct sense of identity on African communities but also created deep stratification within these societies. Implementing the direct rule system, an essential aspect of French colonial administration, facilitated imposing laws and regulations that often marginalized traditional authority structures. As a result, a symbiotic relationship emerged between the African colonies and France, with the former serving as essential suppliers of resources crucial for sustaining France's growing industrial enterprises. This paper delves into the intricate nuances of the French colonial policies and their enduring impact on West Africa. By critically examining the assimilation and association policies, the study elucidates the power dynamics, cultural impositions, and economic implications that characterized the colonial experience of French colonies in West Africa. Unpacking the complexities of the colonial governance framework highlights the systemic disparities and cultural alienation perpetuated by the French colonial apparatus, underscoring the persistent socio-economic challenges and cultural subjugation that continue to shape the contemporary West African landscape. By exploring historical injustices and postcolonial complexities, the study emphasizes the urgent need for a holistic and inclusive approach to postcolonial development, advocating for preserving cultural heritage and promoting equitable socio-economic progress within the region.

Critical data studies with Latin America: Theorizing beyond data colonialism

The article aims to theorize about critical data studies with Latin America beyond the framework of data colonialism, arguing that the long history of social thought in the region can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the datafication. It discusses views around dependence, oppressions, and liberation, debating how Latin American authors can be useful for current critical data studies, in a more nuanced and complex vision. It presents the theoretical contributions of Lelia Gonzalez, dependency theorists and Enrique Dussel. Dependency theorists criticize evolutionary frameworks of development and can contribute to discussions around data sovereignty and overexploitation of labor. Gonzalez contributes to a complex vision of Amefrica Ladina, articulating multiple forms of oppression. Enrique Dussel presents a theory of technology considering totality and proposes an ethics of liberation that can be related to alternatives toward data justice and data commons. All theoretical frameworks contribute to thinking about datafication with Latin America not as an isolated phenomenon, but in relation to other countries in the world, and as an analytical key for the construction of alternatives. All perspectives are related to current debates on critical data studies and can make an important contribution to the construction of critical theories about data that consider Latin America also as a site of knowledge production.

"Prayer is Universal": How Integrative Faith Practices Enable Indigenous Peoples' Persistence and Resistance to Transcend Historical Oppression.

Indigenous faith practices have enabled persistence, resistance, and transcendence despite centuries of settler colonial historical oppression. Spirituality, ceremony, and religious practices are fundamental aspects of Indigenous wellness, resilience, and liberation from a colonial mindset. The purpose of this research was understand U.S. Indigenous peoples' perspectives of spirituality and religion from the settler colonial framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) as it relates to wellness. Data from critical ethnographic interviews with 31 participants from rural reservation communities in the Southeast and an urban Northwest environment were analyzed using reconstructive thematic qualitative analysis. Themes include: (a) "You'd be persecuted … for your beliefs": Historical Oppression of Indigenous beliefs; (b) "I was always told that church was wherever you were": Integrative faith practices and (c) "No matter how hard times get … never forget to pray": Prayer through adversity. Results clarified how settler colonial power differentials tended to relegate Indigenous spiritual and faith practices to a lower status than Western European religions, namely Christianity. Participants resisted this oppression by ingeniously integrating tribal and Western European faith practices to promote wellness. This article provides pathways to prevent clinical bias and harm by expanding awareness and familiarity with localized and heterogenous faith practices among Indigenous communities. Practitioners can honor Indigenous peoples' preferences, acknowledge Indigenous faith practices as central for wellness, and become reflexive about how an internalized settler colonial mindset may cause bias and perpetuate historical oppression by delegitimizing Indigenous worldviews and faith practices.

Prelude to Genocide or Late-Stage “Territorialism”? The Nazi “Madagascar Plan” in Comparative and Colonial Context, 1936–1940

ABSTRACT Most scholars argue that the “Madagascar Plan” constituted the penultimate stage in the development of the Nazi “Final Solution,” representing a commitment to physical attrition presaging outright extermination. The idea of mass Jewish resettlement in Madagascar or another African colonial territory was no Nazi invention, however. It had been broached by various parties since the late nineteenth century, not least of which the Poles, French, British and even Jewish “territorialists” seeking an alternative to Zionism. Nor was the Nazi Madagascar Plan, for all its problematic assumptions about race, space, minority rights, and “permanent security,” inherently (proto-) genocidal. The goal of this article is to place the Nazi version of the Madagascar Plan back in this broader historical lineage of late-stage European colonialism and more specifically “territorialism,” avoiding the teleological assumption that such a solution represented an attritionist prelude to genocide. After a brief summary of its pre-history, this article draws on extensive primary source research to reconstruct the Polish, French, and British discussions of such plans between 1936 and 1938. It then turns to similar investigations conducted by Nazi officials between Summer 1937 and Summer 1940, based largely on primary sources, comparing the two projects and their implications for understanding the (Nazi) “Jewish Question.” The article concludes that the Madagascar Plan constituted the Third Reich’s last, most ambitious effort to “solve” the “Jewish Question” within the colonial framework that had defined most “territorialist solutions” to Jewish and other refugee and minority “questions” since the late nineteenth century. Such continuities between German and European colonialism and Nazi “solutions” to the “Jewish Question,” while racist and disdainful of Jews and indigenous populations, had less to do with Windhoek, much less Auschwitz, and more to do with pre-1940 plans to settle “surplus” European minority and refugee populations in colonial spaces.

Missions

AbstractThis paper discusses the impact of colonization on Christian mission encounters and activities. It utilizes the decolonial epistemic framework to analyze the limitations of approaches that advocate “dialogue,” “revelation,” and “mutual growth.” The paper argues that focusing on these three approaches overlooks the asymmetrical power dynamics inherent in the history of Western Christian missions. Conversely, a focus on a deeper experience of the divine highlights the existing epistemic and spiritual knowledge of individuals and communities who have become “othered” within a colonial framework. The paper begins by defining the terms that describe the power dynamics of colonization. Following is a discussion of the impact of colonization on Christian missions. Next, the paper explores the limits of dialogue, revelation, and mutual growth, and finally, it argues the importance of focusing on a more profound experience of the divine.

Decolonizing Intervention for Asian Racial Justice: Advancing Antiracist Art Inquiry Through Contemporary Asian Immigrant Art Practice

Drawing on scholarship about decolonization and anti-Asian racism, this article offers a decolonizing mode of thinking that intervenes in and advances antiracist art inquiries and praxis. Refusing a nationalist and fictitious Americanization that focuses on the successful stories of Asian immigrants, this new mode of antiracist art inquiries and praxis challenges the existing paradigm of antiracism for and of Asian immigrants that heavily centers on the communities’ empowerment and inclusion within a multicultural discourse. By viewing racism as a function of settler colonialism, a decolonizing intervention helps to uncover the limitations of forms of Asian American racial justice work that collide with the work of Indigenous survivance while submitting to the development and maintenance of the settler colonial system. Based on a contemporary Asian immigrant artist’s site-specific video performance, this article discusses new orientations of antiracist art inquiries that critique settlers’ colonial representational strategies that manage the racial formation and relations of Asian immigrants/Natives/White settlers to secure White settlers’ supremacy and sovereignty. A critical understanding of Asian American positionalities that explains its roles in the settler colonial framework requires a contextual understanding of the transcultural context where both imperial and settler colonial powers are consolidated to shape Asian immigrants’ settlement and an ethics of relationality for Asian–Indigenous solidarity that sustains Asian American communities’ racial equity and liberation in line with Indigenous survivance.

The Nightmare Island: Representations of St. Barthélemy in Swedish Novels

The Nightmare Island: Representations of St. Barthélemy in Swedish Novels

Capture: American Pursuits and the Making of a New Animal Condition

Capture: American Pursuits and the Making of a New Animal Condition