Colonial Influence Research Articles

Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture by Eric Calderwood

Reviewed by: Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture by Eric Calderwood Claudia Hopkins Calderwood, Eric. Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture. Harvard UP, 2018. 408 pp. Spanish-Moroccan cultural relations are exceedingly complex. They cannot be understood through the well-worn notion of the exotic "Other" against which the West defines itself, and with which we have become familiar since Edward Said's classic analysis of French and British discourses on the Islamic world in his seminal book Orientalism (1978). In his 2002 prologue of a later Spanish edition, Said himself recognized that Spain offered a "notable exception" to his theory, an insight based on his increasing awareness of Spanish historiography on North Africa and his dialogue with the Spanish historian Juan Goytisolo. Said did not pursue the Spanish case. But the growing Spanish and international scholarship exploring Spanish representations of al-Andalus and Morocco during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has exposed the brittleness of Said's paradigm based on binaries between East-West and Islam-Christianity. Eric Calderwood's Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture makes a major contribution to this field of studies. It traces how the memory of medieval Iberia under Muslim rule (al-Andalus) was interpreted not only by Spaniards but also by Moroccans between the Spanish-Moroccan War (1859-60) and Moroccan independence in 1956. Calderwood reveals surprising intersections between Spanish and Moroccan discourses. The construct of an idealized al-Andalus is at the heart of Spanish colonial discourse, but the same myth also served the Moroccan independence movement and shaped Moroccan national identity. The originality and strength of Calderwood's approach resides in the juxtaposition of Spanish and Moroccan perspectives, which are examined through Castilian, Catalan, and Arabic sources, some of which have never been studied before. Organized chronologically and adopting a contextualizing approach, each of the seven chapters analyzes cultural representations of al-Andalus through a key figure, work or a set of concepts. [End Page 295] An appropriate starting point is Pedro de Alarcón's Diary of a Witness to the War of Africa, a well-known source relating to the Spanish-Moroccan War in 1859-60, which serves Calderwood's argument well in order to outline the fundamental ideas that would become essential for Spanish colonial discourse: Tetouan is a reincarnation of Nasrid Granada, Morocco a palimpsest of al-Andalus. While Alarcón's writings will be familiar to scholars of nineteenth-century Spain, the second chapter introduces the neglected writings of Alarcón's contemporary, the Tetouani poet Mufaddal Afaylal, a figure hardly known outside Morocco. Calderwood's analysis or "thick reading" demonstrates Afaylal's interest in Andalusi writers, whose texts he deploys to complement his own empirical observations of Moroccan cities and the Spanish enclave Ceuta. Furthermore, Afaylal reflects on the Spanish occupation of Morocco in 1860 through the lens of Andalusi poetry on the Christian conquest of al-Andalus. Yet, as Calderwood notes, Afaylal's writings do not yet amount to the "Andalus-centric" discourse that takes shape with the establishment of the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco in 1912. The third chapter turns to Spanish colonial thinking via Andalusian nationalism (Andalucismo) and its leading intellectual Blas Infante, who conflates the memory of al-Andalus, modern Andalusia, and Morocco. Al-Andalus emerges as the key to Infante's vision of a new independent, multicultural Andalusia, comprising both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. He positively defines Andalusian people as "Euro-Africans, Euro-Orientals, universalist men" needing to be freed from "colonial influence of a foreign, barbarous, and failed continent, like Europe" (129). As Calderwood writes, Blas Infante's assertion "there are no foreigners in Andalusia" works to repudiate the motto "Catalonia for the Catalans" in Catalanism (129). Infante's ambitions came to a brutal end with his execution at the start of the Spanish Civil War, but his conceptual conflation of medieval al-Andalus with modern Morocco intensified in Spanish colonial rhetoric, which, in turn, found echoes in the writings of Moroccan intellectuals. The notion of a Hispano-Moroccan brotherhood translated into a range of policies and initiatives under Franco, including the...

Sprawozdanie z konferencji „English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences”. On-line Conference

Report of the “English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences”. On-line Conference The: “English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences conference” was held over the course of two afternoons, on January 26–27, 2020. It was organized by the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Łódź and Northumbria University in Newcastle. The symposium’s goal was to bring together researchers with interests in the history of English law and its influences on other parts of the world, particularly within an imperial context. An additional topic of the conference was the meaning of legacies and continuing influences of the empire and colonial influences of the law back to the Metropole. Nine lectures were delivered over the course of four sessions.

Wilhelm Knappe’s photo album as an early testimony of German colonization of the Marshall Islands1

Wilhelm Knappe (1855–1910), the first German administrator (imperial commissioner) assigned to the newly acquired Marshall Islands in 1886, created a photo album with pictures, presumably taken by New Zealand photographer Thomas Andrew in the same year. There are at least three existing copies of these albums and a bundle of loose photographs identical to those in the album in question. At the time of Knappe’s arrival in the Marshall Islands, Germany was still in the process of consolidating its newest colonial acquisition. The photographs show both Marshall Islanders untouched by Christian missions and colonial influence, and already ‘civilized’ Indigenous people from various atoll islands of the Ralik- and Ratak-group. The importance of this album results from the fact that it is one of the earliest pictorial records of the Marshall Islands and it probably represents the first documentation of German activities on the eastern Micronesian archipelago. This article highlights the history of the album and the photographs as well as their importance for a reconstruction of Marshall Islands’ history in the late nineteenth century.

The need for continued decolonisation and Africanisation of ordination in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa

Being the church in Africa requires a continuous self-assessment by Christian denominations, asking whether it is sufficiently contextualised both in its doctrines and practices. This self-critique is essential so as to not perpetuate negative colonial influences in the way churches operate. The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) has a rich history of challenging itself to become truly instrumental in working towards ‘A Christ-healed Africa for the healing of the nations’. This article explores the history of the MCSA’s engagement with its doctrine and practices of ordination, its journey of decolonisation and its presentation of an emerging Africanised theology of the presbytery.

Deconstructing colonial influence on black South African youth in the post-apartheid era : an exploration of Kopano Matlwa's Coconut

Deconstructing colonial influence on black South African youth in the post-apartheid era : an exploration of Kopano Matlwa's Coconut

Curriculum in International Contexts: for a Meditative Agenda to Live Without Fear

Review of the book: KUMAR, A. (2019). Curriculum in international contexts: understanding colonial, ideological and neoliberal influences. Palgrave Macmillan: New York. Keywords: context; neoliberalism; trajectory.

In Postcolonial Lens: Analysis of Philippine Archaeology’s History and Direction

The historical context of archaeology in the Philippines was shaped by colonial influences, and it can be seen through various foreign archaeologists who initially worked and contributed to the archipelago. The study uses the framework of Edward Said’s Orientalism to carefully extract the colonial features of Philippine archaeology through an overview of the discipline’s history from the late nineteenth century up to the present. The study finds that the practice of Philippine archaeology became a hybrid of its western origin and nationalistic view—showcasing a unique blend of indigenous knowledge, scientific advancements, and antiquarian perspective. The discipline also moved away from its western roots as it leans more on actual fieldwork and public archaeological efforts rather than pursue theoretical discourses. The study reveals the importance of nationalism in archaeological practice in postcolonial states in Southeast Asia such as the Philippines as it was used to promote common heritage and unity to its multicultural landscape. Lastly, the paper also presents current developments in the discipline and its influence on future archaeological research.

Bureaucracy and Institutions: Empirical Evidence from Chinese History

There is broad scholarly agreement that history and founding conditions matter in the design of institutions and organizations (Marquis, 2003). Yet study of institutional and organizational development rarely includes more than ceremonial references to specific country or regional settings, policy embeddedness, and cultural contingency (e.g., individual versus collectivist cultures). The analytical focus is typically on modern organizations and institutional development trajectories, which leaves us with the question of how history matters. To what extent do modern organizations and institutions reflect historic development trajectories, and how? That we know so little about the ways today’s institutions and organizations are affected by the past is not reflecting lack of interest, but instead being constrained by data availability. Yet with increasing progress of digitalization of archival records, “new” historical data becomes available at an astonishing speed. What remains are concerns about data quality and validity. What can we actually learn from historic data about organizations and institutions, then and now? With this symposium, we show there is much to learn. With a regional focus on China and a wide variety of empirical evidence documenting local development over several thousands of years, this symposium brings together a set of four studies, which gather and apply historical data creatively, and contribute to a better understanding of institutional origins, organizational and institutional change, and their impact on contemporary development. The focus on China is not only interesting for its obvious importance in today’s global economy and politics. The analysis of historic organizations and institutions (mainly bureaucracy) and their association with modern-day development also help identify causal processes of how and when institutions matter throughout time. China offers an ideal context. China displays vast within-country variation in its socioeconomic conditions, whereas provinces can serve as broad proxies of regional units. Furthermore, China is ethnically highly homogenous, with more than 90% of Chinese belonging to the Han group and has experienced only limited and well- documented internal migration flows over the last two millennia, which limits the influence of exogenous shocks introduced by broad- sweeping cultural shifts. Finally, the country has been characterized by a high degree of political and territorial unity for more than 2,000 years and has escaped substantial colonial influence, leaving historic development pathways less affected. The four empirical studies address two broader questions: 1) What are the antecedents and mechanisms that explain the emergence of institutions and organizations developed in and inherited from the past? and 2) how does history shape the opportunity structures for modern trajectories of institutional change? In other words, does institutional change today hinge on experience accumulated in the past — either in a positive or negative way? The Great Political Divergence: Leadership Turnover in Historical China and Europe Presenter: Yasheng Huang; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Clair Yang; U. of Washington, Seattle Local Beliefs and Firms: From the Holocene to Organizational Change in Modern China Presenter: Sonja Opper; Lund U. Presenter: Fredrik Andersson; Lund U. Meritocracy as An Inhabited Institution: The Chinese Civil Service Examinations, 1400-1580 Presenter: Enying Zheng; Peking U. Presenter: Yasheng Huang; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Wei Hong; Tsinghua U. Presenter: Rongzhu Ke; Hong Kong Baptist U. Career Advancement in the Chinese Bureaucracy: An Organizational Perspective Presenter: Ling Zhu; The Chinese U. of Hong Kong Presenter: Xueguang Zhou; Stanford U.

The social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous LGBTQA+ young people: a global perspective.

There has been scant exploration of the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of young Indigenous populations that identify as LGBTQA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Asexual +). Given the vulnerability of this cohort living in Western settler colonial societies, wider investigation is called for to respond to their needs, experiences and aspirations. This paper summarizes existing research on the topic highlighting the lack of scholarship on the intersection of youth, Indigeneity, LGBTQA+ and SEWB. The paper takes a holistic approach to provide a global perspective that draws on an emerging body of literature and research driven by Indigenous scholars in settler colonial societies. The paper points to the importance of understanding converging colonial influences and ongoing contemporary elements, such as racism and marginalization that impact on young Indigenous LGBTQA+ wellbeing.

Contemporary Art Practice and Indigenous Knowledge

Abstract Indigenous artists are introducing traditional knowledge practices to the contemporary art world. This article discusses the work of selected Indigenous artists and relays their contribution towards changing art discourses and understandings of Indigenous knowledge. Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau led the way by introducing ancient mythos; the gifted Carl Beam enlarged his oeuvre with ancient building practices; Peter Clair connected traditional Mi'kmaq craft and colonial influence in contemporary basketry; and Edward Poitras brought to life the cultural hero Coyote. More recently, Beau Dick has surprised international art audiences with his masks; Christi Belcourt’s studies of medicinal plants take on new meaning in paintings; Bonnie Devine creates stories around canoes and baskets; Adrian Stimson performs the trickster/ruse myth in the guise of a two-spirited character; and Lisa Myers’s work with the communal sharing of food typifies a younger generation of artists re-engaging with traditional knowledge.

The Origins of Contemporary Moral Education and Political Ideology in Confucian-Marxist Hồ Chí Minh’s Vietnam

As an emerging East-Asian country, Vietnam has been influenced by the forces of communism, colonialism and predominantly Confucianism. Though Confucianism has an enduring operational history in Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, after the nineteenth century it takes a different turn and plays an effective role in contemporary social, political and cultural milieus in this emerging part of the world. In the context of the genealogical ups and downs of Confucianism in East Asian countries like Vietnam, this critical analytical essay discusses Confucianism as trans-national phenomena and a certain way of thinking which has been transformed historically across generations and influenced moral educational and political ideologies of the peoples of Asia. Confucian values have strong practical implications with regard to Asian societies, politics, cultures, religions and education systems. In particular, this article attempts to demonstrate how Confucianism continues to function despite the influences of Marxism and European colonialism in Vietnam, and how it contributed to shaping the present-day country.

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council: The Persistence of a British Colonial Institution

Following the British decolonization process, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) continued as the final appellate court for many new states. Originally designed as a colonial court, the JCPC, therefore, continues to influence independent states. This testifies to the persistence of British colonial influence in the jurisprudence of former colonies. This research on the JCPC provides evidence colonial influences persist beyond the ceremonial and examines the Gambia and New Zealand as cases illustrating different paths to shedding this colonial institutional.

Gardening in Ashes: The Possibilities and Limitations of Gardening to Support Indigenous Health and Well-Being in the Context of Wildfires and Colonialism.

In this paper, we will discuss gardening as a relationship with nature and an ongoing process to support Indigenous health and well-being in the context of the climate crisis and increasingly widespread forest fires. We will explore the concept of gardening as both a Euro-Western agriculture practice and as a longstanding Indigenous practice—wherein naturally occurring gardens are tended in relationship and related to a wider engagement with the natural world — and the influences of colonialism and climate change on both. Drawing on our experiences as an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper (Dancing Water) and a non-Indigenous community-based researcher (Kelsey), our dialogue will outline ways to support health and well-being through land-based activities that connect with Indigenous traditions in ways that draw on relationships to confront colonialism and the influences of climate change. This dialogue is founded on our experiences in the central interior of British Columbia, Canada, one of the areas hit hardest by the 2017 wildfires. We will explore the possibilities and limitations of gardening and the wider concept of reciprocity and relationship as a means to support food security, food sovereignty, and health for Indigenous Peoples.

Dreams for Sale: Ideal Beauty in the Eyes of the Advertiser

Dreams for Sale: Ideal Beauty in the Eyes of the Advertiser

Capacity Building in the Congo Basin: Rich Resources Requiring Sustainable Development

The Congo Basin is a unique freshwater ecosystem supporting hundreds of millions of people and a crucial part of regulating Earth’s water cycle. Increasing international attention on its resource potential brings worrying pressures to this understudied region. Equitable collaboration is the key to understanding this complex, interconnected system and enabling its sustainable development.

The effect of colonial legacies on Africa’s inward FDI: the case of UK FDI in Ghana

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role colonial ties play in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ghana, several years after the official end of colonisation in the African continent. Colonisation left behind legacies of institutional framework, social ties and remnants of companies of colonial masters, which could potentially offer contemporary businesses from home countries the benefits of country of origin agglomeration.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses sequential explanatory mixed research design through 101 questionnaires and 8 interviews from the UK companies with FDI in Ghana. This approached enabled the initial quantitative results to be explored further through the qualitative data.FindingsColonial ties have limited influence on contemporary flow of FDI to Ghana, in spite of the institutional legacies between former colonisers and colonies. Majority of UK companies are influenced by agglomeration opportunities in general rather than country of origin agglomeration. However, country of origin agglomeration remains important to over a third of the companies surveyed.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample was taken from the non-extractive industry in Ghana, and caution must be applied in generalising the findings. However, some universal issues concerning agglomeration and institutions are discussed.Originality/valueAlthough there has been some research on colonial history and its impact on FDI in Africa, existing knowledge on bilateral relations is rather limited. Unlike previous studies, this research provides depth by examining colonial influence on FDI between two countries, using two key concepts: country of origin agglomeration and institutions. It provides UK companies with contemporary views to consider when exploring FDI opportunities in Ghana, particularly in relation to the effects of the colonial history. It also provides investment promotion agencies with empirical results on the importance of various forms of agglomeration and institutions for FDI attraction.

Prejudice, Pathways and Pavlova: A Paradox of Success

This paper is based on a keynote address presented at the 2017 annual Maori Research Colloquium at the University of Canterbury. The paper provides a snapshot of the history of education in New Zealand, and presents a story of success in the face of enormous social and psychological challenges brought about by historical events and government policies, over time. It is written from an insider’s perspective, and is peppered with personal reflections from its author, one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent educationalists, Sir Toby Curtis, who achieved at the highest levels of education in New Zealand and abroad, and was knighted for his services to Maori education. Sir Toby reflects on the apportioning of power between Maori and non-Maori within the education system, and seeks to determine how an imbalance may have contributed to inequitable educational outcomes for Maori in the last 180 years. The following questions emerge from these ruminations: 1. In what ways has power imbalance within the New Zealand education system impacted on educational experiences and outcomes for Maori?2. How have these educational experiences manifested within (and beyond) the system?3. What meanings and aspirations can be taken from the whakatauk ‘He moana pukekepuke, e ekengia/A choppy sea can be navigated’?In essence, this paper seeks to dig beneath the surface of past occurrences in order to shed some light on the questions posed above. Sir Toby commences by sifting through the history of colonial influences on education in this country, and sprinkles this with his own experiences going to school, many of which were plagued by challenges of various forms. Sir Toby makes bold and often astute observations about the impact of colonial policy on Maori (and how it affected him personally), and redirects the emphasis by proposing a pathway forward for the future of Maori education. At its core, this paper tells a personal storywithin a larger story of a determination to triumph over notions of inferiority and oppression - it is a story of resiliency and a story of hope.

The Employment Effect of Inward FDI in China: What Do We Learn from the History?

This study investigates the long-term influence of colonial legacy on the nexus between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and labor market. We construct a panel dataset containing 285 Chinese cities 2011 to 2017 along with detailed information about Chinese modern history during 1842-1955). Our results show that the inward FDI has a positive effect on employment and such an effect is more pronounced in the regions with colonial influence than their counterparts. Further, we find that the experience of Western colonization strengthens the positive effect of inward FDI on employment whereas the experience of Japanese colonization weakens or even overturns this positive effect. These findings are robust to controlling for the endogeneity between inward FDI and employment as well as employing alternative measures for the colonization.

A Poetics of Modernity: Indian Theatre Theory, 1850 to the Present ed. by Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker

Reviewed by: A Poetics of Modernity: Indian Theatre Theory, 1850 to the Present ed. by Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker Taarini Mookherjee A POETICS OF MODERNITY: INDIAN THEATRE THEORY, 1850 TO THE PRESENT. Edited by Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018; pp. 632. A Poetics of Modernity: Indian Theatre Theory, 1850 to the Present undertakes a mammoth task: to provide a representative overview of the range of theoretical positions articulated by Indian theatre practitioners over the last two centuries. Comprising selections from ninety-three significant texts by seventy different authors written in ten modern Indian languages, this anthology marks the first attempt of its kind to put together a diverse array of texts that are both constitutive and representative of “Indian theatre as a modern, urban, secular institution” (xix). Through her detailed critical introduction and deliberate and meticulous collation of texts, Dharwadker makes the case for the relatively neglected field of Indian modern theatre theory as “an especially fertile site for descriptive and non-coercive constructions of Indianness” (xliii). A Poetics of Modernity thus posits a mutually transformative relationship between India and modernity as understood through the medium of theatre: the conditions of modernity are fundamental to contemporary constructions of Indianness, and the Indian context articulates a formation of modernity that is both intertwined with and distinct from Euro-modernity. In selecting, organizing, and editing the primary texts, Dharwadker employs a methodology that sets A Poetics of Modernity apart from existing approaches to Indian theatre in three ways. First, her anthology’s organizing principle is not limited to a single language or region; its parameters instead are the signifiers modern, urban, and secular. While Indian theatrical practice relies heavily upon translation and interregional conversations, academic criticism has remained relatively insular. This collection allows for a shift in that regard, opening up a space for comparisons and conversations across regional and linguistic boundaries. Second, A Poetics of Modernity sets itself apart from existing scholarly work on Indian theatre by including material primarily from those “who have practiced it with distinction”— a group of people ranging from playwrights, actors, and directors to dramaturgs, lighting designers, and translators (xliv). Unlike prior collections that consist primarily of academic criticism on modern [End Page 386] Indian theatre, A Poetics of Modernity foregrounds the contributions of theatre practitioners. Last, this collection is self-consciously not a descriptive and chronological history of Indian theatre; instead it highlights persistent, developing, and crucial strands in a tapestry of Indian theatre theory to demonstrate that this history is “a multilayered interplay of continuities and disjunctions” (xxxvii). For a scholar of Indian theatre, one of the most compelling elements of this collection is Dharwadker’s critical introduction, which lays out “a broad conceptual grid” for the dizzying array of primary texts that follow (xlvi). She organizes the dominant debates of modern Indian theatre, its principal attributes, and its contested identities into a series of overlapping “theoretical top[oi]” that have to varying degrees remained defining features of modern Indian theatre theory (xliv). For instance, the phenomenon of what Dharwadker terms “cultural recursiveness,” or the presence of the theatrical past in the present (xlvii), can be found in a range of theoretical positions in the anthology, from Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s nineteenth-century syncretic blend of Sanskrit sources with Shakespearean forms to Girish Karnad’s late twentieth-century meditations on the classical, folk, and colonial influences on contemporary Indian theatre (ibid.). This topos of cultural recursiveness allows for an exploration of the tension between tradition and modernity, past and present, in synchronic and diachronic terms. Dharwadker similarly distils other recurring debates into different theoretical topoi in the field. For instance, she parses the century-long questioning of the role and agency of authorship, along a spectrum from literary poet to popular entertainer, as a backdrop to the post-independence “instrumental condition of the literary-performative” playwright (lviii). She similarly delineates the diachronic and synchronic threads of another theoretical topos, one that grapples with the contested values of the key, and frequently contradictory, signifiers of modern Indian theatre: professional, amateur, and commercial. Dharwadker ends her introduction by signaling new movements and theoretical positions that have emerged to interrogate the establishment of modern...

Restructuring the African Identity through Language-An Analysis of Achebe's Linguistic Tools in Things Fall Apart

The article discusses Achebe's intentions while writing his novel Things Fall Apart, his choice of language and vocabulary in the novel and essentially, the linguistic choices he makes while writing his African narrative in the English language. Growing up in pre and post-colonial Africa, Achebe had a first-hand experience of the turmoil that his people went through at the hands of the Europeans and how there was a gradual but continuous subjugation of the native at the hands of the colonizer. This experience shaped his African narrative and gave him a better insight into the mind-set of the African individual. He recognised the growing importance of English in his Nigerian community and saw the changes that it brought about in Africa; and wanted to use it as a realistic concept for his novel. Achebe's use of English language is refashioned by a blending with the indigenous languages. He brought in a wide range of Igbo vocabulary and loan words to his writing style as well as a third person narrative voice to give his readers a realistic perception of Nigerian life. The plot construction of Achebe is the extrinsic structure by which he showcases the different responses to the influence of English and European colonialism in Africa.