Precolonial Culture Research Articles

Bathala comes back: Finding the New From the Old

This paper begins with unravelling the tenets of modernism versus the tenets of postmodernism and examines how the principles of the latter became popular especially with the onset of postcolonial studies. Applying these critical approaches to the study of religion can be a fraught exercise but can also prove enlightening in understanding the suppression and re-emergence of native religions in colonized spaces. The postmodernist paradigm can be utilized to critically evaluate factors that led to the emergence of various indigenization movements in societies that were once colonized, such as the Philippines. This study explores the revival of the ancient Filipino system of belief in Bathala, the Supreme God, through the interpretation of the symbols of Baybayin, the ancient Filipino system of writing. It finally addresses the need for an alternative discourse on the renaissance of the precolonial culture in the Philippines, particularly in the field of religion. Despite the subjectivity of postmodernism as a paradigm, the paper argues that an attempt to uncover the meaning of Bathala will help the present Filipino generation to understand and appreciate the roots of their spirituality.

Decriminalisation of Homosexuality - Corrupting Indian Culture through Westernisation?

Homosexuals have been cast out as sinners and anomalies worldwide, while even being criminalised in some countries, like India, which uphold religious sentiments to advocate its criminalisation. Heterosexuality has been accepted as Nature’s default, the “normal”, banishing any other sexual orientation. It is little known how a variety of sexual orientations were accepted and celebrated in various cultures, prior to the colonisation of those countries. The physiognomy and dress of “natives” often confounded Europeans’ notions of gender propriety and sexuality, whether it was due to the long grown hair of Ceylon men, or the dangerously oversexed Black African men or the perceived sexual voracity of Arabs - casual perceptions that often reflected Europeans’ insecurities turned into obsessions about “native” sexual misconduct, provoking new sorts of sexual regulation and repression. A closer look at the history of homosexuality in India brings its colonial legacy in the limelight. A read of the Indian scriptures and ancient texts provides evidence that unlike popular belief, homosexuality and cross dressing has been widely represented and accepted in the Pre-colonial India. The criminalisation of same sex relations is both culturally and legally, a British construct. My crucial question then, is what allows politicians and courts to carelessly wield “culture and tradition” to prove decriminalisation of homosexuality as a sin? How is decriminalisation not westernisation or not simply a result of the fascination with western concepts? The aim of my research is to take a closer look at the history of the LGBTQIA++ community in India, especially referring to the Indian scriptures and sacred texts to bring out an argument that the criminalisation of homosexuality in India has been entirely a British construct. It is to look at the instruments that allow politicians and courts to advocate Section 377 by citing Indian tradition and culture to prove homosexuality as unnatural, abhorrent and a sin. The objective of this paper is to argue against the commonly believed idea that “Gay rights” is a ‘western’ concept and decriminalisation of homosexuality is a brutal ‘westernisation’ of India’s ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ thus coorrupting it. This paper is aimed to prove the existence, celebration and acceptance of homosexuality in pre-colonial Indian culture through numerous readings of sacred texts, scriptures as well as taking a look at Temple sculptures and art.

Iran and the Philippines: In the Pursuit of Constructive Engagement

The importance of maritime silk route which connects the ancient Persian Gulf waterways to the Indian Ocean and leads towards the Pacific has made this fluidity of trade and missionary movements reach the southern Philippine shores. This early century interaction offered an opportunity to synthesise and acculturate Persian and Arab ideas and cultural values and practices into the construction of the pre-colonial Filipino identity, culture and traditions as expressed in religious, commercial, linguistic and socio-cultural dynamics which until the present time have still remained visible yet ‘underappreciated’ in Philippine society. This article will look at how colonisation and decolonisation theories shape modern Filipino identity by marginalising pre-colonial foreign influences of Persians, Arabs and Indians including other early indigenous values in favour of ‘superior values’ as introduced by colonisers: the Spaniards and the Americans. In advancing the arguments, the article explains how ‘imagined community’ as an alternative discourse aided in constructing modern Filipino culture and identity today. To give emphasis on the formation of the Philippine-Iran relations, this paper also focuses on the historical and contemporary variables that help shape the cordial bilateral relations, along with a presentation of issues, challenges and opportunities on how the two countries – the Philippines and Iran – could advance more in their relations. Finally, the research suggests that constant but salient variables presented in the relations such as the presence of new generation of Iranian-Filipinos living both in the Philippines and Iran, Iranian businessmen, and the larger pool of Iranian students in the Philippines could be utilised by both governments to help in advancing Philippine-Iran relations in various fronts including but not limited to cultural and community engagements but also in educational cooperation, trade transactions and political engagements.

A Critical Review of the Roles and Functions of Traditional Leaders

The epitome of pre-colonial African history and culture is embedded within the institution of traditional leadership. Yet, this institution is still mired by much controversy and the cloud of being seen as not fitting the principles of democracy, while needing to remain relevant to its subjects. Having survived both the colonial and apartheid eras in South Africa, it still faces legislative control in the post-1994 era. The discourses presented in this paper advance the contested views regarding the legislative control by the state over the institution of traditional leadership. Within rural areas, the institution is perceived by local citizens as independent and a valuable institution, upholding gender justice and cultural rights. Providing focused attention on the abuse of women, this paper offers insights from empirical evidence in KwaZulu-Natal on the prominent role played by senior women traditional leaders in addressing women abuse in rural communities.

New Poetics in the Poetry of Contemporary East African Poets

East African poetry has over the years enjoyed considerable growth and development. This commendable development has attracted critical appraisals, with critics explicating the trend through which the evolution of this literary tradition has taken. However, adequate attention has not been paid to the new poetics of the contemporary East African poets. This study, therefore, examined the new poetics the new generation of East African poetry. The study adopted post colonialism as a critical tool, for the critical appraisal of the poetry of two Anglophone East African poets. It selected Hurling Words at Consciousness and Give me Room to move my Feet by Mukoma Wa Ngugi and Mildred Kiconco Barya. The methods selected for analysis are literary and critical interpretations of the texts. The possible blend of cultural differences; rejection of conventionalised language models, investigation of social-rigidity in pre-colonial culture, are prominent thematic concerns discussed in the works of the poets. The collections are testaments of the creative deployment of ideological hybridity in the poetry of the contemporary phase of East African poetry. The thematic preoccupations explicated in the collections, depicts the ontological relevance of the contemporary poetry of East African literary tradition.

Pre-colonial culture and technology through elemental and molecular analysis of ceramics with decorative paintings found at Tapera beach, Florianópolis, Brazil.

The chemical analysis of archaeological ceramic artifacts can help archaeologists to characterize the technology used in the manufacturing process, and to elucidate aspects related to the way of life of past peoples. In this context, six ceramic fragments found at Tapera Beach in Florianópolis were analyzed. FTIR spectroscopy was used to identify carbonates and oxalic acid originating from the biodegradation process. In the pictorial regions of the ceramics, iron oxides, manganese and chromium were present, along with calcium carbonate, which were used as pigments. In addition, the absence of characteristic bands for kaolinite suggests low firing temperatures (up to 900°C). EDS confirmed the elements of the molecules identified by FTIR and showed the presence of Al and Si in the primary structure and Fe in the secondary structure of the ceramics. In addition, there were traces of rare earth elements in samples A3 and A5, which may be related to the geochemistry at the site from which the raw material was excavated. The GC-MS results showed the presence of lipids and the profile of the fatty acids detected suggested that the source of the oils adsorbed in the ceramic structure is vegetable.

A Tiger for Malgudi: Representation of Cultural Deterioration

This research article concentrates on cultural deterioration as projected in R. K. Narayan's A Tiger for Malagudi. The author picturizes the pain of post-colonial India that was struggling to preserve her pre-colonial culture. The novel depicts how the colonizers injected their philosophies in the psyche of the colonized. The concept of “we superior” allured the society. The temptation of new culture grew more in India and that transformed the society into new hybrid culture. On the backdrop of colonial era, the novel demonstrates a tendency of new culture and its impact upon Indian society. Characters are placed to exhibit how colonized adopt new culture and so much so that they even converse their names to be incorporated in British culture. British culture and practice restructured Indian society. Postcolonial theory and theory of mimicry are applied in this dissertation as a framework for analyzing the condition of Indian culture. The colonial period established British cultures which by mixing with Indian culture turn out to be hybrid deteriorating the traditional Indian culture. With view of advanced culture, Indian society accredited new culture. Colonial period in India transformed social and cultural structure.

PALIMPSEST IN POSTCOLONIAL AFRICAN NOVELS

Critics have often discussed African novels on postcolonialism as subversive and counter-discursive to European representations of Africa with limited attention paid on the layers of inscriptions relating to pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial Africa embedded in these texts. This study uses the metaphor of the palimpsest to explore the layers of writings ranging from the pre-colonial culture, the colonial textual depictions of Africa and the postcolonial response and re-portrayal of Africa within selected African novels. It argues that these novels encourage Africa to reflect on its pre-colonial and colonial past with the intention of learning from its mistakes, the positive aspects of its culture and the colonial experiences, and forging a future based on hindsight rather than continually blaming colonialism for its development maladies. To achieve this, palimpsest in this paper becomes a self-reflective metaphor for understanding the effects of colonialism, the complicities of Africa in the colonial enterprise and the need to forge a future that transcends the colonial experiences. While the palimpsest provides a means of understanding the past, the ‘metaphors of transformation’ by Hall provides the impetus for progress. Article visualizations:

Tradition and Modernity in Chinua Achebe's <em>African Trilogy</em>

In recent years, the celebrated status of Achebe's early fiction within African literature has come under attack from leading critics. Novels that were previously heralded for their reclamation of precolonial tradition have instead come in for censure, as works in thrall to the ideology of Western modernity. This essay offers a riposte to these critiques, rereading Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, and Arrow of God as three parts of a unified project that problematizes the opposition of tradition/modernity, expressing Achebe's distinctively Igbo commitment to dialogue and boundary crossing. Throughout these works, the problem that occupies Achebe most urgently is that of leadership in changing times. In precolonial culture, the figure of the elder exemplified a model of authority as selfless service, regulating and moderating destabilizing elements. The trilogy shows the systematic erosion of that function and the ascendancy of the colonial bureaucrat, for whom a parallel ideal of disinterestedness merges with a pitiless and dehumanizing gaze. Undoubtedly, this loss is central to the tragedy depicted by the novels. What they also show, the essay argues, however, is a persistent, creative spirit of adaptation in the society Achebe portrays. Facing the existential crisis of colonization, he presents a community still at work in the "messy workshop" where a future might be negotiated.

Imagining the future nation: A critical appreciation of Emmanuel Ngara’s vision in <i>Songs from the Temple</i>

This article analyses Emmanuel Ngara’s collection of poetry Songs from the Temple. It argues that through some of the poems in this collection, Ngara forges an anti-colonial nationalist discourse that problematises hegemonic colonial narratives, which claimed that the black subaltern did not have history, culture and civilisation prior to the colonial interloper’s presence. Ngara’s main strategy in unseating these accounts is to lay claim to a flourishing precolonial culture of the Shona people on one hand, foregrounding their history and cultural symbols, and on the other through the use of artistic elements from the oral traditions of their society. This article contends that the incorporation of orature into Ngara’s written narratives of resistance disrupts and subverts hegemonic definitions of written poetry in as much as it anchors his nationalist vision in cultural spaces that the black subaltern has the potential to identify with.

Modeling the Flesh of God: Semantic Hyperpriming and the Teonancátl Cults of Mexico

The ritualistic use of the ancient psychoactive sacrament teonanacatl, or “The Flesh of God,” represents an integral aspect of pre-colonial Mesoamerican culture and continues, in various syncretic forms, to this day. Providing a brief history of various tribes of Mexico known to utilize Psilocibe species within a shamanic context, focusing primarily on the Mazatec people of Oaxaca, this paper attempts to utilize contemporary cognitive research of psilocybin to better understand and contextualize the ancient teonanacatl ceremony; specifically, research into psilocybin’s induction of the hyperpriming state of cognition. Hyperpriming, or indirect semantic priming, is characterized by its expansive branched hierarchical associative structure within the semantic network and presents us with a valid and useful explanatory framework with which to interpret many of the reported psychological, linguistic, and perceptual effects underlying the traditional teonanacatl ceremony.

Okomfo Anokye formed a tree to hide from the Akwamu: priestly power, freedom, and enslavement in the Afro-Atlantic

This study focuses on West African oracular, archival, and field evidence in recreations of identities and spiritualties of freedom by maroons, free-blacks, and slaves in the Anglo-Caribbean. Oral accounts of the priest Okomfo Anokye (c.1635–1720) conveyed themes of Akan, Guan, and Ga culture and history related to freedom and resistance to enslavement in the eastern Gold Coast (modern day Ghana). Captives from the region expressed elements of spiritualized antislavery thought and practice throughout the Americas. Jamaican kumfu-men and obeah-men idealized cosmologies and traditions from the Gold Coast to promote resistance and rebellion by maroons, slaves, and free-blacks. This study considers priestly power as an association of political culture and cosmology and argues it became integral in reactions to trans-Atlantic human trading. Okomfo and obayifo diviners and spiritualists were both real historic actors and mythic incarnations of precolonial political culture. Their perceptions of freedom and enslavement in West Africa echoed into the Americas. This study considers West African cultural transfer in Cudjoe's Treaty of 1739 and Tacky's Rebellion in 1760 in Jamaica. Conversely, St. Mary's Rebellion of 1780, led by the infamous “Bristol” alias Three Finger'd Jack reflected antislavery influences from other sources, namely Christian conversion, Enlightenment notions of liberty, and the increased arrival of captives from other African regions. These influences gradually supplanted Akan, Guan, and Ga ideas of priestly power, oath-making, naming patterns, and other social practices as influential to expressions of freedom in the lives of maroons, slaves, and free-blacks in Jamaica.

Debunking the Zimbabwean Myth of Jikinya Dance in Ndhlala’s Jikinya and Zimunya’s “Jikinya” (Dancer) and “Jikinya” (An African Passion)

This article analyzes representations of the Zimbabwean jikinya dance myth by Geoffrey Ndhlala in the novel Jikinya and Musaemura Zimunya in the poetry anthology Kingfisher, Jikinya and other poems. It examines the different social and historical settings considered in Ndhlala’s Jikinya (pre-colonial Zimbabwe) and Zimunya’s “Jikinya” (Dancer) and “Jikinya” (An African Passion) (the colonial period of the 1970s Zimbabwean anti-colonial war), and discusses how both texts attempt at describing the aesthetics of the jikinya dance and reinterpret Zimbabwe’s pre-colonial and colonial culture and politics. Of significance, however, is that, being aware of the fact that the nature and significance of dance representations in these texts has received less attention, we analyze the way both writers handle Zimbabwean jikinya in colonial contexts. As a result, we argue in this article that although both authors struggle to portray a clear picture of what the dance really is to the reader, they are able to portray the significance of the jikinya myth and dance in the construction of the nation’s memories and the mapping of the ongoing social experiences and political contestations encountered during Zimbabwe’s colonial history.

Things Fall Apart: A Cultural Reverberation of Pre Colonial African Culture of the Ibo/Igbo

To establish that the novel Things Fall Apart, gives accounts of the Ibo tribe. Important matters of life like birth, death, religion, wedding, etc. are discussed in details. Our task is to compare it with the historical accounts and factual narratives to conclude that it is more of a historical novel and also a cultural novel.

Hélène Cixous's Autre Bisexualité and the Eternal Feminine in the Works of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

This article analyses the creative engagement of the Irish-language poet Ní Dhomhnaill with Hélène Cixous's écriture féminine. Ní Dhomhnaill translates Cixousian images and concepts into her texts, returning on several occasions to the concept of l'autre bisexualité (‘the other bisexuality’). Cixous uses this concept to rehabilitate—and celebrate—what she designates as ‘the feminine’, the alterity within and outside the self. For both writers, this alterity comprehends marginalized cultures as well as femininity. Both bring anti-essentialist convictions to their views of gender and cultural identity, but their respective poetics are born of shared preoccupations with biblical and mythological figures, and narratives often implicated in essentialism. Ní Dhomhnaill connects these archetypal figures with the cultural realities of post-colonial Ireland. The author argues that she draws on the works of Cixous to connect the indigenous Irish language and culture with the rehabilitation of femininity. But whereas, in Cixousian texts, ‘femininity’ eludes concrete definitions and stable meanings, in the works of Ní Dhomhnaill, it often signifies an authentic pre-colonial culture that is ripe for rediscovery in post-colonial Ireland. Ní Dhomhnaill simultaneously celebrates this culture and acknowledges its embeddedness in a Celtic patriarchy that her Cixousian tropes work to undercut.

Irish Revivalism: Critical Trends and New Directions

Irish Revivalism is one of the most influential and most often misunderstood movements in the late 19th century. Though a form of cultural nationalism and often regarded as a form of anti-colonial resistance, it has long been criticized for complicity with various forms of academic and political discourse connected with the British imperial state. It has also been criticized for the role played by Anglo-Irish Literary Revivalists like W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge and Lady Augusta Gregory. Finally, Irish Revivalism has long been understood as possessing a naive and nostalgic view of the past, one that hides a desire to restore and preserve a pristine pre-colonial Celtic culture. All of these criticisms have some merit if applied to individual works. However, a critical examination of Revivalist discourse at large reveals a much more complex historical imagination, one that seeks, through a dialectical logic of misrecognition to correct historical misrepresentations and to use the past in a critical, tactical fashion, to forge an Irish nation and national identity. This is as true of Anglo-Irish as it is of Gaelo-Catholic Revivalists, for both groups were trying, in very different ways, to correct historical misrepresentations of the Irish people and to achieve national independence.

Spinning for India’s Independence

THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF Mohandas K. Gandhi (October 2, 1869–January 30, 1948), dressed only in a loincloth and working at his spinning wheel on the deck of the SS Rajputana, was taken in 1931 as Gandhi traveled to London to attend a high-level roundtable conference with British officials.1 Gandhi was leader of the Indian National Congress and the major force in its drive for independence. He had already led successful non-violent civil disobedience and tax resistance campaigns against British rule, culminating in the 250-mile “Salt March” from Ahmedabad to the Indian Ocean at Dandi (March 12–April 6, 1930).2 After violently assaulting the marchers, the British imprisoned Gandhi and 60000 supporters. Because of adverse worldwide publicity, the British eventually released Gandhi and in March 1931 negotiated an agreement with him for the release of the remaining political prisoners in exchange for the suspension of civil disobedience. The British invited Gandhi to London in late 1931, supposedly to discuss the transfer of power. The conference disappointed Gandhi but provided him with opportunities to win popular support. In 1930, he had already been declared Time’s “Man of the Year”; in 1931, he won over such leading figures in London as George Bernard Shaw, Maria Montessori, and Charlie Chaplin. His every move was followed closely by the press, and after an audience at Buckingham Palace, he was asked if he had felt underdressed. His widely reported comment, expressed with typical Gandhian wit, was, “The king had on enough for both of us.”3(p258) Gandhi’s manner of dress and commitment to hand spinning were essential elements of his philosophy and politics. He chose the traditional loincloth as a rejection of Western culture and a symbolic identification with the poor of India. His personal choice became a powerful political gesture as he urged his more privileged followers to copy his example and discard—or even burn—their European-style clothing and return with pride to their ancient, precolonial culture.4 Gandhi claimed that spinning thread in the traditional manner also had material advantages, as it would create the basis for economic independence and the possibility of survival for India’s impoverished rural multitudes.5 This commitment to traditional cloth making was also part of a larger swadeshi movement, which aimed for the boycott of all British goods. As Gandhi explained to Charlie Chaplin in 1931, the return to spinning did not mean a rejection of all modern technology but of the exploitive and controlling economic and political system in which textile manufacture had become entangled. Gandhi said, “Machinery in the past has made us dependent on England, and the only way we can rid ourselves of the dependence is to boycott all goods made by machinery. This is why we have made it the patriotic duty of every Indian to spin his own cotton and weave his own cloth.”6(p48) The image of the emaciated, almost naked, and obviously nonviolent Gandhi hard at work at his spinning wheel had an electric effect on millions in India and across the world. He was hailed as the father of Indian independence, and starting in 1931, his traditional spinning wheel became the primary symbol on the flag of the Provisional Government of Free India. Figure 1 Mohandas K. Gandhi

Art and culture: Hong Kong or the creation of a collective memory

Discussion of art and culture in Kong naturally leads to questions concerning Kong's cultural identity, which was the main theme of the cultural debates that preceded and followed the transfer of sovereignty to China. Identity, in this context, refers to the sum of values, practices and customs shared by an entire population. Questioning cultural identity is not specific to Kong and generally becomes an issue whenever a country or a people feel threatened or overwhelmed by a period of disruption and confusion. Chinese cultural identity as a whole has continually been put into question throughout its confrontation with Western civilization((1). In Kong, the question of identity, explored primarily within artistic and cultural circles, has resulted in a recreation of the past and a larger debate over the necessity to reconstitute collective memory in order to affirm the city's identity better in the face of an uncertain future.A specific culture under threatFor Kong, the great shake-up came with the announcement in 1984 of the plan to hand the territory over to China. While a major political disruption, the handover promised to be even more of a social and cultural upheaval since it was not a matter of decolonisation in the traditional sense but of a transformation from a liberal colonial regime to a communist regime, one that was completely foreign to the younger generations while familiar to a significant part of the elder generation that had fled that regime and sought refuge under British colonial protection. Nor was it possible for Kong to return to its pre-colonial culture since before the arrival of the British in 1841, Kong had been little more than a collection of fishing villages, even if there had been a few settlements during the Song Dynasty. For many years the city was a commercial and military port, a trading post where Europeans and Chinese conducted business.The Second World War and the threat of the Japanese brought an end to this peaceful situation, as the city became a zone of migration, a port of refuge and passage for people heading towards other horizons. Occupied by the Japanese, the city again went on to become a port of destination for a significant migration from the mainland after the proclama- tion of the People's Republic of China. From this point on, it was physically and culturally cut off from mainland China and was incorporated into a regime of trade. The city's identity was grounded in the overriding aim of export- ing all that was Made in Kong to markets around the world while the fundamental desire of most of its large immi- grant population was to survive, to secure housing, to raise children. While art in the sense of artistic production devel- oped slowly, people in Kong created their own popu- lar culture, a way of living that was different from that of the mainland, with its own leisure activities, and especially its own music and film culture that eventually spread through- out much of Asia. The emergence of this identity through the culture of everyday life was documented in a landmark exhibit curated by Matthew Turner and Oscar Ho of the Kong Art Centre in 1993 called Hong Kong Sixties, Designing Identity((2).In 1984, the initial reaction in Kong to the planned handover to China was relatively free of anxiety as Deng Xiaoping's series of reforms seemed promising. But the events of Tiananmen in 1989 hit Kong like a lighten- ing bolt and prompted thousands of people to take to the streets, something most of the protesters had never done before. The slightest rumour and every threat from up north caused tremors throughout the city and set off, during the final months, an effervescence that seemed to accelerate, as time seemed to telescope towards the fateful date.This apprehension was made visible in the work of the plas- tic artist Oscar Ho, who set out to record through drawings and short texts compiled in an illustrated journal he called Stories around Town the social and political events, cus- toms, legends, random news items, and oddities that cap- tured the attention of people in Kong at that time. …

On the Question of Contemporary Identity in Minahasa, North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia

The article analyzes the developments behind the current shift in Indonesian nation building by discussing how the present societal changes in post-Suharto Indonesia have enabled the Minahasa, a Christian ethnic group in North Sulawesi Province, to initiate a reevaluation of their current identity in anticipation of more room for political maneuvers during the implementation of the national programme of economic decentralisation and regional autonomy, initiated on 1 January 2001. After positioning the Minahasa on the political map of contemporary North Sulawesi Province, the article focuses on past and present perceptions of Minahasa identity. This is then discussed in relation to new initiatives concerning a revival of pre-colonial culture in order to boost contemporary Minahasa identity. The objective is to be able to distinguish between three main aspects within contemporary Minahasa identity formation: the creation of Minahasa as an imagined community, the background for the current elusive Minahasa identity, and finally, the ongoing quest for an invigorated identity that is capable of dealing with the current political changes in North Sulawesi and Indonesia in general.

Reclaiming National Literary Heritage: The Rehabilitation of Abdurauf Fitrat and Abdulhamid Sulaymon Cholpan in Uzbekistan

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING, colonialism has had great influence in reshaping geographical, social and cultural identities around the world. As Franz Fanon argues, it has not only aimed at holding captive and emptying the colonised of all form and content, but has also attempted to distort and disfigure the past of oppressed people. Similarly, as an apparatus of power, colonialist discourses have historically focused upon the devaluation and fetishisation of the pre-colonial culture and history of the colonised.' They have also construed 'the colonised as a population of degenerate types on the basis of racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to establish systems of administration and instruction'.2 In responding to their marginalisation, subjugation, exploitation and exclusion, anti-colonialist writers have generated discourses that seek to challenge and rewrite colonial discourses as a way of explicating and defining their own culture, history, literary heritage and being. In so doing, as counter-ideological discourses, anti-colonial literary texts have not only sought to offer a critique of colonial policies, they have also provided cultural and ideological expressions of resistance, liberation and social revolution in colonised regions. In this respect, Edward Said argues that