1. Postcolonialism Diversity Literacy Week 10 / Lecture 1 Prepared by Claire Kelly

2. Ethics of remembering (Hesse) “how do we make the past visible, as it were the present, while acknowledging our debt to the past as it actually happened?” (Ricouer, cited in Hesse) 1450 – 1850’s > Atlantic slave trade 1885 – 1960’s > Colonial rule Prepared by Claire Kelly

3. Remembering colonialism… The role of capitalism (Magubane)  “Dawn of the era of capitalist production ” (Marx)*  The foundations of the modern economic system were laid during colonialism  “[Slavery] was the hidden basis of European wealth ” Prepared by Claire Kelly

4.  “ Our possession of the West Indies … gave us the strength, the support, but especially the capital, wealth, at a time when no other European nation possessed such a reserve, which enabled us to come through the great struggle of the Napoleonic Wars, the keen competition of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and enabled us… to lay the foundations of that commercial and financial leadership which which enabled us to make our great position in the world ” (Winston Churchill, 1939) Prepared by Claire Kelly

5. Rembering Colonialism… The role of Christianity (Magubane)  “This is the irony of the European Renaissance; it would be built not only on the most rational enslavement of the African people, but it would rationalise it by tags from the Bible ….” (Magubane, p. 33) Prepared by Claire Kelly

6.  20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the L ORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. Genesis 9:20-27 Prepared by Claire Kelly

7. Remembering Colonialism… The role of“knowledge” (Magubane)  Slavery perpetrated during European Enlightenment, the Age of Reason (Du Bois)  “…Africans in particular would exist in European thought as the barbaric Other. The constitution of the African as the Other would sustain Europe’s colonial enterprise and African enslavement” (Magubane, p. 32) Prepared by Claire Kelly

8.  “…What we properly understand by Africa is the unhistorical, underdeveloped spirit, still involved in the conditions of mere nature, and which had to be presented here as on the childhood of the world’s history….” (Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History)  “What signify these races to us? Who cares particularly for the negro, or Hottentot of Kaffir? These latter have proved a very troublesome race and the sooner they are put out of the way the better… Destined by the nature of their race to run, like other animals, a certain limited course of existence, it matters little how their extinction is brought about” (Knox, The Races of Mankind: A Philosophical Enquiry into the Influence of Race over the Destinies of Nations, 1847) Prepared by Claire Kelly

9.  “Even worse, they stole our history and our humanity by propagating their racist ideas. The destruction of the humanity of the African, the European belief in white supremacy, was more degrading than anything else” (Magubane, p. 251)  Psychic violence of colonialism and racism (Fanon) Remembering colonialism... The role of psychic violence (Magubane) Prepared by Claire Kelly

10. White wo/man’s burden Prepared by Claire Kelly  Insert: Colonial Images depicting the “white man’s burden”  The White Woman’s Burden http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/07/11/t he-white-womans-burden/ http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/07/11/t he-white-womans-burden/

11. White wo/man’s burden Prepared by Claire Kelly  Insert: Colonial Images depicting the “white man’s burden”  Colonialism, Soap, and the Cleansing Metaphor http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/10/c olonialism-soap-and-the-cleansing-metaphor/ http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/10/c olonialism-soap-and-the-cleansing-metaphor/

12. White wo/man’s burden “ …we cannot encounter the Third World today without carrying a lot of baggage. ” (Kapoor, p.628) Prepared by Claire Kelly  Insert: Video depicting how the “white man’s burden” narrative persists in contemporary discourse  The White Woman’s Burden http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/07/11/t he-white-womans-burden/ http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/07/11/t he-white-womans-burden/

13.  Insert: Example of how we remember colonialism in romanticised ways – “safari”, “Out of Africa” etc. We used pictures of "Colonial"-Themed Wedding  http://jezebel.com/5820577/colonial+themed- wedding-included-authentic-all+black-servant-staff http://jezebel.com/5820577/colonial+themed- wedding-included-authentic-all+black-servant-staff Prepared by Claire Kelly

14. Post(?)- colonialism  De/colonial fantasy (Hesse)  Treat slavery and colonialism as a discrete event  Ignore racialised trajectories of continuity and reconfiguration  Obscure how democracy in the West emerged in conjunction with slavery, ethnocide and racism  Fails to recognise that out global economic system is predicated on colonialism and slavery  Globalised Eurocentrism (vs. Imperialised Eurocentrism) Prepared by Claire Kelly

15. African Renaissance (Magubane)  “ It would be very strange indeed if the remedy to our problems came from the very same people who not only created the world order that created our impoverishment, but who continue to be beneficiaries of that world order. ” (Magubane, p. 34) Prepared by Claire Kelly

16. Extra references  B. Hesse (2002) Forgotten like a bad dream: Atlantic slavery and the ethics of postcolonial memory. In D. Goldberg & A. Quayson (Eds) Relocating Postcolonialism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Prepared by Claire Kelly