In Progress

I’ve only really just encountered the term “decolonization.” Wikipedia says it refers to “the undoing of colonization” or “the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectorates in Asia and Africa following World War II.”

I’ve read a lot of post-colonial literature, and to me, decolonization is a fondly conceived dream which most of these territories soon realized did not and maybe could not exist. Of course today we still see colonialism continue in lesser or greater flows, still making its presence felt in how globalization is experienced in different countries and territories.

To me, decolonization can only be about how France, Britain and other colonizers had to undergo a withering away of their territories or colonies and a process of lessening of power. In one of my summer texts, Kristin Ross talks about how France in particular went through both decolonization and modernization at the same time, having to incorporate both a waning of empire and an adoption of American capitalism at the same time.

I think what France had to undergo during this time is not really comparable to what Algeria, for example, went through post-1962, in reclaiming a cultural and territorial identity and creating a new governmental infrastructure, etc.

“Post-colonialism” just does not describe the same terrain or concerns as “decolonization.”

Posted on June 17th, 2009 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Global Culture, Politics, Uncategorized