Decolonise This!
Decolonise This! is an educational video series contributing to a global debate on the legacies of European colonialism, imperialism, racial slavery and genocide.
Decolonise This! brings theories from the Radical South, as well as, radical theorists from the North, to an audience working in the “humanitarian and international development” sectors.
Intro
Nour
Episode 1
Frantz Fanon
Colonialism as Violence
This episode features the work of Martinican psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon, whose understanding of colonialism as violence marked a shift in how we conceptualise colonialism and its aftermath today.
Episode 2
Frantz Fanon
Colonialism as White Supremacy
Episode 3
Aimé Césaire
Colonialism as Fascism
Notes on scientific integrity, decoloniality and sexual assault.
This video was produced before the author (Anna Younes) became aware of the allegations of sexual violence against Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Our momentary inclusion of his notion of “epistemicide” was to illuminate the coloniality of knowledge production and should, under no circumstances, be considered a dismissal of these allegations. As mentioned in this series in various ways, the decolonial “theory-practice” gap we witness from powerful individuals as well as institutions stands as a testimony to the difficulty, but also the utmost importance, of tackling deeply seated structures of domination and injustices in our world. It also serves to expose those who merely seek to advance their careers with fitting concepts. As an independent scholar and woman of colour, and on behalf of Arqaam, I salute the bravery of the scholars Lieselotte Viaene, Catarina Laranjeiro and Miye Nadya Tom who wrote “The walls spoke when no one else would – Autoethnographic notes on sexual-power gatekeeping within avant-garde academia” and the practitioners who have come forward with their stories. We stand in solidarity with them as they seek justice. Further reading can be found below.
The original article by the three women can be found and downloaded here: Lieselotte Viaene, Catarina Laranjeiro and Miye Nadya Tom, “The walls spoke when no one else would: Autoethnographic notes on sexual-power gatekeeping within avant-garde academia.” In: Sexual Misconduct in Academia Informing an Ethics of Care in the University (pp.208-225), Routeledge. 2023. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368860052_The_walls_spoke_when_no_one_else_would_Autoethnographic_notes_on_sexual-power_gatekeeping_within_avant-garde_academia
“Brazilian state deputy says she was sexually assaulted by Boaventura de Sousa Santos”, in: Publica. 14.04.2023. https://apublica.org/2023/04/brazilian-state-deputy-says-she-was-sexually-assaulted-by-boaventura-de-sousa-santos/
Episode 4
Toni Morrison
Racism as Fascism
Episode 5
Steve Biko
Colonialism as White Liberalism and Apartheid
Episode 6
Walter Rodney
Colonialism as Underdevelopment
Episode 7
Akwugo Emejulu
Colonialism and Fugitive Feminism
This episode explores the work of Akwugo Emejulu – an Amercan political sociologist working in the UK whose work explores racial, gender and class inequalities in the United States and Europe, along with women of colour’s grassroots organising and activism.
The next episode is coming up soon…
GLOSSARY
Medical/pharmaceutical apartheid – refers to unequal access to medical treatment, medicines, and pharmaceutical products, often along racial, ethnic, geographic or class lines. Pharmaceutical companies may choose to price much-needed products at high rates, making them unobtainable to whole demographics and groups. Alternatively, Euro-American health authorities may argue that it is ‘impractical’ to provide certain treatments or medicines to communities in particular geographic locations.
Contractually forced labour – sometimes referred to as ‘forced labour’, contractually forced labour refers to instances in which individuals, families or whole communities are coerced to work via intimidation, violence, accrued debt or other forms of blackmail, such as the retention of identity papers.
Neoliberalism – refers to a dominant politic-economic ideology which emphasises the value of free market competition and economic growth to advance human progress. It promotes minimal state intervention in economic and social affairs and defines individuals as consumers in a market system.
GLOSSARY
Petty bourgeoisie – a French term (petite bourgeoisie) referring to a social class that sits between the middle and lower classes. Historically, this class comprised small merchants and semi-autonomous peasants. Marxist thinkers often use the term in a derogatory manner, stating that the petty bourgeoisie is influenced by and seeks to identify itself with the haute (high) bourgeoisie.
Heteropatriarchy – is a term used to describe a socio-political system in which heterosexual, cisgender males dominate cisgender females and people of other gender identities and sexual orientations.
Pathologize – refers to the representation of a person or group as medically diseased or psychologically abnormal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Resources Books
Frantz Fanon, Peau Noire, Masques Blancs/ Black Skin, White Masks, 1952/1967.
Frantz Fanon, Les Damnés de la Terre/ The Wretched of The Earth, 1961/1963.
Frantz Fanon, L’An V de la Révolution Algérienne / A Dying Colonialism, 1959/1967.
Frantz Fanon, J. Khalfa and R. Young (Anthology Editors), S. Corcoran (Translator), Alienation and Freedom, 2018.
Lewis R. Gordon, What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction to His Life and Thought, 2015.
Nasser Rego, Reading Fanon in Palestine/Israel, 2012, https://www.jadaliyya.com/De-tails/25570
“What Did Cedric Robinson Mean by Racial Capitalism?,” 2017, Boston Review: https://bostonreview.net/articles/robin-d-g-kelley-introduction-race-capitalism-justice
and the response by Peter James Hudson:
“Racial Capitalism and the Dark Proletariat,” 2018, Boston Review: https://bostonreview.net/forum_response/peter-james-hudson-racial-capitalism-and
Tammam Aloudat, The damage aid workers can do – with just their words, N Opinion, https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/the-damage-aid-workers-can-do-with-just-their-words-1.1190907?fbclid=IwAR0jcnhG4jrUa45TXDh9jF1tHsIhbUUM6c0igrNT-JmayNvcVZhcoXP-SVh0
Movie Recommendations
The Battle of Algiers, by Gillo Pontecorvo (1966) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhhoS3zOskE
Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialist Self-Defense, by Göran Hugo Olsson (2014). http://concerningviolence.com
Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore – An Antipode Foundation Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CS627aKrJI
Robin D. G. Kelley – What is Racial Capitalism and Why Does It Matter? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–gim7W_jQQ
GLOSSARY
Manichean – refers to a worldview in which people view things as inherently dualistic and either good or bad.
Dehistorisised – to deprive of historical context.
Epidermalisation – the internalisation of race and colour onto one’s skin
Abjection – is a concept in critical theory referring to becoming cast off and separated from norms and rules, especially on the scale of society and morality. racial eugenics
Miscegenation – refers to sexual or romantic relationships between people of different races. It is typically associated with historical laws that forbade such relationships.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Resources and Links
Frantz Fanon, Peau Noir, Masques Blancs/ Black Skin, White Masks, 1952/1967.
Frantz Fanon, Les Damnées de la Terre/ The Wretched of The Earth, 1961/1963.
Frantz Fanon, L’An V de la Révolution Algérienne/ A Dying Colonialism, 1959/1967.
Frantz Fanon, J. Khalfa and R. Young (Anthology Editors), S. Corcoran (Translator), Alien-ation and Freedom, 2018.
Lewis R. Gordon, What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction to His Life and Thought, 2015.
Simone Brown, The Surveillance of Blackness, 2015.
https://www.statista.com/chart/3441/countries-never-invaded-by-britain/
https://www.mapuche-nation.org/english/main/benetton/main/info.htm
Recommended Movies on Whiteness and Colonial Rule
Bacurau (2019) by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKTejyk9ZIA
Ashkenaz (2007) by Rachel Leah Jones.
https://vimeo.com/274377308
https://www.trabelsiproductions.com/ashkenaz
GLOSSARY
Négritude – a movement and framework of critique and literary theory developed during the 1930s that aimed to cultivate “Black consciousness” across Africa and its diaspora.
Surrealism – a cultural and artistic movement that emerged in in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.
Habitus – socially-ingrained habits, dispositions and skills relating to the way a person perceives the world around them.
Universalism – a philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have universal application or applicability.
Epistemicide – the destruction or loss of existing knowledge.
Thingification – a concept Césaire used to describe the material and cultural relationship in colonial capitalism between coloniser and colonised
Pogrom – a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews.
Eugenic – a set of beliefs or desires centred on “improving” the human race using genetics.
Pedantry – obsessive concern with minor rules.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anna Younes, the author of this summary, has used the French original Nègre for citations where the N-word was used in the English translation. And finally, the reason for Göring’s stationing in Haiti was the imperial presence by the German empire in the early 20th century by way of trade and infrastructure construction.
Aimé Césaire, On Colonialism, 1955 (foreword by Robin Kelley). https://files.libcom.org/files/zz_aime_cesaire_robin_d.g._kelley_discourse_on_colbook4me.org_.pdf
Aimé Césaire, Disours sur le colonialisme, 1955 (original). https://www.larevuedesressources.org/IMG/pdf/CESAIRE.pdf
Boaventure de Sousa Santos, Epistemologies of the South – Justice Against Epistemicide, 2014.
Benjamin Madley, From Africa to Auschwitz: How German South West Africa Incubated Ideas and Methods Adopted and Developed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe, European History Quarterly, Vol. 35, 3, pp. 429-464, 2005.
Elizabeth R. Baer, The Genocidal Gaze – From German South West Africa to the Third Reich, 2018.
Gary Wilder, Freedom Time – Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World, Duke University, 2015.
Bas Hofstraa, et all., The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science, https://nlp.stanford.edu/pubs/hofstra2020innovation.pdf, 2020.
André Breton, et all., Murderous Humanitarianism, (translated by Samuel Beckett) Online English version: https://criticallegalthinking.com/2010/11/24/murderous-humanitarianism/, 1932.
Susanne Zantop, Colonial Fantasies Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870, 1997.
David Olusoga and Casper W. Erichsen, The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism, 2010.
German Colonial Newspaper/ Deutsche Kolonialzeitung (DKZ, Organ der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft), Heft 1/Januar 1921, S. 9. https://www.freiburg-postkolonial.de/Seiten/DKZ1921-Nr01-S9.htm
Hans Brandt, Franz-Josef Strauß: „Ich bin ein Südwester!“, taz, https://taz.de/Franz-Josef-Strauss-Ich-bin-ein-Suedwester/!1854115/, 1988.
Der Spiegel, Seid nett zu den armen Namibia-Deutschen, 1978. www.spiegel.de/politik/seid-nett-zu-den-armen-namibia-deutschen-a-af95b7ed-0002-0001-0000-000040606709
Woodruff Smith, Friedrich Ratzel and the Origins of Lebensraum, German Studies Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 51-68, 1980.
Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers. Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, 2001.
Brenda Gayle Plummer, The Metropolitan Connection: Foreign and Semiforeign Elites in Haiti, 1900-1915, Latin American Research Review, Vol. 19, No. 2 (1984), pp. 119-142.
Marilyn Séphocle, Germany’s Challenge to the Monroe Doctrine, Pouvoirs dans la Caraïbe, 13, 2002, 177-190.
Mamadou Badiane, Suzanne Césaire: The Unknown Mother of Antillanité, Terremoto, 2020. https://terremoto.mx/en/revista/suzanne-cesaire-madre-desconocida-de-la-antillanidad/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_France
https://globalization.gc.cuny.edu/committee-director/
GLOSSARY
Palisade a palisade refers to a fence of wooden stakes or iron railings, which form an enclosure or defence.
Ad hominem refers to an argument or reaction that is directed against a person or their attributes, instead of the position they hold or the argument they are maintaining.
Serialize to arrange, publish or broadcast something in a series or regular instalments.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Racism and Fascism” by Toni Morrison.
Source: The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 64, No. 3, Myths and Realities: African Americans and the Measurement of Human Abilities (Summer, 1995), pp. 384-385.
https://www.leeannhunter.com/gender/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Morrison-article.pdf
Video of her speech in full:
Howard University 128th Anniversary, Toni Morrission delivered the 128th convocation address at Howard University, 1995 – https://www.c-span.org/video/?63683-1/howard-university-128th-anniversary
“Recitatif” Review: Toni Morrison on Race and Culture – https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/books/review/toni-morrison-recitatif.html
Toni Morrison on editing and meeting Angela Davis – https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/rbml/2022/01/18/toni-morrisons-memo-on-angela-davis/
“Toni Morrison: A radical ancestor” – https://www.newframe.com/toni-morrison-a-radical-ancestor/
Wall, Cheryl A. (Winter 2012). “Reading The Black Book: Between the Lines of History”. Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. 68 (4): 105–130.
Angela Davis and Toni Morrison Literacy, Libraries and Liberation (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLR_TcGHzRU
Toni Morrison interview | American Author | Mavis on Four | 1988
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAqB1SgVaC4
Toni Morrison Beautifully Answers an “Illegitimate” Question on Race (Jan. 19, 1998) | Charlie Rose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kgq3F8wbYA
Fatima El-Tayeb, European Others. Queering Ethnicity in Postnational Europe. University of Minnesota Press, 2011 (German translation: Unrast Verlag, 2015)
GLOSSARY
Amorphous lacking a clear or defined structure or focus.
Manichean refers to a worldview in which people view things as inherently dualistic and either good or bad.
Ipso facto translates as ‘by the fact itself’. Can be used in the same was as ‘because of that fact’.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Articles and Books:
Steve Biko, “I write what I like,” Heinemann African Writers Series, 1978.
International Criminal Court, Rome Statute International Criminal. Available at: https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf [last accessed December 2022], 1998.
Derek Hook, “Retrieving Biko: a black consciousness critique of whiteness.” African identities, 2011, Vol. 9, No. 1.
Samir Amin, “The Liberal Virus – Permanent War and the Americanization of the World,” Monthly Review Press, New York, 2004.
Isaac Kamola, “Steve Biko and a critique of global governance as white liberalism,” African Identities, 2015, Vol. 13, No. 1.
Steve Biko Foundation, “Steve Biko: The Black Consciousness Movement – The SASO, BCP and BPC Years”, [last accessed August 2022]. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/steve-biko-the-black-consciousness-movement-steve-biko-foundation/GQWBgt1iWh4A8A?hl=en, Online.
Mubarak Aliyu, Steve Biko and the philosophy of Black consciousness, 2021, LSE Blogs.https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2021/08/19/steve-biko-philosophy-of-black-consciousness-theology-south-africa-bio/
Anonymous Writer, The Unbearable Whiteness of Philanthropy in 2022, 2022. https://waitinginline.org/2022/05/12/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-philanthropy-in-2022-%EF%BF%BC/?utm_content=buffer0fb01&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Tammam Aloudat, The damage aid workers can do – with just their words. N Opinion. [last accessed August 2022] https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/the-damage-aid-workers-can-do-with-just-their-words-1.1190907?fbclid=IwAR0jcnhG4jrUa45TXDh9jF1tHsIhbUUM6c0igrNTJmayNvcVZhcoXP-SVh0
Videos of Steve Biko:
https://consciousness.co.za/steve-biko-mini-biography-speaks-black-consciousness-movement/
GLOSSARY
Temporality the state of existing within time, or linear progression of time.
Fatuous silly or pointless.
Metropole the parent state of a colony.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Walter Rodney, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” Verso, 1972/2018.
Walter Rodney, The Groundings With my Brothers, 1969. https://files.libcom.org/files/walter-rodney-the-groundings-with-my-brothers-1.pdf
Chinedu Chukuwudinma, “A Rebel’s Guide To Walter Rodney”, Bookmarks Publications, 2022.
Chinedu Chukuwudinma, “Remembering Rodney,” 2022. In: The Elephant – Explaining Society to the People, Online at: https://www.theelephant.info/culture/2022/03/25/remembering-rodney/
Leo Zeilig, “Walter Rodney was way ahead of his time”, Africa is a country, 2019, Online: https://africasacountry.com/2019/02/walter-rodney-postcolonial-vision
Gaiutra Bahadur, “In 1953, Britain openly removed an elected government, with tragic consequences,” The Guardian, 30 Oct 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/30/1953-britain-guyana
The Walter Rodney Speaking Series: https://www.walterrodneyfoundation.org/speakers-series
The Walter Rodney Foundation: https://www.walterrodneyfoundation.org
Millenials are Killing Capitalism: “Walter Rodney’s Decolonial Marxism – Essays From The Pan-African Revolution with Jesse Benjamin.” https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/millennials-are-killing-capitalism/id1292638162?i=1000579924150
Laleh Khalili, „The New (and Old) Classics of Counterinsurgency,” Middle East Report 255 (Summer 2010). https://merip.org/2010/05/the-new-and-old-classics-of-counterinsurgency/
Abdelkebir Khatibi, “Double Critique: The Decolonization of Arab Sociology” in Halim Barakat (ed.) Contemporary North Africa: Issues of Development and Integration, London: Croon Helm, 1985.
David Scott, “On the Very Idea of a Black Radical Tradition,” Small Axe (2013) 17 (1 (40)): 1–6.
David Austin, “Introduction to Walter Rodney,” Small Axe (2001) 5 (2): 60–65.
Millenials are Killing Capitalism: “Almost As If Their Spirits Are Still There” – David Austin on The 1968 Congress of Black Writers. https://millennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com/almost-as-if-their-spirits-are-still-there-david-austin-on-the-1968-congress-of-black-writers
Millennials are Killing Capitalism, “The Wealth of Europe is the (Stolen) Wealth of Africa” with Devyn Springer, https://millennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com/the-wealth-of-europe-is-the-stolen-wealth-of-africa-with-devyn-springer
Democracy Now!, “We Are the 99%”: Occupy Wall Street Activist & Author David Graeber, Dead at 59, in His Own Words, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy6XWpCPcYM
David Graeber, “Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia,” Penguin, 2023.
Netflix 2023, “African Queens: Njinga”, produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z6TntNvGZI
Lill-Ann Körber, 2020, “Colonies in the Caribbean: Scandinavia and the Slave Trade,” Goethe Institut Norway, https://www.goethe.de/prj/zei/en/pos/21763413.html
Captivating History Channel: “How Britain Went To War With China Over Opium”; How Britain Went To War With China Over Opium
Maria Abi-Habib, “Beyond the World War II We Know – The Forgotten Colonial Forces of World War II”, The New York Times Magazine, 2020, Online: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/magazine/the-forgotten-colonial-forces-of-world-war-ii.html
Documentary about Walter Rodney: “Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know”, directed byDaniyal Harris-Vajda and Arlen Harris, 2023. https://www.walterrodneyfoundation.org/biographies/sdyfpbhohkhrb1bjhvemoawxvo25aj-rcpdw-7tf5r
William Shoki, “This is what they don’t want you to know”, Africaisacountry, https://africasacountry.com/2023/04/this-is-what-they-dont-want-you-to-know
Walter Rodney’s Russian Revolution, Verso Books Book Talk,With Robin D.G. Kelley, Vijay Prashad, and Christina Heatherton. At Verso Books in Brooklyn, YouTube, May 24, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v71Pa-xRhRQ
“Walter Rodney – Race and Class in Guyanese Politics”, Kilombo UK, YouTube, Oct 14, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9szjOu-yIPs
GLOSSARY
Manichean a way of seeing the world that tends to view things dualistically, as either good or bad.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Akwugo Emejulu, Fugitive Feminism. Silver Press: London, 2022.
bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center.
bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody. Pluto Press: London, 2000.
Sylvia Wynter, Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation–An Argument, CR: The New Centennial Review Michigan State University Press Volume 3, Number 3, Fall 2003 pp. 257-337.
Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977, Combahee River Collective Website, Online, https://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/the-combahee-river-collective-statement.html
Walter D. Mignolo, Sylvia Wynter: What Does It Mean to Be Human?, in: Sylvia Wynter: On Being Human as Praxis, edited by Katherine McKittrick, Duke University Press: Durham. 2015.
“The Combahee Ferry Raid,” https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/combahee-ferry-raid
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lincolns-underground-railroad/
Episode menu
Episode 1 – Frantz Fanon – Colonialism as Violence
Episode 2 – Frantz Fanon – Colonialism as White Supremacy
Episode 3 – Aimé Césaire – Colonialism as Fascism
Episode 4 – Toni Morrison – Racism as Fascism
Episode 5 – Steve Biko – Colonialism as White Liberalism and Apartheid
Episode 6 – Walter Rodney – Colonialism as Underdevelopment
Episode 7 – Akwugo Emejulu – Colonialism and Fugitive Feminism