WHAT IS POSTCOLONIALISM?

This episode will provide a definition of the term postcolonialism from different vantage points. Apart from the distinction between the “post-” as a temporal marker and then as the insignia of a particular theoretical orientation, the episode will also lay out the different forms of colonialism and colonial space-making from which postcolonialism derives, as well as the range of literary texts via which we can understand the concept and its present-day permutations. Some suggested readings are also listed below.
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Suggested Reading:
- Orientalism by Edward Said
- Location of Culture by Homi Bhabha
- Death of a Disciple by Gayatri Spivak
- Empire, Colony, Postcolony by Robert J.C. Young
- Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice or Process? by Ato Quayson
- The Cambridge History of Postcolonial Literature, ed. by Ato Quayson
- The Cambridge Companion to the Postcolonial Novel, ed. by Ato Quayson

[@CH-bp8dv]

The nuances in your interpretations is a much needed breathe of fresh air in a world too oft filled with inflammatory simplifications. I do hope you continue your video series. The easily digested format can be extremely useful for those outside of your field and unlikely to dedicate the time required to read a book.
Thank you for these.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Glad you found the episode useful and thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated.

[@avacairns6890]

I just found your channel and I am so excited to keep learning from you. I love this video and I'm excited to watch the one on Frantz Fanon next!!

[@larss4119]

Make more videos, please. We need them now, more than ever.

[@faustinatantie6506]

Thank you Prof Ato for sharing your knowledge with us.

[@maameadwoaatta8789]

That was a thorough analysis mixing key concepts with humour and a very engaging style (and one snazzy suit!). Thanks.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Thanks, Maame. I am glad you found the episode useful.

[@KainUndAbelBooks]

Thank you very much, your brilliant explanations are such a help and gift to me!

[@amnaahmed8292]

Amazing and insightful indeed!!

[@trevorgetz6203]

Ato, I have suggested this video for use in all introductory grad student seminars in the History department at SF State.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Thanks, Trevor. Hopefully, the students will find it useful. And I am glad of course that you liked it.

[@harishtrivedi8537]

Dear Ato, what a splendid comprehensive treatment by a new-look AQ, new at least for me after a gap of many -- too many -- years! Amazing that you touched so many bases so concisely and felicitously in just 40 minutes. Two little points for you to consider, One: as in Malaya, the British in India too refrained from interfering in local customs/culture for a long time, until they felt they could steam-roll any opposition, so the abolition of suttee/sati was postponed for a long while, no missionaries were allowed to operate in British India for several decades, and the pros and cons of introducing education in English were vigorously debated until Lord Macaulay put his foot down in 1835. Two: while "colonial space-making" sounds like a new and apt phrase freshly minted by you, can it be appropriated to replace the bad old "conquest" and "occupation"? ... Altogether, what a treat to listen to your stimulating masterly presentation! All best. Harish. .. . (And look forward to more.)

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Hi Harish, what an absolute delight to receive these comments and high praises from you! One thing I am planning is to have guests on the channel to discuss various matters of interest. It would be wonderful when I get around to that to have you on to discuss colonial space-making in India, which of course offers one of the most complicated cases in all of the British Empire. I will be in touch soon with an invitation. And I really like the idea of replacing the word conquest with that of colonial space-making. Conquest has too much of a hydraulic ring to it, plus it is simply not an accurate label in most instances.

[@chandrashekhardubey4285]

Hi Ato , your lecture is vibrant, loaded with contemporary socio-political paradigms dissecting the Praxis. Your take on colonial space is brilliant. Thanks to Prof. Harish Trivedi, a great scholar of postcolonial studies for making this video available for us. Kudos!

[@MsKalapi]

Wonderful and compact explanation for students. The example of the "gift" of vowels and consonants is just awesome!! This is the basis of all analyses these days but such shallow explanations are given,this making it something complicated and impossible to understand by young chaps who come to learn Literature thinking that Literature is all and only about Wordsworth and Shakespeare.
Waiting for more such videos

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Hi Kalapi, I am glad you liked the episode. I always laugh when I read "Operation Vowel Storm" from The Onion, and in fact we had to do a couple of takes of that segment so I could stop laughing. It is so funny.

[@raisa_cherry33]

@@CriticReadingWriting 😂

[@ikramyoucef1978]

can anyone please explain to me the hillary clinton part? Other than this thank you so much for the video

[@missk1942]

The Onion satirical article is brilliant!

[@gladysagyeiwaadenkyi-manie3691]

omg Prof Quayson, post colonialism with a hyphen and without a hyphen!, lol, never knew the differences. this is a very insightful episode. thanks a million. since UG bookshop does not your book, the post colonial novel, let me check for free pdf download.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Hi Agyeiwaa, I am glad you enjoyed the episode and of course sorry that my books are not available at the UG bookshop. Have you asked them if they can order a few copies?

[@happygucci5094]

I will be watching this series several times. I still live in a country( Bermuda) under the dual shadows of (post?) colonialism- being an overseas dependent territory (just writing this causes my teeth to ache) and the neo liberal economic dominance of America.
The plantation economy is now finance, accounting, reinsurance etc, bitcoin and tourism coming in a distant second... I can safely say I am not sure what our cultural identity is. What I do see, is that black and white alike are united in the pursuit of money and pleasure. Most of my country don't even see the point of independence- and our vision has been so corrupted by external forces I am not sure what independence would even look like.
when the sociology professor at the only college tries to convince you that class is now more important than race...Apologies for the length of my comment- thank you for making this available to us all

[@raisa_cherry33]

Fantastic lecture sir 👏

[@DuckDemon1421]

Thanks !

[@horatiodarocha546]

Ato, this is quite rich, wide-ranging and generously admitting of other scholars' work. I have questions about the definition of internal colonialism, though. While China's current policy with the Muslim Uyghurs draws on a variety of colonial practices and may be based on racial divisions, the example of Nigeria (36.11-17) is not so systematic. It's of course internal colonialism, but one practiced by a political elite drawn from all the country's ethnic groups, instead of the north simply oppressing the coastal people. Also, you may want to take a look at Femi Taiwo's "How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa" for the next episode.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Hi Horatio, I think I may have not stated the matter clearly. What I meant was that the British redeployed whatever existing local hierarchies there in the interest of managing their colonized populations (the classic "divide and rule" tactic). This was the case during the colonial period between the Muslim north and the Yoruba and Igbo south. In fact, there is even another added dimension to it. A platoon of soldiers from Northern Nigeria was used to invade the Ashanti during their war with the British in 1874. After the war, some members of this platoon were used to start the Gold Coast Constabulary, this time being deployed to suppress dissent in various parts of the colony. The matter of the local postcolonial elites and how they gang up to basically suppress their internal heterogenous populations is a matter for an entirely different discussion. But we see it everywhere in Africa, and not just in Nigeria.

[@accraboy1827]

Hi Ato very interesting, would you consider a critique of post colonial African politicians using this theory to explain their ongoing incompetence and subjugation of their citizens to this day it will worth it take care my brother.

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Hi Accra Boy, absolutely! There are blatant examples of this to look at, such as with the situation in Cameroun between the French majority and the English minority, or during Mugabe's reign in Zimbabwe, where he actively used tools of brutal ethnic pacification to ensure his long totalitarian rule.

[@mubasharhassanarif4679]

Very nice

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Thanks.

[@fredkuwornu]

awesome

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Thanks, Fred!

[@blankname5177]

♥️

[@karnabharati1890]

Clinton deploys vowels! what a blast!

[@CriticReadingWriting]

Glad you liked it, Karna.