Week 5: Nation
The theme this week is nation, and how nation is created or repressed in the (post)colonial context through culture, politics, and liberation.
Fanon discusses how a postcolonial culture is only created through nationalism, and calls on intelligentsia to join the movement and make works of art to stimulate nationalism that leads to liberation. The idea of a “Negro culture” that is savage and shameful comes from the homogenizing eye of the West, and was used to suppress nationalist sentiments. African intellectuals who attempted to prove the colonialists wrong by recreating the richness of historical African cultures were only able to do so in reaction to this Western objectification and therefore are disconnected from the contemporary realities of their people. Instead, Fanon urges writers to join the revolutionary struggle to develop a new nationalism (rejecting Western values), and in the process generate culture for the postcolonial nation.
I found Nyerere’s piece fascinating. He describes the community values of pre-colonial African culture as a socialist utopia. Until the West imported greed and lethargy, these didn’t exist in African communities and everyone took care of each other as they needed. He then describes the process that nations need to take to return to these cultural narratives and build a unified socialist Africa.
When discussing this with my parents, they attempted to make a distinction between formal and informal socialism. In their view, because there was no state dictating everyone work as needed and care for those without, this was informal socialism, and that current socialist movements are take a top->down approach. I argue that a successful socialist movement depends on culture shift away from individualism and greed, and that collective action is a tool for redefining our culture in addition to gaining political power.
Themes:
- These writings are addressed to currently “apolitical” intelligentsia, asking them to join the liberation movement
- Culture is vitally important for defining a national liberation movement
Questions
- What does ‘matrix’ mean in the phrase “postcolonial matrix” (Fanon) or “colonial matrix of power” (Mignolo)
Readings
- Swaraj, Freedom and Independence - Mahatma Gandhi
- Ujamaa: The Basis of African Socialism - Julius Nyerere
- National Liberation and Culture - Amilcar Cabral
- On National Culture - Frantz Fanon (The Wretched of the Earth ch. 4)