Post-colonialism in English Literature

INTRODUCTION:

Post-colonialism was a literary movement which emerged in the mid-twentieth century, when many colonized nations were fighting for their liberation from the colonizers. Postcolonial literature refers to “the literature produced by the people, who were formerly colonized and subjugated”. In other words, Postcolonial literature refers to “the body of works by the colonised people to annihilate the influences exerted by the colonizers in their lives”. 

WHAT IS COLONIZATION?

Imagine that some unknown people enter your house capture all your property and resources with the power of their weapons. They start using your property, your furniture, force you to cook for them and start calling you “Fools” or “Uncivilized people”. They start humiliating you. And when you protest, they either start beating or killing some of you.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the same thing on international level started happening with some of the African, American, Caribbean and Asian countries. Here the Europeans captures the land and resources of all these countries. Hence, the Europeans including the Britishers were the “Colonizers” and Africans, Americans, Asians were the “Colonized people”. Following map shows how colonization took place almost in all parts of the world.

WHAT IS POST COLONIALISM?

The term “Post colonialism” refers to the “period after colonialism”. The movement of Post colonialism refers to the ways in which the colonized people started raising their voice against the European colonizers in their literature. During the mid-20th century, most countries got independence from these colonizers. There were a thousand writers in all colonized countries who attempted to regain their lost identity, culture, language and religion. They showed their anger against the colonizers in their works. Such works are known as post colonial literature.

“Until the lion learns how to write; every story will glorify the hunter.”

– Nozipo Maraire

These words suggest that till the mid-20th century, the hunter (colonizers) was glorified. But after having got independence, the lion (colonized people) now rewrites its own history. Hence, this spirit of regaining their own importance and respect in literature is called the movement of Post Colonialism.

Helen Gilbert, defines postcolonialism as:

“…a programme of resistance, against cultural domination”

POSTCOLONIALISM AS A THEORY:

It is believed that Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’ (1978) is the landmark in the history of the theory of colonialism. Though colonial and postcolonial literatures were existing before the publication of ‘Orientalism’, Edward Said was the first to bring post-colonialism as a theory.

FEATURES OF POST COLONIALISM:

1. Language of the Postcolonial Literature:

There are two groups of writers as far as choice of language is considered – those who prefer to write in their own native language and those who prefer English. 

The writers who prefer their native language for their works strongly believe that their age-old customs, manners and traditions can be expressed best in their native language. Ngugi waThiong’o, a post colonialist writer from Kenya is one such writer who used Gikuyu, a language spoken primarily by the Kikuyu people of Kenya. 

Another group of writers prefer the usage of the language of the colonisers - English or French. They prefer to use this alien language (of the colonizers) to show their anger against them. However, these writers transform the English language, so as to create a native experience. Postcolonial writers like Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and Chinua Achebe are of the view that the imperial language need to be transformed in order to suit the native readers. In his foreword to ‘Kanthapura’, Raja Rao writes:

“One has to convey in a language that is not one’s own, the spirit that is one’s own.”

2. META-NARRATIVE:

Colonizers have considered the native colonized people as inferior and uncivilized in their literature. They had created an image that they were enlightening the darker peoples and were civilizing them. This is one story.

But the postcolonial writers have a big problem with this story. According to them colonization wasn't about civilization or enlightenment. It was about brutal economic and political exploitation. 

Postcolonial writers wanted to show that actually, there's more than one side to the story. In their own works, postcolonial writers tend to play around with meta-narrative. They wanted to show to the world that they were not uncivilized as shown by the Europeans. They wanted to re-establish their own identity and respect on international level. Hence, they wrote literature which presented this other side of the story which is known as meta-narrative.

3. EFFECTS OF COLONIZATION:

In fact, the effects of colonialism were so deep that even after independence, many countries and cultures continued to suffer. Often the colonizer's language displaced indigenous languages. Many people abandoned indigenous religions after being converted to Christianity by missionaries. Even the postcolonial countries that emerged after independence were modeled along Western-style European nations, with the same type of administrative and bureaucratic setup.

Postcolonial literature mainly deals with this deep impact of the European culture, language and religion.

4. REWRITING HISTORY:

European colonizers often thought that the people that they colonized didn't have a history before the Europeans "enlightened" them. They thought that the colonized people had no culture, had made no contributions to human progress, and were ignorant.

Postcolonial writers don't like this version of history. It's a version that draws colonizers as heroes, as rescuers who saved (?) everyone from ignorance and darkness. So postcolonial writers set about writing history from their own perspective, showing how colonialism was actually a brutal and inhuman thing. Hence, rewriting history of their nations was the major theme of post colonial literature.

5. STRUGGLE OF DECOLONIZATION:

Freedom fighters in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean islands fought colonialism. People like Mahatma Gandhi in India, Nelson Mandela in Africa Patrice Lumumba in Congo fought against the brutal rule of the Europeans. Without them, decolonization wouldn't have happened. 

Postcolonial literature mainly deals with the theme of this struggle against the Europeans. It is through their literature that they wanted to decolonize the mind and culture of the indigenous people. Raja Rao's  ‘Kanthapura’ presents this fight for independence beautifully.

6. NATIONALISM / PATRIOTISM:

Postcolonial writers are really interested in nationhood and nationalism. A lot of these writers are very patriotic. They write books on behalf of their nations. These writers have presented the freedom fighters as their heroes and have contributed in raising the spirit of patriotism among the citizens.

7. REGAINING CULTURAL IDENTITY:

During the period of colonization, most people had lost or forgotten their indigenous culture, religion and language. Post colonial literature primarily aims to regain this lost cultural identity. They argued with the Europeans, "If you've got religion, we too have our own. If you have your culture, we too have our own.”

If we examine the African post colonial literature, we find that it is written in spoken language. This is so because, before colonialism, much of African literature was in oral form. People used to tell and sing stories. African post colonial writers showed their protest by turning back to these oral narrative forms that existed before colonialism.

EXAMPLES OF POST COLONIAL LITERATURE:

1. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899)

2. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart  (1958)

3. Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

4. Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981)

5. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)

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