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Colonialism

Colonialism Memmi's main idea is that colonialism is built on

the psychological perception of the situation by the two groups

of a society -- colonized and colonizer. Memmi states that

collapse of colonialism is inevitable and that the only means

for this eventual collapse will come through revolt. Memmi

describes the influences of the colonial atmosphere on the

ultimate psychological make-up of colonizers and colonized, and

their reactions to colonialism. All his theories and

descriptions lead to the conclusion that colonialism is doomed

for destruction. I agree with Memmi that colonialism is doomed

to fail. According to Memmi, the colonial system is

fundamentally unstable and will lead to its own destruction, due

to the mere rigidity of the system. The vivid example is our

entire history where every empire was destroyed from within or

from without. Soviet Union or Roman Empire or British and French

colonies collapsed because of their own inner structure. To

prove his point, Memmi describes psychological basis for a

certain behavior of both groups, colonized and colonizers. The

colonizers assume the behaviors inherent in his role --

brutality, oppression, exploitation, and bigotry. After they

arrive in the colony, their actions are already determined by

the institutions and social rules that already exist there.

Because of the driving economic force, colonizers develop a big

distance between themselves and the colonized. Memmi describes a

mythical portrait of the colonized, as seen through the eyes of

the colonizer. The colonizers attribute many negative traits

such as laziness, corruption and lack of civility to the

colonized. Central to this discussion is the issue of racism,

which Memmi defines as "the substantive expression, to the

accuser's benefit, of a real or imaginary trait of the accused."

It is the colonizer's supreme ambition to turn the colonized

into an object existing only as a function of the needs of the

colonizer. All social institutions and relations between the two

groups are shaped by the colonizers' constructed mythical

portrait of the colonized. Memmi also argues that there is a

negative correlation between the brutality employed by

colonizers and the humanism and other positive attributes found

in the colonized. However, colonialism not only serves to

brutalize the colonized but also to instill in them inferiority

and submission complexes that prevent them from acting to

reverse colonialism sooner. Memmi shows why colonialism can only

end through revolt. To dismiss any hope of colonialism ending

through the initiative of the colonizers, Memmi points to

left-wing Europeans refusing to accept the status quo and hence

acting in discordance with it, going as far as to support the

quest for freedom of the colonized. While serving to alienate

them from the other colonizers, their actions are largely

meaningless from the perspective of the colonized, who continue

to group them with other colonizers and show no intention of

advancing leftist doctrines once liberated, to the

disillusionment of the left-wingers who then abandon their

cause. According to Memmi, the options thus remaining to bring

about the end of colonialism are either assimilation of the

colonized or revolt. Assimilation can never occur because

inherent in it is the overthrow of the colonial status quo, and

as such it will never be tolerated by colonizers. Subsequently,

the only tool left to the colonized is to reclaim their liberty

by force. Sociologist Benjamin Ringer has also discussed the

issue of colonialism and its relation to slavery in the American

society. According to him, the British, Spanish, and other

European conquests of the Americas created here two different

groups -- colonizers and colonized. The Whites created a

mythical portrait of the African Americans ant other ethnicities

as inferior group. Rebelling from British colonialism, colonial

rebels sought a more egalitarian society. Yet, as an expanding

culture based on private ownership and white, male citizenship,

Indian tribes, Mexicans, African Americans, and Asians were

considered unworthy. Everyone who was non-Protestant and

non-white, was considered inferior. Each ethnic-racial group

entering New York may have had a different language and history,

but all encountered being excluded from the mainstream. In

secular Protestant Anglo-America, to own property conferred

power and rights--the rights of a citizen and the power to vote.

The promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" was

a social contract meant for white men. Inferior races and women

were not believed by many elite white Protestant men to be

capable of making rational and independent judgments. According

to Ringer this duality has deeply rooted in the American

society. The slavery stood like on the pillars on the

psychological believe of the Whites that they were superior to

all other races. It also explains the negative effects of the

Reconstruction - the Whites did not want to give up their place

of a superior race. Racism was built into the very foundations

of the society. With the same ideas of colonialism deals movie

Battle of Algiers. It represents the final hours of the colonial

system, being destroyed by the revolt of the colonized as

predicted by Albert Memmi's The Colonizer and the Colonized. The

Algerians, unable to assimilate, turn to revolution and violence

which the French are rather willing to return. As a consequence,

the vicious cycle of mutual degradation and hate predicted by

Memmi continues. Battle of Algiers presents, according to Memmi,

the only two possible choices of assimilation and rebellion. As

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the three women are preparing to bomb civilian targets in the

heart of European Algiers, they dye their hair, remove their

veils, and create as far as possible the illusion of being

"white." Memmi claims that "the first ambition of the colonized

is to become equal to that splendid [European] and to resemble

him to the point of disappearing in him." While the terrorists

are successful in creating the illusions of being European, they

are not assimilated. The French work against them to prevent

integration into French culture - the checkpoints consciously

remind them of their place, making their usurped identity more

of a crime. Yet the women cannot assimilate into French culture,

as they only awkwardly enter into the soda parlor and the dance

hall. They cannot interact with the patrons for fear of being

discovered. Despite their implicit acceptance into society, they

still realize that they are different, and must carry out their

plan of destruction. Thus, the racism that makes such emulation

necessary creates the violence that will fuel the racism to grow

on each side. When assimilation fails Memmi contends that, "the

day has come when it is the colonized who must refuse the

colonizer." Now that assimilation has failed and violent

rebellion is the means of resistance, Memmi sees the struggle as

a cycle of hate and repression, each act of repression

contributing to the next. This is the embodiment of the central

theme of Memmi's work - the mutual corruption of both the

colonizer and the colonized. The initial degradation is the

state of colonization, which turns the Algerians from and

independent people to an oppressed populace. Albert Memmi

contends that the cycle of mutual hatred that stems from

colonization is unavoidable, and that a colony cannot continue

indefinitely - either the colony ceases to exist because of

extermination or assimilation, or revolt occurs. The movie shows

the attempts at assimilation of the Algerians and their

subsequent failure, which Memmi contends is a result of the

unwillingness of the colonizer to allow assimilation and thus

the end of the colony. The result is violence poured upon

violence, and the mutual corruption of both the colonizer and

the colonizer. This revolt is clearly seen in the movie,

although the aftermath is not. The question is not whether the

colonized will throw off their shackles, but if they can

overcome the violent means that they have adopted in their

struggle and reform their personal identity that was usurped by

the French. I think that slavery is very similar to

colonialism. They have the same psychological foundation. In my

opinion, Memmi's concepts and ideas are sufficient to comprehend

the essence of colonialism and why it is doomed to collapse.

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