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Roads to Decolonisation: An Introduction to Thought from the Global
South is an accessible new textbook that provides undergraduate students
with a vital introduction to theory from the Global South and key issues of
social justice, arming them with the tools to theorise and explain the social
world away from dominant Global North perspectives. Arranged in four
parts, it examines
• key thinkers, activists and theory-work from the Global South;
• theoretical concepts and socio-historical conditions associated with
‘race’ and racism, gender and sexuality, identity and (un)belonging in a
globalised world and decolonisation and education; and
• challenges to dominant Euro-American perspectives on key social justice
issues, linking decolonial discourses to contemporary case studies.
Each chapter oers an overview of key thinkers and activists whose work
engages with social justice issues, many of whom are under-represented or
left out of undergraduate humanities and social sciences textbooks in the
North. This is essential reading for students of the humanities and social
sciences worldwide, as well as scholars keen to embed Southern thought in
their curricula and pedagogical practice.
Amy Duvenage is a lecturer in criminology at Solent University,
Southampton. Her teaching and research are interdisciplinary, intersecting
across several disciplines including criminology, gender studies, literature
and sociology. She has a particular interest in gender theory, decoloniality,
intersectionality and thought from the Global South.
Roads to Decolonisation
Roads to Decolonisation
An Introduction to Thought from the
Global South
Amy Duvenage
Designed cover image: Melissa Askew, ‘black and gray slip on shoes,
Jinja, Uganda’, Unsplash
First published 2024
by Routledge
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© 2024 Amy Duvenage
The right of Amy Duvenage to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN: 978-1-032-74254-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-73594-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-46840-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003468400
Typeset in Sabon
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Introduction 1
PART 1
Race and Racism 7
1 Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other:
W.E.B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon,
Edward Said and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 9
2 Race and Racism as Systems of Power:
Lewis R. Gordon, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall,
Henry Louis GatesJr., Kwame Anthony Appiah and
Ambalavaner Sivanandan 36
3 Black Feminist Thought and Intersectionality:
Sojourner Truth, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis,
Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks and Kimberlé Crenshaw 63
PART 2
Gender and Sexuality 87
4 Imperialism, Colonial Discourse and Women:
Anne McClintock, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Uma Nayaran and
Nira Yuval-Davies 89
5 The Politicisation and Sexualisation of Black
Womanhood: Audre Lorde, Angela Y. Davis, bell
hooks and Patricia Hill Collins 112
Contents
vi Contents
6 African Feminist Thought: Ifi Amadiume,
Obioma Nnaemeka, Oyèrónkẹ Oyěwùmí,
Nkiru Uwechia Nzegwu and Florence Stratton 130
7 Queer Perspectives: Pumla Dineo Gqola,
Marc Epprecht, Kopano Ratele and Sara Ahmed 150
PART 3
Identity and (Un)Belonging in a Globalised World 171
8 (Under)Development, Modernity and Epistemolo-
gies of the South: Walter Rodney, Simon Gikandi,
Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Achille Mbembe 173
9 Identity, Migration, Mobility and Diaspora:
Homi Bhabha, Arjun Appadurai, Samir Amin
and Avtar Brah 194
10 Citizenship, Nationalism and Xenophobia:
A South African Case Study 215
PART 4
Decolonisation and Education 231
11 Decolonial Feminisms: Françoise Vergès,
Awino Okech, Sara Ahmed, Heidi Safia Mirza,
Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Sylvia Tamale 233
12 Criminological and Social Theory and Methods,
Settler Colonialism and the Indigenous Context:
Biko Agozino, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Thalia Anthony
and Harry Blagg, Chris Cunneen and Simone Rowe,
and Raewyn Connell 257
13 Pedagogies of the South and Ubuntu as Feminist
Decolonial Pedagogy: Paulo Freire, bell hooks,
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Sylvia Tamale,
Leonhard Praeg, Ezra Chitando and Siphokazi
Magadla, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni,
Nomalungelo I. Ngubane and Manyane Makua 281
Index 300
DOI: 10.4324/9781003468400-1
By the end of the introduction, you will be able to:
• Distinguish between the Global North and the Global South
• Consider decolonisation as contested terrain
• Examine the importance of theory-work from the Global South
• Understand the textbook’s format and pedagogical tools.
A warm welcome to Roads to Decolonisation: An Introduction to Thought
from the Global South, a unique and accessible collection of Global South
or majority world theory-work. In this textbook, the terms Global North
and Global South are used to conceptualise the contemporary global divide.
Global North and Global South are spatial terms that signify separate but
entangled worlds in which the North enjoys cultural, economic and polit-
ical dominance over the South (Blagg and Anthony, 2019). The Global
North/Global South divide is a colonial legacy intensified by the forces of
capitalism, globalisation, patriarchy and neo imperialism. It is important
to note that inhabitants of the Global South live in the geographic North
and those of Global North live in the geographic South.
The discussions oered in this textbook reflect on the importance of
theory-work from the Global South, which emerges from the struggles
against colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy (de Sousa Santos, 2018).
Thought from the South is intersectional and multidimensional. In its many
diverse forms, Southern theory-work challenges Northern cultural, intel-
lectual, socio-economic and political hegemony. Decolonisation – albeit
a contested term (see Tuck and Wang, 2012)– is a concept central to this
textbook. Decolonisation in its widely accepted form refers to the events
and processes that led to the independence of former colonies from colo-
nial rule, but sovereignty did not necessarily lead to cultural, intellectual,
economic, psychological or political ‘independence’ (Brah, 2022). Roads to
Decolonisation: An Introduction to Thought from the Global South does
not seek to define decolonisation, although this is important work, but to
Introduction
2 Introduction
introduce the reader to thinkers who challenge the relations of power that
survive colonialism– those that continue to determine cultural, intellec-
tual, political and socio-economic relations still today (Maldonado-Torres,
2007).
This accessible textbook aims to provide the reader with a vital introduc-
tion to theory-work from the Global South, and issues of social justice, by
oering tools to theorise and explain the social world away from dominant
Global North perspectives. The goal is not to reject Euro-American epis-
temologies or to diminish theory from the North, but to promote South-
ern scholarship and the Global South as a site of knowledge production
(Okech, 2020). This is essential reading for students of the humanities and
social sciences worldwide, as well as educators keen to embed Southern
thought in their curricula and pedagogical practice. The textbook includes
an introduction to some lesser-known scholars as well as more familiar
ones so as to give a voice to more people within the ‘field’ and to broaden
readers’ knowledge, even if they may already be aware of ‘bigger’ voices.
The four-part format allows readers to dip in and out of sections to suit
their course of study or for independent learning and further study. The
phrase ‘we’ is used throughout the textbook to create a sense of community
with you, the reader. Pedagogical tools aim to encourage deeper critical
thinking and self-reflection. Pedagogical material includes:
• Chapter summaries and learning outcomes at the start of each chapter;
• Case studies and pause for thought boxes embedded within each chapter;
• Stretch yourself boxes containing introductions to more challenging
theoretical concepts/ideas, links to further reading and activities or syn-
optic links between chapters;
• Chapter review questions for recap and synthesis of knowledge and
understanding;
• Further chapter reading lists of carefully selected additional reading (fic-
tion and non-fiction) positioned at the end of each chapter;
• Glossary of key concepts at the end of each chapter. Key concepts are
highlighted throughout the textbook.
The textbook is divided into four parts: Part 1 Race and Racism, Part 2
Gender and Sexuality, Part 3 Identity and (Un)Belonging and Part 4 Decol-
onisation and Education. Each part oers an overview of key thinkers and
activists whose work engages with social justice issues– many of whom
are under-represented or left out of undergraduate humanities and social
sciences textbooks in the North. The thinkers discussed in this textbook
have a range of research interests and activist profiles. It is important to
note that they have been grouped by the author to suit the aims of this
textbook and not to diminish, or fence in, their valuable work. Note also
Introduction 3
that the introductions oered in this textbook cannot do justice to the
original theory-work; mistakes or misunderstandings are the author’s own.
To deepen your understanding, access the theory-work signposted in the
key texts section beneath each thinker in each chapter.
In Part 1, we interrogate race, the racialised subject and racism. We look
at the past to make sense of the present– specifically how race and rac-
ism have the power to organise the social world and relations in it. In
Chapter1, we discuss the relationship between imperialism, colonialism
and the racialised subject and consider how this relationship has shaped
the modern world. The dominance of the Global North is interrogated.
Chapter2 analyses the workings of race and racism as systems of power.
The links between racism and nationalism are examined. We also com-
pare the workings of race with language in our discussion of power and
representation. Black feminist thought and intersectionality are covered
in Chapter 3. Here, we examine capitalism, patriarchy and racism as
intersecting systems of oppression. Theory-work covered in Part 1 will be
applied to case studies.
Gender and sexuality are important aspects of our identities and take the
focus of Part 2. In Chapter4, we discuss the relationship between imperial-
ism, colonialism and gender; that is, how women were imagined and val-
ued in the imperial project. An interrogation of First World feminism and
Third World feminism is included. We also assess the relationship between
gender and nation. Chapter5 examines the politicisation and sexualisation
of black womanhood drawing on black feminist thought and intersection-
ality. The intersections of racism, patriarchy and capitalism are examined.
In Chapter6, we consider the relationship between African feminism and
mainstream Western feminism examining some of the central arguments of
African feminism or Afro-feminist thought. Chapter7 takes us beyond the
binary to explore non-normative gender identities and queerness. By apply-
ing our understanding to case studies, we interrogate the oppression of
gender and sexual minorities. Afinal consideration is the power of minor-
ity movements.
Part 3 focuses on identity and (un)belonging in a globalised world. In
Chapter8, we define the dierence between modernity and modernisation.
This involves an interrogation of the subject of European Enlightenment.
We discuss the dierence between development and underdevelopment
and interrogate how Europe underdeveloped Africa and Africa developed
Europe. An examination of postcolonial relations in Africa is included. In
Chapter9, we explore identity, migration and the diaspora. The impact of
globalisation on the modern world is central to this chapter. Akey concept is
cultural hybridity. In Chapter10, we examine xenophobia, citizenship and
nationalism in a globalised world. Xenophobia refers to the fear or hatred
of those perceived to be outsiders, foreigners or strangers to a community,
4 Introduction
nation or society– often migrants. Drawing on a South Africa case study,
this chapter examines the relationship between claims of autochthony,
nationalism and xenophobic violence.
In Part 4, we examine the relationship between decolonisation and
education. Decolonisation involves interrogating the imbalance of power
between the Global North and the Global South. The Global North/Global
South divide has been shaped by colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy.
The thinkers discussed in Part 4 challenge the relations of power that sur-
vive colonialism, those that continue to impact cultural, economic, intel-
lectual, political and social relations still today (Maldonado-Torres, 2007).
Epistemologies of the South are central to this chapter. These refer to
ways of knowing born out of the struggle against capitalism, colonialism
and patriarchy (de Sousa Santos, 2018). In Chapter11, we identify and
describe decolonial feminism and examine the coloniality of knowledge
production focusing on higher education. We interrogate the Global North
as the site of universal knowledge production and evaluate challenges to
decolonial feminist theory-work. In Chapter12, we interrogate the socio-
historical relationship between colonialism and criminology. The impor-
tance of decolonising the curriculum, specifically criminological theory
and methods, is explained and critically examined. We also examine settler
colonialism and the settler state in the Indigenous context. In Chapter13,
we define and explain feminist decolonial pedagogy. An analysis of ubuntu
as pedagogy is central to this chapter. We apply our understanding to case
studies including the Rhodes Must Fall Movement and Facebook’s Free
Basics.
Glossary
Afro-Feminism An Afrocentric feminist theoretical and practical app roach
to African studies that centres Indigenous worldviews.
Autochthony ‘From the soil’ in classical Greek. Like ‘indigenous’, it
means native to or having originated from a place.
Black Feminism Intellectual theory and activism characterised by black
women’s diverse and multiple responses to lived experiences of clas-
sism, racism and sexism among other intersecting phenomena.
Capitalism An economic and political system organised around the need
to expand for profit and one where private owners control trade and
industry rather than the state.
Citizenship To be a citizen of a country.
Colonialism To take control of another country by physically conquering
land and people.
Coloniality of knowledge Theorised by Peruvian sociologist Ani-
bal Quijano (1928–2018), this concept challenges Western
Introduction 5
knowledge hegemony by pointing to the fact that colonial legacies sur-
vive colonialism.
Cultural hybridity Refers the constitutive uncertainty of essentialist
claims to power.
Decolonise To interrogate and undo the imbalance of power between the
Global North and the Global South.
Enlightenment An intellectual, political, scientific and social movement
led by European thinkers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Epistemologies of the South Ways of knowing born out of struggles
against capitalist, colonial and patriarchal oppression.
First World feminism Privileged or mainstream Western feminist discourse.
Gender Refers to cultural, personal and social constructions of dierence
such as masculinity, femininity or gender queer.
Global North/Global South Spatial terms used to conceptualise inequal-
ity in our contemporary world. These terms replace outdated and
problematic ones like First World/Third World.
Globalisation Refers to the creation of a global market of goods, labour,
production and consumption; global technological expansion; global
flows of cultural materials; a shift in the political power from nation-
state to global world-system; and the expansion of mass mediation and
mass migration.
Imperialism Refers to the political, economic and cultural dominance of
one country over another, with or without physical settlement.
Intersectionality Refers to the multiple and systemic ways in which our
composite identities– as made up of many parts such as gender, sexu-
ality or religion– overlap to create and shape dierent experiences of
privilege and discrimination.
Modernity A contested term. Western modernity is grounded in the
Enlightenment movement and characterised by human progress. It
involves the individual breaking away from the unmodern era.
Nation A community of people who retain cultural links with their
homeland even as they inhabit another country or larger nation-state.
Nationalism An ideology that emphasises shared identity and loyalty to
the nation-state at the exclusion of other individual or group interests.
Nationalism An ideology that emphasises shared identity and loyalty to
the nation-state to the exclusion of other individual or group interests.
Neo imperialism Anew kind of imperialism referring to the modern ways
in which former imperial powers continue to dominate the world stage.
Non-normative gender identity or gender non-conformity Refer to those
who identify or fall outside of the male/female gender binary.
Patriarchy A society or system of authority where men dominate and
hold power. Patriarchy is based on the belief that men are inherently
superior to women.
6 Introduction
Queer, queerness or gender queer Used as an umbrella term, queerness
may also refer to gender and sexual minorities (LGBTQ+) and may
indicate those who identify outside of heteronormativity. It is an inclu-
sive term.
Race Race is a complex term; however, it is widely understood as a socio-
historical construct with no biological foundations but with material
and aective consequences in the social world.
Racialised subject The process of ascribing racial identity to an individual
or a group.
Racism Belief in the inherent superiority and dominance of one ‘race’
over another.
Sexuality Refers to the sexual feelings, experiences, thoughts, desires,
behaviours and attractions we have towards other people.
Third World feminism Feminist theory-work from the Global South.
Ubuntu An African worldview that emphasises shared humanity, inter-
dependence and reciprocity.
Xenophobia The fear or hatred of those perceived to be outsiders, for-
eigners or strangers to a community, nation or society– often migrants.
Reference List
Blagg, H. and Anthony, T. (2019) Decolonising Criminology: Imagining Justice in
a Postcolonial World. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brah, A. (2022) Decolonial Imaginings: Intersectional Conversations and Contes-
tations. London: Goldsmiths Press.
de Sousa Santos, B. (2018) The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age
of Epistemologies of the South. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Maldonado-Torres, N. (2007) ‘On the Coloniality of Being’, Cultural Studies,
21(2), pp.240–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380601162548.
Okech, A. (2020) ‘African Feminist Epistemic Communities and Decoloniality’,
Critical African Studies, 12(3), pp.313–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/2168139
2.2020.1810086.
Tuck, E. and Wayne Yang, K. (2012) ‘Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor’, Decoloni-
zation: Indigeneity, Education& Society, 1(2), pp.1–40. Available at: https://clas.
osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20and%20Yang%202012%20Decolo
nization%20is%20not%20a%20metaphor.pdf (Accessed 22 August2023).
DOI: 10.4324/9781003468400-2
In Part 1, we interrogate race, the racialised subject and racism. We look at
the past to make sense of the present– specifically how race and racism have
the power to organise the social world and relations in it. In Chapter1, we
discuss the relationship between imperialism, colonialism and the racialised
subject and consider how this relationship has shaped the modern world.
The dominance of the Global North is interrogated. Chapter2 analyses the
workings of race and racism as systems of power. The links between racism
and nationalism are examined. We also compare the workings of race with
language in our discussion of power and representation. Black feminist
thought and intersectionality are covered in Chapter3. Here, we examine
capitalism, patriarchy and racism as intersecting systems of oppression.
Theory-work covered in Part 1 will be applied to case studies.
Part 1
Race and Racism
DOI: 10.4324/9781003468400-3
By the end of Chapter1, you will be able to:
• Distinguish the dierence between imperialism and colonialism
• Examine the relationship between imperialism, colonialism, the transat-
lantic slave trade and the construction of the racialised subject
• Interrogate the impact of this relationship on the modern world
• Apply your understanding to case studies.
The relationship between imperialism, colonialism and the racialised sub-
ject takes the focus of Chapter1. We discuss how this relationship has
shaped the modern world. Imperialism and colonialism are related to
modernity. Modernity is a contested term. But we can understand it as
grounded in the Enlightenment Movement. The Enlightenment refers to an
intellectual, political, scientific and social movement led by European phi-
losophers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Think of the Enlight-
enment as the precursor to modernity. The Western discourse of modernity
is characterised by human progress. It involves individuals breaking away
from the unmodern era. In this chapter, we unpack how the Enlightenment
and modernity relate to the transatlantic slave trade, chattel slavery and the
construction of the racialised subject. African American activist and intel-
lectual W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) helps us to understand the phenom-
enon of racialised subjectivity and the psychological legacies of slavery. We
discuss Du Bois’ two key concepts: double consciousness and the veil.
Our interrogation of imperialism and colonial discourse continues with
two important twentieth-century anti-colonial thinkers: Martinican intel-
lectual and politician Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) and Afro-Martinican phi-
losopher and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon (1925–1961). Césaire interrogates
the discourse of Western modernity to reveal the ambivalence of Western
imperial power. With Fanon, we look at the psychology of colonialism
and explore his phenomenology of race. Palestinian American intellectual
Edward Said’s (1935–2003) Orientalism comes next. We learn how the
1 Imperialism, Colonialism and
the Racialised Other
W.E.B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire,
Frantz Fanon, Edward Said and
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
10 Race and Racism
Orient/Occident binary maintains Western hegemony. Finally, with the
help of Kenyan activist and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938–), we con-
sider how the English language functioned as a carrier of colonial culture
during British colonialism. Knowledge and understanding are applied to
case studies including the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) and the sup-
pression of te reo Māori, the Māori language, in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963)
William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois (1868–1963) was a black
African American civil rights activist, intellectual and scholar. Du Bois is
a highly influential early twentieth-century figure and seminal thinker on
race, racism and black protest. He attended Fisk University (1885–1888), a
historically black university, and received a PhD from Harvard University in
1895. Du Bois’ theory-work on the socio-economic and political position of
black Americans in the United States laid the foundations for the growth
of black intellectual thought and contributed to the intellectual develop-
ment of Pan-Africanism (Appiah, 1992; Gordon, 2008). Du Bois’ ethno-
graphic study of black Americans in urban Philadelphia was the earliest
of its kind; The Philadelphia Negro (1899) contributed to the creation
of urban ethnography and provided the theoretical foundations for soci-
ology in the United States (Appiah, 2018; Gordon, 2008). In this section,
we explore two concepts central to Du Bois’ radical politics and critical
thought: double consciousness and the veil. Du Bois used these terms to
illustrate racialised subjectivity in America. First, we need to contextualise
Du Bois’ theory-work.
Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slavery is not a new phenomenon, but an ancient practice found across a
wide range of human societies. The transatlantic slave trade refers to the
capture, transportation and enslavement of tens of millions of Africans,
mostly from West and Central Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean to the
Americas between the fifteenth to late nineteenth centuries. During this
period, Europeans enslaved able-bodied African men and women from
West and Central Africa to work on colonial plantations in the Americas
as chattel slaves. Portugal and Spain were among the first Western Euro-
pean imperial powers to colonise and establish sugar plantations in the
Americas; Britain, France and the Netherlands joined shortly after setting
up plantations across the Caribbean (Scanlan, 2022). Having gained a
foothold in the Americas, Europeans began to expand their empires fur-
ther north establishing tobacco and other crop plantations in North Amer-
ica (Scanlan, 2022). Chattel slavery was not the main form of plantation
labour in early colonial America, however. Indentured servitude, although
not very dierent to enslavement, predates chattel slavery. Plantation
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 11
owners enslaved Africans to meet growing labour demands on large cot-
ton, tobacco and sugar farms.
Scholars estimate that approximately thirteen million African men and
women were shipped in chains across the Atlantic through what was called
the Middle Passage. Many Africans died on the journey and millions passed
away while enslaved. The African diaspora, a term used to describe global
communities of African people and those of African descent, is partly a con-
sequence of the transatlantic slave trade. It is important to note that enslaved
African men and women were not simply passive victims of the transatlantic
slave trade or chattel slavery. Nor were they a homogenous group. Against
all odds, courageous African men and women carried out revolts on board
slave ships crossing the Middle Passage while many executed slave rebel-
lions on American plantations (Dadzie, 2020). Enslaved men and women
faced morally complex situations and displayed agency, creativity, courage,
frailty and resilience against oppressive forces (Scanlan, 2022).
Box 1.1. Pause for Thought: Distinguishing Between
Imperialism and Colonialism
Colonialism, as the physical colonisation of one country over another,
is typically associated with Western Europe’s formal expansion into
Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania between the fifteenth and
nineteenth centuries. But colonialism began much earlier, as far back
as the second century , in the sense that empires existed long before
Western European hegemony (Loomba, 1998). The Ming Dynasty
(1368–1644) and the Inca Empire (circa 1438) oer two early exam-
ples. Imperialism, as the cultural, economic, ideological and political
dominance of one country over another,predates colonialism. Impe-
rialism does not necessarily require the physical colonisation of one
country over another; it can simply be about hegemony or power.
While neo imperialism refers to a new kind of imperialism or the
modern ways in which developed countries, often former imperial
powers, dominate the world stage. Think, for example, of countries
like China, Britain, Russia and the United States. These former impe-
rial powers continue to dominate global cultural, economic, politi-
cal and military agendas without necessarily physically colonising or
conquering any other regions.
1. Explain the dierence between imperialism and colonialism in
your own words. Provide a concrete example to illustrate your
answer.
2. Think of a contemporary imperial power and explain how it exer-
cises authority on the world stage.
12 Race and Racism
Enlightenment, the Modern Concept of Race and Capitalism
The modern idea of race is widely associated with the transatlantic slave
trade, modernity and the globalisation of capitalism. Let’s begin with
modernity. Modernity is a contested term. But we can understand it as
grounded in the Enlightenment Movement or Age of Reason (1685–1815).
Think of the Enlightenment as the precursor to modernity. The Enlight-
enment Movement was a Western European cultural, economic,intellec-
tual, scientific and political movement. This was a time of human progress,
innovation, freedom of expression and distrust in absolute power including
church, monarchy and nobility. The Enlightenment Movement began with
the activities of French thinkers and is widely associated with the French
Revolution of 1789 (Porter, 2000). Enlightenment thinkers believed that
empiricism, science and philosophy could improve human life, and indeed
that human progress and fulfilment depended on humanity’s intellectual
powers– especially the individual’s ability to reason.
Enlightenment philosophers put their faith in reason as opposed to tra-
ditional forms of authority like myth, superstition and religion. This was
a period of the advancement of the natural sciences through the works of
thinkers such as Francis Bacon (1561–1626) whose empirical approach to
natural phenomena and the natural world revolutionised science (Porter,
2000). Other major Enlightenment thinkers include René Descartes (1596–
1650), whose modern rationalist philosophy advanced the natural sciences
and materialist thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), whose political phi-
losophy had a profound impact on Western political and social thought
(Porter, 2000).
Enlightenment thinkers were interested not only in understanding the
natural sciences but also in reshaping the socio-political world particu-
larly the relationship between the individual, society and the state. The
Age of Reason birthed principles of liberty and equality, democratic gov-
ernance, individual freedoms and rights and political accountability– all
of which remain features of modern Western democracies. Hobbes’ Levia-
than (1651) was a majorly influential text that helped shape Western Euro-
pean social and political thought. Hobbes’ ideas were the beginnings of
modern social contract theory: the view that rational, free-thinking and
self-interested individuals enter into a social contract among themselves to
form a society. Under social contract theory, individuals rationally consent
to being governed. Hobbes’ ideas were later developed by French philoso-
pher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who had a profound influence
on G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831), whose writings and dialectical philosophy
have been the subject of much critical debate. It is important to understand
that social contract theory, in its preoccupation with the universal ‘rights
of man’, overlooked the socio-political position and citizenship rights of
women, the working classes, the poor and people of colour (Agozino,
2003; Bristow, 2017).
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 13
Given that Enlightenment philosophies were ethnocentric and classist,
while some contained blatant racist logic, ‘the people’ invoked in philo-
sophical treatises on the ‘rights of man’ were typically the privileged few
while the rest of the population were portrayed as a social problem (Porter,
2000). Some groups were treated as less than human. Marginalised groups
were not considered rational or free-thinking but emotional and irrational
creatures. They were denied the humanist principles of the Enlightenment
and kept outside of what was eectively a racialised and gendered social
contract– just as the criminal justice system was being radically reformed
in Europe (Mills, 1997; Pateman and Puwar, 2002). As Europeans pro-
ceeded to map land and catalogue1 humankind into a hierarchical chain of
being between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, Enlightenment ideas
about racial dierence and the origins of humankind were used to justify
the capture, exploitation and extraction of Indigenous peoples in Africa,
the Americas, Asia and Oceania.
In many ways, the invention of race provided the answer to the expansion
of the plantation enterprise in the Americas. The racialisation of Africa as
Western Europe’s other transformed the capitalist mode of production in that
it enabled Europeans to deny black African men and women their liberty,
control labour flows and deploy unlimited violence in the pursuit of profit and
power (Mbembe, 2017, p.20). Put another way, the invention of race allowed
Europeans to acquire more land, increase flows of labour and grow wealth,
while the expansion of global capitalism further contributed to the exploita-
tion and oppression of marginalised groups. Racialised Enlightenment think-
ing together with the growth of industrial production and the expansion of
capitalism incited and facilitated the trade in enslaved Africans. Europeans
profited grossly from unpaid African plantation labour in the Americas.
Abolition, Wage Labour and the Reconstruction Period
The violence of slavery intensified in the eighteenth century and slave
plantations expanded, but abolition movements grew also. By the mid-
eighteenth century, anti-slavery sentiment had developed among religious
groups, including the Quakers, while ordinary people in America and
Europe began to criticise plantation slavery and slaveholders by the late
eighteenth century (Scanlan, 2022). The French Revolution (1789–1799)
and the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) reinforced calls for abolition. By
1807, Britain had passed the Slave Trade Abolition Act, signalling a com-
mitment to abolition, which became law in 1833. Asimilar Act was passed
in the United States in 1808 prohibiting the importation of slaves.
Even though the transatlantic slave trade was over, Americans were still
allowed to keep slaves. Chattel slavery continued for the next fifty years abol-
ished in 1865 with the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment after the Amer-
ican Civil War (1861–1877). African Americans achieved greater political
14 Race and Racism
and personal freedoms during the Reconstruction Period (1865–1877). The
Fourteenth Amendment, for example, granted all Americans, regardless of
colour or previous status as indentured servant, equal protection under the
law. The devaluation and subordination of black humanity did not end,
however. When slave labour changed to wage labour, racial capitalism took
hold and capitalist society expanded even further (Robinson, 1983).
Pejorative ideas about race and racial dierence survived chattel slav-
ery and despite formal changes to the law in post-Civil War America,
racism did not end– it simply changed shape. White supremacist ideolo-
gies intensified especially in the Southern United States where Jim Crow
was introduced. Jim Crow refers to the legal institutionalisation of white
supremacy through racial segregation. Jim Crow reinforced racial hierar-
chies in every sphere of public and private American life. Americans were
not even allowed to marry across the colour line. Jim Crow began as early
as 1865 and lasted for almost 100years. Racial segregation and discrimi-
nation ended in law with the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The
American Civil Rights Movement played a lead role in the struggle for
African American civil liberties. We turn now to Du Bois whose theory-
work emerges within this context.
Du Bois on Race, Racism and Racialised Subjectivity
Du Bois was an important black protest leader who fought for greater
civil rights for African Americans during and beyond Reconstruction. Du
Bois oered African Americans a radical liberation politics. He is credited
with having influenced later twentieth-century civil rights and black protest
movements. Through his speeches and writing, Du Bois drew attention to
the fact that America remained a fundamentally unequal and racist society
post-slavery– despite changes to the law. Many of Du Bois’ ideas conflicted
with those of other important black leaders at the time, namely Booker
T. Washington (1856–1915). Education was a significant point of tension
between the two men. Washington felt that African Americans should be
trained for vocational jobs post-emancipation, whereas Du Bois believed
that African Americans should have access to higher education. Du Bois
(1903a) understood the benefits of vocational training but saw Wash-
ington’s politics as a compromise with white America – one that asked
black Americans to give up their civil and political rights. Du Bois (1903b)
believed that training African Americans for industrial work was akin to
slavery given that vocational instruction would keep African Americans
in a lower socio-economic and political position. Significantly, Du Bois
(1903b) proposed that the black community be led by a group of highly
talented and educated black men– an Enlightened talented tenth.
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 15
Box 1.2. Stretch Yourself: Appiah’s Critique of Du Bois’
Talented Tenth
British-Ghanian American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah
(1985) challenges Du Bois’ theory-work in ‘The Uncompleted Argu-
ment: Du Bois and the Illusion of Race’. Appiah (1985) argues that
Du Bois’ theory-work on race and racial subjectivity does not escape
the biological racial essentialism that Du Bois sought to reject, espe-
cially with regard to the talented tenth. For Appiah, Du Bois’ method
of reasoning relied on two contradictions: that black people could be
both equal and special.
1. Read Du Bois’ ‘The Talented Tenth’ from The Negro Problem:
ASeries of Articles by Representative Negroes of To-day edited by
Booker T. Washington (New York, 1903). Available at: https://repos
itory.wellesley.edu/object/wellesley30686. Outline and examine
Du Bois’ argument for a talented tenth.
2. Identify and explain the benefits of a talented tenth in nineteenth-
and twentieth-century America. Can you identify any potential
problems with Du Bois’ talented tenth?
3. Read Appiah’s ‘The Uncompleted Argument: Du Bois and the Illu-
sion of Race’ (1985) in Critical Inquiry12(1), pp.21–37. Avail-
able at: www.jstor.org/stable/1343460. To what extent do you
agree with Appiah’s criticisms of Du Bois? Disagree?
4. Is it possible to reshape Du Bois’ talented tenth to fit our con-
temporary times? Explain. Illustrate your answer with concrete
examples.
Du Bois’ Double Consciousness and the Veil
Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903a) addresses the legacies of slav-
ery and colonialism in America. He also provides us with a phenomenol-
ogy of race. Double consciousness and the veil are two concepts central
to Du Bois’ theory-work on racialised subjectivity. These terms illustrate
the social and psychological challenges that faced African Americans post-
emancipation. The term ‘double consciousness’, where consciousnessis an
inner sense of awareness and responsiveness to the outside world, captures
the experience of being made black in a white world– that is to say, con-
structed as a racialised inferior other.
16 Race and Racism
Du Bois refers to the experience of being made black in a white world
as a doubling one, that of seeing oneself as if one is outside of oneself. As
Du Bois writes,
this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self
through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a
world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels this
two-ness,– an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unrec-
onciled strivings; two warring ideas in one dark body, whose dogged
strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. (1903a, p.2)
Put another way, double consciousness is the irreconcilable experience of
having one’s humanity called into question while being fully self-assured
of one’s own self-worth. Du Bois double consciousness also gestures to the
fact that under the white gaze blackness is an imposition experienced as a
negative (Gordon, 2023).
Du Bois’ veil is a metaphor for racial segregation in America. It signi-
fies the separation between white America and black America where to
be a person of colour was to live a painful double kind of life within and
between the veil (Du Bois, 1903a). Think of the veil as a figurative piece
of fabric thin enough to see through but thick enough to keep racism and
racial hierarchies in play. The veil is a mechanism that upholds white
power: it prevents white America from seeing beyond racialised dier-
ence and subordinates black America to white America by shutting Afri-
can Americans out of mainstream white society (Du Bois, 1903a, p.iii).
Du Bois’ notion of double consciousness and the veil gave expression to
what many African Americans were experiencing at the time. Not only did
Du Bois give a voice to a generation but his theory-work was critical to
the development of black intellectual thought and continues to resonate
powerfully today.
Box 1.3. Pause for Thought: Du Bois’ Double
Consciousness and the Veil
1. Create a visual representation of Du Bois’ double consciousness
and the veil.
2. ‘Du Bois’ double consciousness and the veil remain powerful
illustrations of racialised subjectivity in white America’. To what
extent do you agree? Disagree? Find concrete examples drawn
from contemporary society to support your answer.
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 17
Key Texts
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1899) The Philadelphia Negro. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2007.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903a) The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dover Publications,
1994.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903b) ‘The Talented Tenth’, in Washington, B.T. (ed.) The Negro
Problem: ASeries of Articles by Representative American Negroes If To-Day.
New York: James Pott& Company, pp.31–76.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1935) Black Reconstruction in America. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2007.
Aimé Césaire (1913–2008)
Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) was a Martinican anti-colonial intellectual,
politician, poet and writer. His theory-work has influenced generations of
anti-colonial activists and scholars including prominent Afro-Martinican
thinker and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon (1925–1961). Césaire was born in
the French colony of Basse-Pointe Martinique and later educated in Paris.
He returned to Martinique in 1939 and taught in Fort-de-France. Césaire’s
return to Martinique coincided with Vichy rule (1940–1944), an authori-
tarian French regime that governed France and its colonies. He was elected
mayor of Fort-de-France in 1945 and stayed in this position until retire-
ment. Césaire was also a representative to the French National Assembly
for Martinique. He was involved in Martinique’s anti-colonial struggle and
played an important role in the country’s transition to independence from
France helping Martinique gain French overseas department (DOM) status.
Many Martinicans voted for French overseas department (DOM) status
because they wanted social change including the right to full French citi-
zenship, financial aid, paid leave and other social benefits (Césaire, 2020).
Martinique’s transition to French overseas department (DOM) status
is a part of the post-World War II (1939–1945) decolonial moment fol-
lowing the United Nation’s (UN’s) 1960 Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. The declaration armed
people’s right to self-determination and declared an end to colonialism.
Césaire received a lot of criticism for helping Martinique to gain French
overseas department (DOM) status as opposed to full independence from
France; however, in an interview with French activist and educator Fran-
çoise Vergès (see Part 4 Chapter1), Césaire said that he was ‘neither pro-
independence nor pro-assimilation, but pro-autonomy’ (2020, p.21). To
date, Martinique remains a part of the French Republic as an overseas
department (DOM) of France.
Césaire is widely recognised as a co-founder of the Négritude movement
alongside Senegalese politician and poet Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–
2001) and French Guianan politician and poet Léon-Gontran Damas
18 Race and Racism
(1912–1978). Negritude refers to a celebration of the cultural identity and
achievements of Africa and the African diaspora. Césaire first coined the
term Négritude in an article opposing Martinican assimilation with France.
He explains the fundamentals of Négritude in his long poem Cahier d’un
retour au pays natal [Notebook of a Return to the Native Land] (Césaire,
1939), which is a founding text of the Négritude movement. The poem
arms black identity, culture and history and marks a pivotal moment in
the development of black intellectual thought (Gordon, 2008).
Césaire’s Discourse of Colonialism (1955) is a significant anti-capitalist
and anti-colonial text that centres the colonial question. Discourse of Colo-
nialism interrogates the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and power relations that
underpinned imperialism and the colonial project– specifically, the West-
ern discourse of modernity. The Western discourse of modernity concep-
tualises Western Europe as the birthplace of civilisation and progress, and
colonialism as the vehicle through which Europe ‘civilised’ Africa bringing
the continent into the modern era or period of modernity. Césaire made
two important arguments about colonialism and the colonial relationship
within this context. Regarding colonialism, Césaire (1955) said that West-
ern Europe used the humanist foundations of Western modernity to justify
and legitimise slavery and the colonial project. Imperialists claimed that
colonisation would improve the lives of Indigenous peoples, but colonial-
ism devastated land, people and natural resources in Africa, the Americas,
Asia and Oceania. Colonisers used violent imperial tactics and brutal colo-
nial modalities to subordinate colonised peoples and turn them into instru-
ments for Western European capitalist production and profit (Césaire,
1955). Furthermore, and in the tradition of other important black radical
intellectuals including Cedric Robinson, W.E.B. Du Bois and C.L.R. James,
Césaire (1955) situates the origins of fascism within colonialism itself argu-
ing that European fascism was the inevitable manifestation of an already
morally corrupt civilisation.
Regarding the colonial relationship, Césaire argued that colonialism
dehumanised coloniser and colonised. Colonisation, as Césaire explains,
dehumanizes even the most civilized man; that colonial activity, colonial
enterprise, colonial conquest, which is based on contempt for the native
and justified by that contempt, inevitably tends to change him who
undertakes it; that the colonizer, who in order to ease his conscience
gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal, accustoms him-
self to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform
himself into an animal. (1955, p.41)
The coloniser, in other words, was not left untouched by the violence of the
colonial encounter. To this end, argues Césaire, colonialism was not about
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 19
Christian evangelism, education or philanthropy but a capitalist economic
endeavour that, alongside the formal colonisation of land and peoples,
required proletarianisation and working-class loyalty to the nation-state
(1955, pp.32–33). Together, proletarianisation and nationalism prevented
global class solidarity and the overthrow of capitalism itself (Césaire,
1955). As a revision of Marxism, Discourse of Colonialism emphasised
the necessary elimination of racism, capitalism and colonialism– not just
the overthrow of the ruling classes in capitalist society.
Key Texts
Césaire, A. (1955) Discourse on Colonialism: APoetics of Anticolonialism. Trans-
lated by J. Pinkham. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000.
Césaire, A. (2020) Resolutely Black Conversations With Françoise Vergès. Trans-
lated by M.B. Smith. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Box 1.4. Case Study: Black Radical Figures, the Haitian
Revolution (1791–1804) and Haiti Today
StDomingue, now Haiti,was one of the oldest and most profitable
French colonies. Haiti gained its freedom from France after enslaved
Africans liberated themselves from colonial rule through the Hai-
tian Revolution (1791–1804). The Revolution was led mainly by
two important black revolutionary figures: Toussaint L’Ouverture
and Henri Christophe. Despite being the first Black Republic, Haiti
remains one of the poorest regions in the world largely because of
colonial debt (Zambrana, 2021).
1. Do some further background research on Haiti’s history to learn
more about Toussaint L’Ouverture’s and Henri Christophe’s role
in the Haitian Revolution.
2. Summarise your findings about the Haitian Revolution,
L’Ouverture and Christophe. C.L.R James’ seminal text The Black
Jacobins (1938) provides a useful resource.
3. Read Greg Rosalsky’s (2021) National Public Radio (NPR) article
titled ‘ “The Greatest Heist in History”: How Haiti Was Forced to
Pay Reparations for Freedom’ available at: www.npr.org. Summa-
rise Rosalsky’s argument.
4. Critically examine why contemporary Haiti remains socio-
economically underdeveloped. You will need to do some further
research.
20 Race and Racism
Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)
Afro-Caribbean philosopher and psychiatrist Frantz Omar Fanon (1925–
1961) is a major twentieth-century anti-colonial figure. Fanon was
influenced by the theory-work of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre
(1905–1980), French phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-
Ponty (1908–1961) and Martinican intellectual and activist Aimé Césaire
(1913–2008). Fanon influenced the development of African American,
Afro-Caribbean and African philosophy, critical race theory and postcolo-
nial studies (Gordon, 2008). He also inspired many well-known twentieth-
century revolutionary thinkers including South African anti-apartheid
activist Steve Biko (1946–1977) (see Part 4 Chapter3) and African Ameri-
can human rights activist Malcolm X (1925–1965). Fanon was born in
Fort-de-France in the French colony of Martinique in 1925. He served in
the French Resistance Army when he was a young man and fought against
Nazi Germany in World War II (Sardar, 2008). Fanon was awarded a
scholarship to study psychiatry and philosophy in metropolitan imperial
France, where he lived, worked and participated in the anti-colonial strug-
gle meeting and identifying with many African activists and intellectuals
(Sardar, 2008).
Following a job offer as head of the psychiatry department at Bilda-
Joinville Hospital, later Frantz Fanon Hospital, Fanon left France for
the French colony of Algeria (Sardar, 2008). When he arrived in Alge-
ria, the Algerian War of Independence, also known as the Algerian
Revolution (1954–1962), was gaining momentum. Fanon joined the
Algerian Liberation Front and was actively involved in the country’s
struggle for independence from France (Sardar, 2008). Fanon’s seminal
anti-colonial texts Black Skins, White Masks (1967) and The Wretched
of the Earth (1963) emerge within this moment and take the focus of
this section. Drawing on psychoanalysis, Fanon examines the psychol-
ogy of colonialism, that is the phenomenon that governs the relations
between colonised and coloniser. He offers us a phenomenological
approach to the study of colonialism, anti-colonialism and racism.
We learn that race and racism are processes of the unconscious mind.
Fanon also helps us to understand the historical and social dimensions
of blackness.
Black Skins, White Masks is about colonial subjectivity and colonial
relations of power. It was the first of its kind to examine the psychology
of colonialism: the eect of racism on self-perception, how the colonised
subject internalises colonial modalities, how an inferiority complex can
become ingrained in the mind of the colonised and how the colonised
and racialised subject can end up mimicking the oppressor (Sardar,
2008, p. x). Black Skins, White Masks theorises the phenomenon of
racialised subjectivity. Writing from the perspective of the colonised
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 21
subject, Fanon describes the experience of being made black in a white
world as follows:
And then the occasion arose when Ihad to meet the white man’s eyes.
An unfamiliar weight burdened me. The real world challenged my
claims. In the white world the man of color encounters diculties in the
development of his bodily schema. Consciousness of the body is solely
a negating activity. It is a third-person consciousness. The body is sur-
rounded by an atmosphere of certain uncertainty. (1967, pp.83–87)
African American philosopher Lewis R. Gordon (2021) explains that for
Fanon, racism was the project of turning those who are dierent– unlike
like Self or Other– into something ‘else’ entirely: some ‘thing’ outside of
the Self-Other dialectic. This experience of being made to feel like one does
not belong– where one should belong– produces a neurotic situation that
forces the person of colour into what Fanon called the zone of nonbeing
(Gordon, 2023). The racialised subject may be determined from the out-
side in, but does not succumb to this imposed inferiority. Quite the oppo-
site as Fanon writes: the colonised ‘is made to feel inferior, but no means
convinced of his inferiority’ (1963, p.20).
Fanon (1967) argued that the colonised subject could never achieve
recognition from the coloniser in the colonial context, where whites are
the human standard (Gordon, 2008), because racism oers no interracial
dialectics of recognition between black and white. That is to say, rac-
ism oersno constitutive Self-Other mutual acknowledgement between
two self-consciousness (Gordon, 2008). Put another way, an ethical rela-
tionship between colonised and coloniser was not possible because the
coloniser could not imagine the colonised as fully human. Given that ethi-
cal relationships depend on the Self-Other dialectic, Fanon believed that
assimilation was not possible, explains Gordon (2021). Those who did try
to establish an ethical relationship with the coloniser were forced to do
so in a society that had already excluded them– a context within which
one could commit a form of violence simply by appearing in a moral
system constituted on one’s very exclusion (Fanon, 1963; Gordon, 2021).
Fanon believed that the ethical relationship between colonised and colon-
iser would need to be reimagined to create a new anti-racist world order.
Key Texts
Fanon, F. (1963) The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by R. Philcox. New York:
Grove Press, 2004.
Fanon, F. (1967) Black Skins, White Masks. Translated by C.L. Markmann.
London: Pluto Press, 2008.
22 Race and Racism
Box 1.5. Case Study: Colonialism, Racism and
Contemporary Police Brutality
1. Research the death of French teenagers Zyed Benna and Bouna
Traoré in 2005 and the murder of seventeen-year-old French teen-
ager Nahel Merzouk in 2023. Identify the similarities and dier-
ences between the events and circumstances leading up to and
after these tragedies.
2. Describe public and political reaction to the deaths of these three
teenagers.
3. What might these three tragedies suggest about the relationship
between imperialism, colonialism and the racialised other?
Box 1.6. Case Study: Colonialism and the Israeli–
Palestinian Conflict
Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting over the same territory
in the Middle East for over half a century. The Palestinians and the
Israelis have competing claims to the same land, the Gaza strip and
the East Jerusalem region, dating back a few thousand years. Both
claim Jerusalem as their capital. The conflict stretches back to the
Ottoman Empire when Palestine was an Ottoman territory. The
Ottoman Empire was partitioned after World War I (1914–1918)
and Palestine became a British Mandate incorporating the Balfour
Declaration of 1917. The Declaration was a public announcement
Edward W. Said (1935–2003)
Palestinian American intellectual Edward W. Said (1935–2003) was a cul-
tural critic and a scholar of English and Comparative Literature who stud-
ied at Princeton University and later Harvard. Said was a political figure and
a leading advocate for Palestinian rights in the Middle East. He was highly
critical of United States relations with Palestine and of American policy in
the Middle East which he felt homogenised and denigrated Middle Eastern
peoples and cultures. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the Middle East
informed much of Said’s politics. Said was conscious of the suering and
genocide of Jewish people but was an advocate for the Palestinian cause
and for Palestinian rights in the Middle East. He did not propose Israeli
dispossession but democracy as a way for Israelis and Palestinians to coex-
ist peacefully remaining an advocate for Palestine until his death in 2003.
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 23
made by the British government to support the creation of a national
home for Jewish people in Palestine, already home to a small Jewish
population (United Nations, no date). The United Nations approved
a plan to separate Palestine into a Palestinian and a Jewish state by
1948. This was widely referred to as a two-state solution.
Even though Palestinians rejected the two-state solution, the state
of Israel was ocially declared independent. Years of Israeli–Pales-
tinian conflict followed. Asignificant moment came in 1967 when,
after the Arab Israeli War (1948–1949), Israel took control over the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These two areas had large Palestinian
populations. The Palestinians regard the Israeli takeover of the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip as illegal; Israelis see the takeover as justi-
fied. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict continues to date.
1. Do some background research into the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Outline some of your key findings.
2. Describe international response to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
3. Drawing on Said’s theory-work, explain the role of othering in the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Said’s Orientalism (1978) takes the focus of this section. Orientalism
(1978) is one of the most influential texts of the twentieth century. Draw-
ing on French philosopher Michel Foucault’s (1926–1984) theory-work on
knowledge and power and Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s
(1891–1937) theory of cultural hegemony, Orientalism explores how the
West has come to represent and understand the Middle East. More specifi-
cally, Said theorises the discourse of Orientalism: how the West has come
to construct North Africa and South Asia as its other. He returns to these
themes in Culture and Imperialism (1993) but pays closer attention to the
relationship between imperialism and literature. Contrapuntal readings
are central to Said’s critique of Western cultural hegemony in Culture and
Imperialism. Contrapuntal readings allow postcolonial critics to read for
silences (for what is not said) within the text. Said is often credited with
contributing to the creation of postcolonial studies.
Said (1978) uses the term Orientalism to refer to a discursive body of
knowledge that has transformed North Africa and South Asia into the
West’s knowable, homogenous and constitutive other. Orientalism has a
long history and thought tradition dating back to Europe’s early expan-
sion into North Africa and South Asia. Early European colonisers, travel-
lers, researchers and writers gathered ‘facts’ about Middle Eastern peoples
and cultures and presented these as ‘truth’ to Western Europe. Said (1978)
contends that the West, through Eurocentric intellectual, ideological,
24 Race and Racism
economic, military, political and sociological processes, constructed an
artificial opposition between the Western world and the Eastern world– an
Orient/Occident binary–that subordinates North Africa and South Asia to
Western Europe. At one stage, Orientalism even existed as an academic dis-
cipline. Orientalist texts construct, reproduce and repeat racist and exoti-
cised stereotypes about Middle Eastern peoples and cultures. Through the
Orient/Occident binary, North Africa and South Asia emerge as the West’s
opposite in image, culture, experience, moral attitude and knowledge –
that is uncivilised, immoral and backwards (Said, 1978).
Thanks to Orientalism, many Western Europeans, without ever hav-
ing visited the East, assume to know the characteristics and cultures of
the people who live there. Western Europe has not necessarily conspired
against the Middle East; rather, Said (1978) reveals that Orientalist ideas
about North Africa and South Asia have been fundamental to the expan-
sion of Western civilisation into the Middle Eastern world. Formal coloni-
alism may be over, but Orientalism continues to shape the Western popular
imagination and underpin contemporary Euro-American relations in the
Middle East (Said, 1978). The case study below oers an illustration.
Box 1.7. Stretch and Challenge: Cultural Imperialism,
Orientalism and the Global War on Terror
In the 2003 preface to Orientalism (1978), Said shares his views
on Euro-American relations with the Middle East arguing that the
United States invented a false image of the Middle East to justify
the Iraq War (2003–2011) and to overthrow former Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein in 2003. Said (1978) contends that the United States
was able to justify the invasion of Iraq and the post 9/11 American-
led Global War on Terror by evoking cultural stereotypes about the
Middle East similar to those used by British and French imperialists
during colonialism. Not all Americans supported the Iraq War or the
Global War on Terror nor are Middle Eastern people incapable of vio-
lence. Rather, Said seeks to illustrate the workings of Western power,
that is how the West relies on the production and representation of
its constitutive Eastern other to maintain Western hegemony. Read
Said’s ‘The Arab Portrayed’ written in the late 1960s and answer
the questions that follow. You can access the text here: https://digital
archive.wilsoncenter.org/document/edward-said-arab-portrayed.
1. Explain Orientalism and the Orient/Orient binary in your own
words.
Imperialism, Colonialism and the Racialised Other 25
2. How is Orientalism a form of cultural imperialism?
3. Explain how the Orient functions as a sign of Western power in
the context of the Global War on Terror. You will need to do some
background research.
4. Find and describe examples of contemporary Orientalism.
5. Create a visual representation of Orientalism that explains why
Said’s theory-work remains important today.
In Culture and Imperialism, Said pays closer attention to the relation-
ship between imperialism and literature deploying contrapuntal readings
in the study of colonialism and racism. Contrapuntal readings notice the
narrative silences in a text allowing the reader, or audience, to consider the
cultural and intellectual processes that maintain Western cultural hegem-
ony (Upstone, 2017). For example, Said’s (1993) contrapuntal reading of
slavery in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814) reveals a quiet culture of
domestic imperialism, and one that maintains Western cultural hegemony.
Although Orientalist attitudes can be traced back to the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, Orientalism still exists in contemporary film and media
influencing socio-political and cultural attitudes towards the Eastern world.
A2021 study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (2021) examin-
ing the presentation of Muslims across 200 popular films (2017–2019) in
the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand found
that Muslim characters in film are racially profiled, linked to violence, ren-
dered ‘foreign’ and/or shown as subservient. Argo (2012) and Homeland
(2011–2020) oer two post-9/11 examples.
The fictional character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the American
television show The Simpsons, which first aired in the United States in
1989, oers a third example. Apu is an Indian immigrant and conveni-
ence store owner whose character traits, mannerisms and accent have
been distorted to such an extent that The Simpsons has received criticism
for perpetuating stereotypes about South Asian peoples (see The Problem
with Apu, 2017). Apu arguably emerges as an Oriental in The Simpsons
that is an irrational and deviant other. Put another way, Apu embodies
how the East is seen but not as it is. Characters like Apu risk reinforc-
ing harmful stereotypes about the East that reinforce Western cultural
imperialism.
Key Texts
Said, E. (1978) Orientalism. London: Penguin Random House, 2003.
Said, E. (1993) Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage.
26 Race and Racism
Box 1.8. Pause for Thought: Western Cultural Hegemony,
Orientalism and the Media
1. Identify any Orientalist films, television shows or streaming series
that misrepresent Eastern peoples and cultures. Explain how your
example/s illustrate Said’s arguments.
2. Do any of your examples share similar themes or patterns of rep-
resentation regarding Eastern peoples and cultures?
3. Identify any films, television shows or streaming series that delib-
erately subvert Orientalism or cultural stereotypes about the East.
4. Describe and explain the significance of these subversions.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938–)
Activist, critic and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938–) is a celebrated Ken-
yan novelist and anti-colonial critic. His theory-work interrogates the rela-
tionship between imperialism, language and the psychology of colonialism.
Wa Thiong’o was born in 1938 in British Kenya. He studied at Makerere
University College in Uganda and at the University of Leeds in the United
Kingdom. Wa Thiong’o later returned to Kenya from the United Kingdom
and in 1967 was appointed lecturer in English Literature at the Univer-
sity of Nairobi, where he led the movement to decolonise the English cur-
riculum and place Indigenous African languages at the heart of teaching
and learning. For wa Thiong’o, Indigenous languages provide the cultural
weapons to combat imperialism and neocolonialism.
Wa Thiong’o has published a range of anti-colonial works including
essays, plays, short stories, fiction and non-fiction. In Weep Not, Child (wa
Thiong’o, 1964) and A Grain of Wheat (wa Thiong’o, 1967) he comments
on Kenya’s transition to independence from colonial rule. These two texts
interrogate the conflicting social, moral and political issues that emerged
during Kenya’s (post)colonial period. During his time at the University
of Nairobi (1960–1970), wa Thiong’o was arrested and detained on sus-
picion of rebelling against the state and was later charged with sedition.
Two controversial texts, Ngaahika Ndeenda/I Will Marry When IWant
(wa Thiong’o and wa Thiong’o, 1970) and Petals of Blood (wa Thiong’o,
1977), provide the backdrop to wa Thiong’o’s arrest. Ngaahika Ndeenda
and Petals of Blood criticise Kenya’s postcolonial government and its neo-
colonial policies. Amnesty International referred to wa Thiong’o as a pris-
oner of conscience and helped to free him a year later (Munshi, 2016). As
a result of his anti-colonial politics, wa Thiong’o was forced into exile in
the 1980s where he stayed for almost two decades. To date, he continues
