Postcolonialism

Activism too often relies on a black-and-white narrative that neatly divides the world between oppressor and oppressed. As a result, activists often lean on a universalist language of human rights, democracy, and justice to fight back. Postcolonial theory, however, recognizes that any discourse is historically rooted in a particular ideological framework. While postcolonial theory is sympathetic to the aims and intentions of activism, it also complicates the allegedly universalist discourses that activism tends to rely on.

Postcolonialism is useful for activists who want to reflect on the historical roots of their discourse and the unintended consequences of using their discourse on behalf of people of the so-called Third World. It creates a discursive space where subaltern context and agency are rendered visible and capable of speaking to power. Indeed, it profoundly transforms our notions of where power is located in our struggles. It forces us to acknowledge that oppression occurs not just in economic relations, but also in the very categories of meaning-making that produce reality as we know, understand, and live it.

This heavy theorizing may all seem like anathema to many activists, and, indeed, postcolonial theory applied to activism may complicate activists’ lives in unexpected ways. But, good!

Postcolonial theory moves away from a strictly materialist analysis, preferring instead to go with a Foucaultian perspective; namely, that it is discourse that produces reality. This is not to deny that there is a material reality out there. Rather, it posits that every material reality “out there” can only be known, understood, interpreted, and acted upon through language. Postcolonial theory uses discourse analysis, psychoanalytical approaches, semiotics, and Marxist approaches, but in the end, the purpose is to reveal power relations inherent in any discourse, always in ways that enable subaltern voices to emerge.

Postcolonial theory attempts to go beyond the binaries that shape political and cultural discourse. It suggests that a simple reversal of racial stereotypes, for example, or a naive assertion of nationalism as a response to colonial rule, is not just ineffective, but contains tendencies to reproduce the abuses it resisted in the first place! Instead, postcolonial theory attempts to create what Homi Bhabha has called the “third space” — an approach that highlights the ambiguity, uncertainty, and non-deterministic manner in which struggle and resistance must be carried out. Gayatri Spivak, in a similar vein, has referred to catachresis, a form of critique that aims at “reversing, displacing, and seizing the apparatus of value-coding.”

This heavy theorizing may all seem like anathema to many activists, and, indeed, postcolonial theory applied to activism may complicate activists’ lives in unexpected ways. But, good! In the long-term, activism rooted in postcolonial theory can lead to a far richer engagement with the subaltern — presumably on whose behalf activists do their work. Refusing to already always accept that there is oppression or victimhood can allow subalterns to express their subjectivity — especially on a range of subjects that they are not expected to talk about. For example, a landless peasant or a migrant sweatshop worker producing art, performing poetry, or discussing the meaning of her dreams displaces our notions about how oppressed people behave. The French philosopher Jacques Ranciere, talking about French workers in the mid-19th century, puts it aptly when he says, a worker who sings songs is more dangerous than the worker who shouts slogans. This is because the worker who sings songs has effectively disrupted our notions around how workers are supposed to occupy their symbolic position as workers. Postcolonial theory allows us to see that subaltern people can and do break the symbolic identity that is shackled on to them by activism, opening us to the possibility of pursuing those symbolic transgressions to their revolutionary ends. Thus, postcolonial theory is not just about making activism more effective. Rather, postcolonial theory transforms the very meanings of what constitutes activism itself.

Originally published in Beautiful Rising.