ARTSPEAK: STEP BACK TO MOVE FORWARD

America was the first colonised country to gain independence in 1776, followed by Haiti and Brazil. Most Americans and Brazilians were Europeans who sought independence from Europe, while the Haitians who fought for independence from France were slaves, mostly from Africa. The indigenous populations of all three were all but wiped out.
Most countries that carry the tag of decolonisation today were native populations that achieved independence between the 1940s and the 1970s, across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. These countries remain trapped between colonial and traditional values.
Along with military might and brutal suppression of resistance, the more subtle instruments of subjugation have been education, language and culture. Ironically, it has been these very impositions that have allowed voices of protest to turn colonial monologues into a dialogue. From Dadabhai Naoroji in the late 19th century, to Frantz Fanon and Edward Said in the 20th century, to Mehdi Hasan and Shashi Tharoor in the 21st century, the whispers of protest have become strident and loud, as the Empire speaks back.
The plunder and loot of human and natural resources was justified as a ‘civilising mission’ to uplift and develop a supposedly ‘backward’ people. Author Carey Watt says the Anglo-American invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 were also presented as civilising missions, and to protect the people of ‘the civilised world.’
Historians such as Niall Fergusson believe the US should have been the natural heir to British colonialism, arguing that Woodrow Wilson’s replacement of the Age of Empires with the Age of Nations at the 1919 Versailles peace conference was the root cause of global chaos. In the London-based Intelligence Squared debate in 2007, the audience voted 465 to 264 in favour of the statement: “We should not be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western values.”
The identities of ‘independent’ nations are kept tightly reined, by defining them exclusively by their colonial era, as post-colonial, or third world or developing nations, rather than individual repositories of cultures that evolved over centuries. Colonial powers created a native elite as administrative supports, while curbing their power to address the needs of their communities. Laws such as the Permanent Settlement Act, which created the zamindari system in India in 1793, led to a lasting social instability and oppression.
However, one can argue that the majority population was never truly colonised. Below the radar, people continued to celebrate their religions, culture and traditions. They followed their own medical treatments, legal systems, poetry, songs, dance and crafts, and shared their stories, whose sounds are now reverberating upwards into the circles of the intellectual elite.
Histories are being revisited to reveal the lie of ‘civilising nations.’ Africa was not the “heart of darkness”, but a rich tapestry of kingdoms and empires. The assumed uniqueness of Western rationality, technology, rights of citizens or capacity for capitalism is challenged by revisiting histories of non-Western civilisations.
Confucius’ theories of education and moral-political philosophy are still followed today. Sanskrit shastars were scientific texts exploring logic, moral-political thought and astronomy. The Mughals had extensive libraries of manuscripts produced over three centuries, many translations and exchange of knowledge, flourishing trade, smoothly run administrations, legal systems, diplomacy, and arts and architecture of a high calibre.
The European colonial empires are not the only empires the world has known. The Roman, Persian, Chinese, Mongol and Islamic empires each had a powerful and lasting impact on the nations they occupied. Civilisations were constantly being replenished with new cultures that were absorbed, and the conquerors too were, in turn, changed.
The Muslim empire evolved culturally by adopting the best practices of the lands they conquered. As the Martiniquais poet Aimé Césaire wrote, colonialism ‘de-civilised’ those responsible. When violence was justified and normalised by European beneficiaries of colonial rule, “a poison was distilled into the veins of Europe and, slowly but surely, the continent proceeded towards savagery.”
National memory survives through storytelling, religious practices, cultural ceremonies and the arts. Sankofa is a Ghanian word that means “to go back and get it.” It carries the idea of taking from the past in order to enrich the present, or looking back in order to move forward. From it comes the proverb, “It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.”
Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist.
She may be reached at
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Published in Dawn, EOS, September 29th, 2024