Postcolonialism refers to the historical period that represents the outcome of Western colonialism. Similarly, the term may be used to refer to concurrent projects to claim back and rethink the history and people’s agency subordinated by several forms of expansionism. There are many signs that if not properly checked, the world can get to where colonialism was in terms of mediocrity and other forms of superiority battles. There are various forms of postcolonial issues that are concerned with engaging with the legacy of enlightenment to technology, economic expansions, and socio-political matters. This paper contributes to PoCo Contempo’s ethnographic blog on post-colonial analysis.
Summary
The postcolonial theory focuses on examining how societies, people, and governments experience international relations. In the theory, there is an emphasis on how people have reacted to the modern forms of imperialism based on the current interactions and societal stratification system. For instance, the theory argues that there are many forms of neocolonialism in the entertainment market in issues such as album productions, electronic manufacturing, and distribution among other factors. The knowledge that has been brought by western culture has impacted the theory by the roles it plays to the public (Hong 1). For example, in a movie, most producers would choose to delegate duties of criminal culture to people of color while giving white-collar roles to the whites. Additionally, there is a notion that speaking the world’s most popular languages such as English, German, Spanish, French among others is the required civilization level.
Postcolonial theory is concerned with global tensions due to greed for power, reputation, and influence over key matters. Most of the time, the theory analyses the extent to which race, ethnicity, and other social matters have been perceived in the current world. The identity of some groups in society is often affected by this issue. For example, in the middle east, it was a misconduct for a woman to drive in public (Haque 12). One would wonder how comes in the modern world there have been little insights to end discrimination based on gender. It took various years before women were allowed to participate in universal suffrage. Therefore, when women are being perceived as ‘weak gender’, it takes back to the roots of civil war where such elements were evident.
What the world sees today in terms of the post-colonial perspective on gender is that there is more of a male-dominated society as opposed to female counterparts. For instance, when a woman wears miniskirts and walks almost half-naked, the world perceives that they dress so to impress men. On the contrary, when women cover their bodies such as the Muslim faithful and the Hijab, it is assumed that men have forced that kind of dress code by reviewing religious perspectives on demeanor of a woman (Hong 1). I believe it is important to study postcolonialism because the world needs to have a better understanding of the nature of a man, the duties they have to implement, and the boundaries that have to limit social entrepreneurship.
If society disregards postcolonialism, it will always be assumed that certain regions dominate some fields. For example, the perception that the UK has a better education system will prevail and other countries will be reluctant to boost their own. Additionally, the children will be influenced by their upbringing and hence, hold values on what is superior or inferior based on primitive ideologies (Haque 14). Therefore, postcolonial paraphernalia is existing and we need to lower it through high sensitization programs that encourage accepting all human beings’ capability, stand, and other phenomena.
Reflection
Postcolonial themes that have helped enlighten me about the existence of colonial elements range depending on the impact and popularity. To better reflect on this, the cultural dominance theme would be applicable for this matter, whereby, my experience is evident. My country the US is commonly known for the dominant culture of whites, middle-class, protestants, and catholic and northern European descent. The percentage of whites in the US is higher than that of Black Americans and therefore, there is a tendency to segregate some individuals due to their racial alienation (Hong 1). Similarly, there are more middle-class people than the rich or poor in this country. Therefore, neocolonialism in the US is highly evident from the theme of cultural dominance. However, personal experience is not based on racism or the status of a person by the developed habits that I learned as a Northerner.
Males from the US are perceived to be aggressive, impolite, and commanding as compared to other regions. The experience that I have had so far is about my friends misunderstanding me just because I come from the US. During conversations, most of my peers allege that I try to influence everyone to go as per my wish on the agenda instead of a concurred view on the same. Sometimes I confidently deny that since I know what I stand for as a person rather than emulating some culture. It is a provocative approach when members of my group limit my freethinking by saying that I am too egocentric (Haque 15). With my level of civilization, I am sure that learned people have their takes on matters and whenever the time come for expression, misconceptions can arise. From that note, I have been low on showcasing my skills and abilities especially to my friends from other regions since there might be a misunderstanding. These culturally dominated notions make people collide and it might take some time before the entire matter is resolved globally.
Application
In the film 12 Years a Slave (2013), the framework of this text is about incidents of slavery based on racial alienation. The film is available in YouTube when searched through the following link. The main character, Solomon Northup is a black American who works as a violinist and lives with his children and wife in New York. Northup gets a job from two white men, Hamilton and Brown who offer him employment to perform as a musical artist if he travels to Washington DC with them. While seeking to get greener pastures, Northup agrees to go and when they arrive, he is subjected to a slave pen operated by a man by the name of Burch (McQueen 13). When Northup claimed he is a freeman, he was physically assaulted alongside other captives. According to the culture, he was supposed to stay calm and not to mention he was a free man in the south.
The film has many occasions where Northup works as a slave even to Canada while trying to seek his liberty as a freeman. Northup struggles to fight slavery in vain until he met Mr. Parker, who assisted him to leave the place back to his family. From the film, it is evident that postcolonial culture can be compared with the ancient slavery moves by the whites to African Americans. Just the way whites were seen as superior, rich, full of opportunities, that is the notion today about the class and status of whites over the black Americans (McQueen 54). If one is black, they may struggle to get equal opportunities, especially in the ballot box due to racial segregation. When I watched the film, I got a revelation as to why racial context involves discrimination of people of color. It is a resourceful piece that I urge everyone to watch and get reflection about where neo-colonialism took root from.
The second text is a movie titled Apocalypse Now that was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The piece presents Vietnam War where the US Army had staged guerilla warfare against the People’s Army of Vietnam without permission. Led by Colonel Walter Kurtz, the forces decided to deviate from military commands by the relevant authorities. Due to the tensions that rose, it appeared that the US army had divided efforts on the war seemed to struggle with the mission, which had to be completed. There follows detention from the war where Kurtz killed one of the key masterminds known as Chef (Coppola 45). The war was fought without the theories of war. From the film, I learned that the US had staged war on Vietnam due to geopolitical tensions that had taken roots then.
Vietnam is viewed as the underdog of the war to indicate how there is disregard of the ability to participate in sensitive matters in the modern world today. The US had declared to be a world superpower in terms of nuclear energy. Even today, postcolonial aspects are seen where countries get involved in an arms race to outweigh the US. Recently, North Korea had challenged the US to launch its nuclear energy in what weas seen to be system catalyzed by neocolonial stereotypes. To avoid these drawbacks of postcolonialism, I propose the world to give credit to all people in every region as one way to show economic, social and political independence.
Work Cited
McQueen, Steve. 12 Years A Slave. Regency Enterprises, 2013.
Coppola, Francis. Apocalypse Now. Omni Zoetrope, 1979.
Hong, Seung-Pyo. “East Asian Thoughts, Post-Modern View of World, Post-Modern Society”. Journal Of Social Thoughts and Culture, vol 19, no. 1, 2016, p. 1. Association Of East Asian Social Thoughts, Web.
Haque, Farhana. “Unearth The Issues of Colonialism, Anti Colonialism and Post Colonialism: A Comparative Study of English, Bengali and Australian Literary World”. American Journal of History and Culture, vol 6, no. 7, 2018, pp. 12-15. Escipub LLC, Web.