User:Nader33334/Postcolonialism

Representation of People of Color in Literature
Since the second half of the 20th century, the topic of racial injustice has emerged as colonized nations were aiming to gain their political independence and global recognition. The representation of people of color throughout literary publications in light of the postcolonial theory is relevant in texts including Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin, Caged Bird by Maya Angelou and Olikoye by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Postcolonial thought mainly constitutes of the embedded social thoughts a group of people share whereby they identify themselves worthy of economic, social and political resources.

The Stranger in the Village:

The Stranger in the Village by James Baldwin (2), is a is the narrative of a young black child visiting a rural village in Switzerland. The issue of race is predominantly traced through the narrative of the story. Baldwin is seen as an individual who lacks a sense of belonging, solely due to the fact that he is black. In the course of the story, Baldwin is seen as an alienated individual, set at a distance from all residents of the village he has visited. One particular instance is where the bistro owner’s naive wife mentions the fact that Africans are “bought”. Through the Marxist lens, James is regarded as an oppressed party lacking any sense of commonality with the Swiss citizens. James is regarded as an outsider entity who is not welcomed to be part of any activities partaken by village residents. Residents of the village thoroughly believe in the notion that states that white people are promoters of innocence and black people are the deviant individuals which participate in increasing cases of murder, theft and drug consumption in various part of the world. The latter entitles those individuals to avoid interacting with people of color and stigmatizing these individuals with a set of prejudices and stereotypical thoughts. The aforementioned idea leads to the promotion of unethical and unjust doctrines of thoughts whereby people are labelled responsible for acts solely based on their physical appearance. The narrator concludes his story by a ray of hope, whereby Baldwin states that change is inevitable, and this is one of the crucial pillars of hope people of color are willing to fight for.

Caged Bird:

Caged Bird is a poem written by the African American poet Maya Angelou. The poem discusses the phenomenon of freedom. The metaphor of the caged bird could be translated into the continuous injustice, limited mobility and societal inequality faced by people of color in the United States. Here, the bird chants and sings about the freedom it can never attain due to the racial thought embedded in the minds of the dominant party in America. The continuous chants and call for change are the force which keeps people of color moving forward with their demands. This poem not only depicts the physical limitations of the bird, in this case its placement behind a narrow cage, on the contrary, it also emphasizes upon the psychological and emotional damage this segment of people has to simply live with. The poem extends its metaphorical aroma to portray the pain people of color. This community lacks the power of expression throughout the history of the United States. Certain aspects of the poem can verify the latter as the caged bird’s placement behind the “bar of rage” and its continuous scream for change and hope can directly be related to the allusion of African American people. Though the song might be seen derived from hope, it is deeply rooted to pain and suffer. However, even this call for justice through this innocent song was once seen as a state of “accepting of their situation” by slavery defenders. Even the self-expression through music in “Caged Bird” was seen as a voice of content and joy by the oppressing party. Through giving voice and power to the tradition and culture of African people, the poem rejects white oppressors' easy and racist interpretation of African-American songs, instead asserting that the suffering inflicted on black communities.

Olikoye:

Olikoye is a short story written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The story takes place in a rural village located in Nigeria whereby young infants were facing death due to the lack of vaccination facilities. Olikoye is about a woman in labor, reminiscing and telling a nurse a story her father once told her on how the Minister of Health in Nigeria saved the lives of several babies by introducing vaccines into hospitals. The minister decides to install a vaccination campaign and grant the citizens of this village a chance to conceive children safely. This step is marked as a radical change in the history of Nigerian natives. These citizens were granted a chance to live a healthy and prosperous life as a result of this thoughtful gesture made by the minister. The union of literature and health care in this story is very crucial as globally authors are usually driven by issues related to poverty, immigration and colonization when describing the African reality. The story appeals to the reader’s emotions and gives hope on the future of health care in Africa. This short story could potentially be related to the Ted Talk made by the author herself, Adichie. She mentions the struggles of black people based on her own personal experience. Adichie mentions how people of color are subject to discrimination in various contexts as they are usually regarded as uncivilized individuals imposing risks on the society.

References:
postcolonialism and economic growth:

In the last half-century, economics has supplanted anthropology as the primary source of powerful worldviews that organize knowledge and guide policy in both domestic and international settings. The colonial roots of economic theory, on the other hand, have received little attention until now. Nonetheless, some studies show a link between postcolonialism and economic growth, while others claim that postcolonial theory has yet to have an impact in economics. Although some studies suggest that it could be a hybrid relationship, many other factors contradict this. Culture is a central analytical category in postcolonial theory. Despite recent attention, general approaches to culture in economics continue to undervalue its role in economic behavior and decision-making. From a variety of disciplinary perceptions, postcolonial critique has examined many of the issues that underpin the cultural hegemony of both economic and economically dominant societies. Although postcolonial critics frequently invoke economic forces in their analyses, the theory they rely on is frequently ill-defined, gestural, and out of step with current economic scholarship. Colonialism, on the other hand, had an impact on the development of more than just the colonizing societies. Most obviously, it had an impact on the colonized societies, which had a variety of outcomes. This is due to the fact that colonialism resulted in the formation of very different types of societies in various locations. Colonialism, in particular, left very different institutional legacies in different parts of the world, with profoundly divergent economic consequences. Because of differences in the colonies' starting conditions, the outcomes were drastically different. In Latin America, for example, where indigenous peoples were in large numbers, a colonial society based on exploitation of these people could emerge. Even though the first British settlers attempted to establish such a society in North America, it was impossible to do so because there were no such populations. As a result, early North American society took a completely different path: early colonial ventures, such as the Virginia Company, needed to attract Europeans and keep them from fleeing into the open frontier, as well as incentivize them to work and invest. The institutions that did this, such as political rights and access to land, were radically different even from the institutions in the colonizing country. When British colonizers found Latin-American-like circumstances, for example in South Africa, Kenya or Zimbabwe, they were perfectly capable of and interested in setting up what we have called ‘extractive institutions’, based on the control of and the extraction of rents from indigenous peoples. that extractive institutions, which strip the vast mass of the population of incentives or opportunities, are associated with poverty. It is also not a coincidence that such African societies are today as unequal as Latin American countries.

references:

Daron Acemoğlu, James Robinson 30 January 2017

Post colonialism meets Economics: Economics as Social Theory Edited by Tony Lawson University of Cambridge.

Postcolonialism and Development By Cheryl McEwan

Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa Pierre Englebert