Post colonialism

Post colonialism -->

Throughout time countries have colonized as much land as possible. At some point at least ¾ of the world has been owned by Spain and England.  In world war two Germany invaded Poland and Japan was trying to dominate Asia and the Pacific. Post colonialism looks at how this has affected the world today.

Discussion activity -->

People think our nationality is where we are born. However, some people are not born in the same country they have lived in for all of their lives but still see themselves to be from that nationality. Also some people can be classed as dual-nationality as they own two passports from different countries. Just because we are a multi-cultural Britain does not mean we are still not segregated into groups.

Post colonialism gives us an understanding of the complications of trying to put people into boxes, as some people are able to break away from the set boxes. For example someone of dual heritage wouldn’t fit in any of the specific boxes given when asked about nationality.

Applying Post colonialism to identity -->

Benedict Anderson talks about ‘imagined communities’, he says that our race and nationality are made up communities. Similarity in physical appearance, religious belief and a shared historic background create a nation, and anyone who id different is considered a threat.

Thomas Friedman says that ‘people are still attached to their culture, language and a place called home. And they will sing for home, cry for home, fight for home and die for home’. An example of this would be people who join the military to fight for their country.

Personal freedom -->

America’s constitution enshrines the pursuit of happiness; we must be happy and enjoy our lives. Other cultures do not follow this ideology, and what we would see as severe limits placed upon personal freedom in counties such as Afghanistan, China and Iran, are not severe to them as they do not share the same ideology as us.

Representation and identity --> 

Images we see in the media of ‘other’ races and nationalities is said to influence our reactions to people in everyday life. In the media we see different terms used for different ethnic groups. For example when a white person commits a terrible crime he would just be called a ‘killer’ where as if a person of different ethnicity committed the crime the term would be ‘terrorist’.

Angela Barry identified three stereotypes of black people which we mostly use in the media. She termed these ‘trouble maker’, ‘entertainer’ and ‘dependent’

Applying post colonialism to culture -->

This links to the myth of western superiority:

·          - Most beauty products advertised are used by white/western women or men, this is called               Eurocentric beauty. For example Michael Jackson lightened his skin as he felt that he would be more attractive.

·        -  Also other countries are having the English language imposed on them. For example in Spain children start to learn English at the age of four.

This is due to the western world being stronger in terms of their military and economic background, making it easier to impose western values on the rest of the world.


Edward Said’s concept of the ‘other’ -->
We reinforce our own self-esteem as a race by comparing ourselves favourably with those of other races, claiming superiority over them.

Post colonialism, the concept of the ‘other’ is seen to be less powerful, and with higher concentration on fundamental similarities

We now have cultural hybridisation; we eat food from different countries and culture. For example eating at Chinese and Indian restaurants. We also celebrate differences by hosting events such as the Olympics and the football world cup, to show the best aspects of our countries.