- According to leading postcolonial studies scholars, Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, "postcolonialism" — the term "signifying" the discourse(s) of postcolonial theorists — has been used widely "to signify the political, linguistic and cultural experiences of societies that were former European colonies" (Key Concepts 186).[1] It attempts to critically and dialectically engage the effects of the various processes of European conquest and colonization on the histories, cultures, societies and self-conceptions of both "the colonized" and "the colonizers," to use Cesaire and Fanon’s phrasing. For some postcolonial critics and theorists, observe Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, the term "post-colonialism" is misleading — as is purported to be the case with the term "postmodernism" — because many have interpreted the "post" in "postcolonialism" to mean, literally, "after-colonialism" or "after-independence" (Postcolonial Studies Reader 2).[2] The postmodern critics, Steven Best and Douglas Kellner relate that "[t]he prefix ‘post’…signifies an active rupture (coupure) with what preceded it" (Postmodern Theory 29). Ania Loomba, however, contends that "the prefix ‘post’," when affixed to the term colonialism, "complicates matters because it implies an ‘aftermath’ in two senses – temporal, as in coming after, and ideological, as in supplanting" (7).
- Ashcroft and his colleagues have stated that "[t]he prefix ‘post’ in the term [post-colonialism] also continues to be a source of vigorous debate amongst critics" (Key Concepts 187). They have admonished postcolonial theorists to consider the "full implications" of using the term "postcolonial" to mean "after-colonialism" or "after-Independence":
The term "post-colonial" is resonant with all the ambiguity and complexity of the many different cultural experiences it implicates, and…it addresses all aspects of the colonial process from the beginning of colonial contact. Post-colonial critics and theorists should consider the full implications of restricting the meaning of the term to "after-colonialism" or after-Independence. All post-colonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination, and independence has not solved this problem. The development of new elites within independent societies, often buttressed by neo-colonial institutions; the development of internal divisions based on racial, linguistic or religious discriminations; the continuing unequal treatment of indigenous peoples in settler/invader societies – all these testify to the fact that post-colonialism is a continuing process of resistance and reconstruction. This does not imply that post-colonial practices are seamless and homogeneous but indicates the impossibility of dealing with any part of the colonial process without considering its antecedents and consequences. (Postcolonial Studies Reader 2)
- When Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin advance that "[a]ll post-colonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination," and that "independence has not solved this problem," they seem, in several ways, to be echoing many of the positions taken by Aimé Cesairé in Discourse on Colonialism, Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth and Toward the African Revolution, Kwame Nkrumah in Neocolonialism, and Amilcar Cabral in Revolution in Guinea and Return to the Source. However, and as I shall argue in this paper, there is another, shall we say "proto-postcolonial" theorist — to sort of coin an cumbersome phrase — whose life-work and critical contributions to postcolonial discourse and theory have often gone overlooked and unengaged by contemporary colonial and postcolonial theorists. I have in mind here none other than the African American architect of the modern Pan-African movement, W.E.B. Du Bois.[3]
- My thesis is easily explained as follows: W.E.B. Du Bois offers contemporary colonial and postcolonial theorists a critical conception of colonialism in several ways. First, by analyzing colonialism’s fundamental features (which will be outlined below), and, second, by focusing his readers’ attention on the world-historic fluctuations and mutations of colonialism, Du Bois highlights — as Tejumola Olaniyan[4] recently noted — the varied nature of colonialism, not simply in topographical terms, but also in so far as the particularities of the colonized peoples’ pre-existing or "pre-colonial" cultures are concerned. This is an extremely important point to make because many postcolonial theorists have a tendency to gloss over the specificities and the different degrees to which various peoples were historically, and currently continue to be colonized.[5] Finally, by linking colonialism with capitalism, and by refusing to isolate economic exploitation from racial domination and gender discrimination, Du Bois’s conception of colonialism prefigures and provides a paradigm for and a critique of contemporary postcolonial discourse.
- By "deliberately using the word ‘colonial’ in a much broader sense than is usually given it," and in asserting that "there are manifestly groups of people, countries and nations, which while not colonies in the strict sense of the word, yet so approach the colonial system as to merit the designation semi-colonial," Du Bois not only anticipates, but contributes the concept of "semi-colonialism" to postcolonial discourse (Against Racism 229, 236; my emphasis). It is this concept of "semi-" or "quasi-" colonialism that distinguishes Du Bois’s conception of colonialism from Cesaire, Fanon, Nkrumah, Cabral, and a whole host of classical anti- and de- colonial theorists.[6] Moreover, it is this same theory of "semi-colonialism" that enables me to assert that, on the one hand, Africana Studies scholars, and Du Bois scholars in specific, may find much of interest in postcolonial theory. We need mince no words in laying bare the fact that both Africana and postcolonial theorists are involved in similar (and, I would aver often identical) projects of radical critique. For Africana theorists, to speak generally, great and grave issues emanate from the socio-historical realities of not simply anti-African racism and colonialism, but sexism and capitalism as well. For postcolonial theorists, again generally speaking, criticisms have been leveled against each of the aforementioned and, in specific, the ways in which past and present forms of colonialism exacerbate and perpetuate racism, sexism, and capitalism. Indeed, a burgeoning philosophical framework that brings diverse discourse on colonialism, anti-colonialism, and the coming post-colonial world into dialogue is on the rise.
- On the other hand, it should be stated outright, Du Bois — an intellectual-activist who critiqued colonialism throughout his eighty-year publishing career — has been relegated to the periphery of postcolonial discourse. As a result, and as this essay argues, postcolonial theorists in many senses undermine and do themselves a disastrous disservice because they ignore and/or erase a wealth of critical concepts and categories, such as "semi-colonialism," that could very well aid them in their efforts to theorize and bring into being a truly post-colonial world. This essay, then, will be devoted to exploring Du Bois as both progenitor of, and contributor to, postcolonial discourse. It intends to engage the politics and problematics of postcolonialism from the critical-theoretical perspective(s) of Africana Studies, and Du Bois Studies in particular. [7]
- In arguing that there are partially colonized peoples and countries, Du Bois offers postcolonial theorists a concept that helps to highlight the continuation of colonialism in our modern moment. If "[a] colony, strictly speaking, is a country which belongs to another country, forms part of the mother country’s industrial organization, and exercises such powers of government, and such civic and cultural freedom, as the dominant country allows," then there exists today, even after independence, in Africa, in the Americas and the Caribbean, in Asia and in Australia, colonies – albeit "quasi-" or "semi-" colonies, but colonies nonetheless (Du Bois, Against Racism 229). Du Bois’s concept of colonialism is predicated on what he understands to be universal or common characteristics, "certain characteristics of colonial peoples, which are so common and obvious that we seldom discuss them and often actually forget them." These characteristics, which remain part and parcel of the life-worlds and lived-experiences of the wretched of the earth, entail some or all of the following: (1) physical and/or psychological violence, domination, and discrimination; (2) economic exploitation; (3) poverty; (4) illiteracy; (5) lawlessness, stealing and crime; (6) starvation; (7) death; (8) disaster; (9) disease; (10) disenfranchisement; (11) the denial of "cultural equality;" and, (12) the denial of participation in the political process (229 — 236).[8]
- Moving beyond the "narrower definition" and "the strict sense of the word," colony — and, I would like to suggest, "colonialism" — Du Bois’s conceptualization of colonialism challenges postcolonial theorists to be cognizant of the fact that the prefix "post" in "postcolonialism," on the one hand, may very well signify a rupture with that which preceded it. But, on the other hand, the "post" in postcolonialism can also be said to signify a dependence on, a continuity with, and a filial connection to, that which follows it. Which, of course, has led some critics to argue that what is currently being called "postcolonial" is actually an intensification of the colonial.[9]
- The African philosopher, Emmanuel Eze, has argued that "post" should be employed as a prefix in so far colonialism is concerned, "only as far as the lived actuality of the peoples and the lands formerly occupied by European imperial powers can suggest, or confirm, in some meaningful ways, the sense of that word, the ‘post’ of the (post)colonial" (Post-Colonial African Philosophy 341). Ashcroft and associates assert that there is "a continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression," so much so that "all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day" must, to paraphrase Fanon, be called into question (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back 2; Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth 37). And, Anthony Appiah avers, "[t]o theorize certain central features of contemporary culture as post anything, is, of course, inevitably to invoke a narrative, and from the Enlightenment on, in Europe and in European-derived [and dominated] cultures, that ‘after’ has also meant ‘above and beyond’" (In My Father’s House 140 — 141).[10] Now, the critical questions confronting us are: Have we really reached the post- (as in, after) colonial period? How can we be in the period after colonialism when most of the fundamental features of colonialism continue to plague "three-quarters of the people living in the world today"? Is it possible that we have gotten "above and beyond" colonialism when it is understood that even with "political independence" the impact and influence of European imperial powers continue to "displace" traditional (and/or "precolonial") philosophical, spiritual/religious, and axiological systems and traditions? (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back 1, 8 — 10).[11]
- Here it may be helpful to compare Du Bois’s concept of colonialism with that of other leading anti-colonial theorists. According to Amilcar Cabral there have historically been two major forms of imperialist domination which have effected African peoples:
Direct domination: by means of a political power made up of agents foreign to the dominated people (armed forces, police, administrative agents and settlers) – which is conventionally called classical colonialism or colonialism.Indirect domination: by means of a political power made up mainly or completely of native [African] agents – which is conventionally called neocolonialism. (Unity and Struggle 128)
- Cabral’s concept and categories of colonialism, especially when compared with Du Bois’s, accents and enables us to conceive of colonialism not so much as an historical and cultural coordinate of the past, but as one of the present. For Cabral, colonialism (whether direct or indirect) has the same basic objective and effect: the "denial of the historical process of the dominated people, by means of violent usurpation of the freedom of the process of development of the national productive forces" (Unity and Struggle 129 — 130).[12] And, those forces that are most productive to a people struggling for national liberation are the ones that help them create thought and practices that not only confront and contradict the established imperial order, but also bring into being the "new humanity" and "new society" that Du Bois, Fanon, Che Guevara, and Herbert Marcuse wrote and spoke so passionately about. [13] Coupling Du Bois’s conception of colonialism with Cabral’s, we see then that it is possible for "classical colonialism," as "direct domination," to come to an end without neocolonialism — and the "indirect domination" it entails — being exhausted and extinguished.
- In fact, Kwame Nkrumah contended that most African nations were "nominally independent" — that is, independent only in name, not in fact — because even after "independence" their economic systems and, therefore, social and political policies were directed by, and dictated from, non-African or foreign forces (Neo-Colonialism ix). More credence may be given to this line of thinking when it is understood that neocolonialism, like the form(s) of classical colonialism that preceded it, is predicated upon the paralysis and retardation of the historical process or "historicity" of African and other colonized peoples. "The reality of colonialism," suggests the African philosopher Tsenay Serequeberhan, is "the violent superimposition of European historicity on African historicity" (The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy 111). In other words, classical and neo- colonialism, and all the dogma and domination they necessitate, represent and register as "the negation of the cultural difference and specificity that constitutes the historicity and thus humanity of the non-European world" (58). These conclusions bring us, then, to a discussion of the period between colonialism and postcolonialism.
- Postcolonial theory, literature, culture and so on and so forth, denotes the intellectual productions of formerly colonized peoples after colonization. Considering the fact that "[h]istorical epochs do not rise and fall in neat patterns or at precise chronological moments," and considering the fact that the culture of the colonizing country continues to effect the culture of the colonized, even after "independence," much of the discourse of postcolonialism is extremely misleading (Best and Kellner, The Postmodern Turn 31; Loomba 10 — 12). Based on Du Bois’s conceptualization of colonialism, it seems safe to say that we are not in a postcolonial period, but in a transitional stage/state between a now-aging colonial era and an emerging postcolonial era that remains to be adequately conceptualized, charted, and mapped. Transition, we are told, from one era to the next is always "protracted, contradictory, and usually painful" (Best and Kellner, The Postmodern Turn, 31). But, the task for contemporary critical theorists is not to jump on the (extremely "premature") postcolonial bandwagon (Loomba 7). On the contrary, our task is to attempt to explore this transitional moment, to grasp the connections between "classical colonialism" and "neocolonialism," and to project present and future postcolonial possibilities. Hence, one of the most important tasks of a critical anti-colonial theory of contemporary society is to capture and critique both the continuities and discontinuities of the colonial and neocolonial in order to make sense of our currently quite colonized life- and language- worlds.
- Although it is prudent to be skeptical and critical of certain segments of postcolonial discourse, and especially the extreme forms of this discourse which attempt to render the assumptions and assertions of anti-colonialists and decolonialists of the past obsolete. It must be admitted that significant changes have taken and are taking place, and that many of the classical anti- and de- colonial theories and practices no longer adequately describe or explain contemporary (neo)colonialism. Whereas the "classical colonial" period, as Cabral pointed out, was distinguished by "direct domination," since the gaining of "independence" African and other colonized peoples, neocolonized peoples, if you will, have experienced "indirect domination," which is still, I should add, a form of domination nonetheless (Unity and Struggle 128).
- Africana critical thought at its best has consistently been anti-colonial, and this is especially evident when we turn to the treasure trove of theoretical and practical insights of the Pan-African tradition.[14] Keeping a keen and critical eye on Du Bois’s concept of "semicolonialism," it must be born in mind that colonial status has consistently been extended and expanded to encompass and include the lived-experiences and life-worlds of the Africans of the diaspora.[15] Further, following Du Bois’s line of thinking, and as asserted above, the nature, processes, and effects of colonization have changed, and colonialism in its new forms — just as Du Bois pointed out with the "classical," direct domination forms of colonialism — is not something that can be confined simply to "people of color" in "third world" and/or "underdeveloped" countries. If we dare attempt to fully grasp and grapple with this expanded Du Boisian definition of colonialism, then, one of the most daunting questions besetting and bombarding contemporary Africana and other radical anti-colonial theorists is: If the injustices and other inequities of colonial rule have not, in fact, been eradicated, and if colonialism continues, albeit in another indirect and/or covert form, how then can we combat colonialism in the modern moment? It is here, I think, that we can come to appreciate several aspects of classical anti-colonial and contemporary postcolonial discourse.
- Loomba stated, "the grand narrative of decolonization has, for the moment, been adequately told and widely accepted. Smaller narratives are now needed, with attention paid to local topography, so that maps can become fuller" (252). Many postcolonial theorists are involved in projects of constructing regional or national narratives and, similar to some postmodernists, are excited by the "multiplicity of histories" that challenge political and cultural "monocentricism," and especially Eurocentricism, and other linear conceptions of history.[16] Postcolonial discourse has also often provided (neo)colonized, anti- and de- colonial theorists with a much needed network and discursive arena in which to compare, contrast, and create coalitions based upon common historical experiences, endurances, and advances.
- However, I would be the first to say that contemporary anti-colonial theorists should be suspicious of extreme or "strong" postcolonialism, and especially those versions which assert that the "post" in "postcolonialism" literally means "after," as in "after-colonialism." For some postcolonial theorists, the extremists, colonialism is a thing of the past and we have already entered into the postcolonial period. Without understanding the reconfiguring nature of colonialism, some postcolonial theorists have conflated changes in the character of colonialism with the "death," demise and/or destruction of colonialism – this is, again, precisely why I assert that Du Bois’s concepts of colonialism and semi-colonialism are so important for contemporary anti-, de-, and post- colonial theory and praxis.
- Loomba claims, "colonialism was challenged from a variety of perspectives by people who were not all oppressed in the same way or to the same extent" (8). This statement helps to highlight the heterogeneous nature of both classical and neo- colonialism. Colonialism took, and is taking place in the lives and on the lands of various peoples who have had comparably different historical experiences. This means, then, that it is important not to gloss over the precolonial, colonial, and possible postcolonial life- and language- worlds of historically and currently colonized peoples. In our attempts to engage "the colonial problem" and put forward postcolonial solutions, we should keep in mind that, "[o]pposition to colonial rule was spearheaded by forms of national struggle which cannot offer a blueprint for dealing with inequities of the contemporary world order" (Loomba 14). Why? Because the "contemporary world" is not the world of classical colonialism, and as Arif Dirlik and Crystal Bartolovich have pointed out, the connections and power relations between neocolonialism and global (multi-national and corporate) capitalism have intensified and are often obscured by the poststructuralist and/or postmodernist conceptually incarcerating jargon of postcolonial theorists.[17]
Postcolonial critics have…had little to say about contemporary figurations…They have rendered into problems of subjectivity and epistemology concrete and material problems of the everyday world. While capital in its motions continues to structure the world, refusing it foundational status renders impossible the cognitive mapping that must be the point of departure for any practice of resistance…. (Dirlik, "The Postcolonial Aura," 352 — 353)
- Though the "contemporary world" is not the classical colonial world, there is much in classical anti- and de- colonial theory that could contribute to contemporary anti-colonial theory and praxis. Classical anti- and de- colonial theorists — W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah and Amilcar Cabral among others — offer insights concerning colonialism that enable contemporary anti-colonial theorists to explore and critically examine the ways in which colonialism has continued by comparing and contrasting our present so-called "postcolonial" condition(s) with past "classical," "direct domination" colonial conditions. Reflecting on the passage cited above, it seems safe to say that had Dirlik read Du Bois (I have in mind here Darkwater, Color and Democracy and The World and Africa), for example, he would not only have been able to advance a critique of, but also an alternative to postcolonial theorists’ inattention to the connections between neocolonialism and contemporary capitalism. It was Du Bois in an early draft of a chapter from Color and Democracy who thundered:
[L]et me sum up…the colonial problem: the depressed peoples and classes of the world form the vast majority of mankind today in the era of the highest civilization the world has known. The majority of human beings do not today have enough to eat and wear or sufficient shelter for decent existence; the majority of the world’s peoples do not understand what the world is, what it has been and what the laws of its growth and development are; and they are unable to read the record of this history. Most human beings suffer and die years before this is necessary and most babies die before they ever really live. And the human mind with all its visions and possibilities is today deliberately distorted and denied freedom of development by people who actually imagine that such freedom would endanger civilization. Most of these disinherited folk are colored, not because there is any essential significance in skin color, but because most people in the world are colored. What now can be done about this, in this day of crisis, when with the end of a horrible and disgraceful war in sight, we contemplate Peace and Democracy? What has Democracy to do with Colonies and what has skin-color to do with Peace? (Against Racism 236)
- Du Bois was apparently "postcolonial" prior to contemporary postcolonial discourse, a curious thing when one considers that his work has routinely been omitted from the said discourse. He engaged colonialism and "the colonial problem" from his 1895 doctoral dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, through to his final pieces of radical journalism in The National Guardian.[18] For Dirlik, capitalism — albeit "global," "multi-national," and/or "corporate" capitalism — continues to structure the world. For Du Bois, writing fifty years prior to Dirlik, it was not capitalism connecting with colonialism alone that was structuring the world, and neither capitalism or colonialism were "the" most decisive and distinguishing factors, or "the" fundamental features of modern human existence and experience. Du Bois’s "cognitive mapping" project took into consideration not only the interlocking and intersecting nature of neocolonialism and, as he put it, "the new capitalism," but also racism and sexism (Against Racism 232, 239).[19] There is, to my mind, no better example of Du Bois’s critical engagement of the dialectics of colonialism and capitalism, and racism and sexism, and the interlocking, intersecting and interconnecting nature of each of the aforementioned than his 1920 monumental pièce de résistance, Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil.[20]
- By placing colonialism within the structuring rubric of capitalism, and by arguing that capitalism is "the" central structuring and organizing institution in our (post)modern moment, Dirlik in some senses reproduces the very reductive arguments that caused so many anti-colonial and radical theorists of color to move away from "orthodox" Marxist interpretations of the world.[21] Du Bois consistently "displaced" Eurocentric (or, "monocentric") meta-narratives emanating from the European "mother countries" and metropolises by accenting and engaging the life-worlds and lived-experiences of non-European, poor, poverty-stricken peoples, and often women of color, in three significant ways.[22] First, and as Joy James has correctly observed, Du Bois practiced a pro-feminist politics that, though complicated and contradictory, stands in stark relief when compared to the ethereal posturings of many self-described "male-feminists" of our era. In essays such as "Woman Suffrage," "The Damnation of Women," and "Sex and Racism," to give but a few examples, Du Bois, as Cheryl Gilkes-Townsend pointed out, not only placed "black folk" at the center of his analysis, he placed black women at center, and they in a certain sense consistently served as a litmus test for Africana and, more generally, human liberation.[23]
- Secondly, Du Bois also critically engaged the treatment of children in the modern world. By devoting one issue of the Crisis each year to children, editing the Brownies’ Book, and writing essays such as, "Of the Passing of the First-Born," "Of Children," and "The Immortal Child," Du Bois turned his readers’ attention to the colonization of children’s life-worlds and lived-experiences, and the need for people in positions of power to think of succeeding generations, not simply in human terms, but also in so far as environmental issues were concerned.[24] And finally, Du Bois’s concepts of colonialism, while deeply rooted in continental and diasporan African history and culture, consistently exhibited a dialectical radical humanism that took into consideration the life-struggles of both African and non-African colonized peoples. For instance, in "Japanese Colonialism," "Japan, Color, and Afro-Americans," "China and Africa," "Colonialism, Democracy, and Peace after the War," and Color and Democracy, Du Bois often made concrete connections between colonialism in continental and diasporan Africa and colonialism and colonization processes impacting and effecting the indigenous populations and traditional cultures of the Americas, Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean.[25]
- Du Bois serves as a critic and critique of postcolonialism in so far as his discourse demystifies and destabilizes several of the main tenets of postcolonialism. Where it is argued that postcolonialism represents a specific species of thought "after" colonialism, Du Bois puts forward the principle features of colonialism, which in turn helps to highlight the fact that although we are not enduring "classical colonialism," we are, as Cabral and Nkrumah asserted, experiencing "neocolonialism." Du Bois can also be seen as a critic and critique of postcolonialism when it is understood that he refused to reduce colonialism to direct domination or strictly economic exploitation.
- For Du Bois capitalism and colonialism, as they emanate from European "mother countries" and metropolises, represent "two of the most destructive [forces] in human history," and are "today threatening further human death and disaster" (Against Racism 233). We then, as critical and radical anti-colonial theorists, have a solemn duty to develop theory and praxis that counters and combats not only capitalism and colonialism, but also any and all forms of imperialism. We must consistently build bridges between classical and contemporary anti-colonial thought and practices. And, as Du Bois’s discourse accents, there is a real need to critically engage Pan-African and Africana anti-colonial thought traditions, as these traditions may offer much of interests and much that is instructive in our current struggle(s) against the ever-present colonialism in many of our lives. Du Bois reminds us once again that the anti-colonial struggle has consistently had as its aim "intellectual understanding and cooperation" among all colonized peoples "in order to bring about at the earliest possible time…industrial and spiritual emancipation" (The Seventh Son, volume II, 208). Finally, we must not be fooled into believing that either colonialism or capitalism, or racial domination and discrimination are things of the past so long as they determine, define, and deform our present. We must consistently fight for freedom, keeping Cabral’s caveat in mind:
[L]et us go forward, weapons in hand…let us prepare ourselves…each day, and be vigilant, so as not to allow a new form of colonialism to be established in our countries, so as not to allow in our countries any form of imperialism, so as not to allow neocolonialism, already a cancerous growth in certain parts of Africa and of the world, to reach our own countries. (Revolution in Guinea 85)
Notes
[This essay was originally prepared for and presented as "W.E.B. Du Bois as Pan-African Critic of and Contributor to Postcolonialism" at the Pan-African Culture(s) Conference, held at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, on May 3-5, 2001. It was subsequently substantially revised and delivered as "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Politics and Problematics of Postcolonialism: An Essay on Africana Critical Thought and Anti-Colonial Theory" at W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, Postcolonial Linkages and Transatlantic Receptions–An International, Interdisciplinary Conference, held at the University of Stirling, Scotland, on March 13-17, 2002. This monograph, and my life-work in general, has greatly benefited from the intellectual encouragement and constructive criticisms of Kristine Lewis, DeReef Jamison, Nicole Barcliff, Stacey Smith, Molefi Asante, Maulana Karenga, Lucius Outlaw, James Conyers, and Gregory Stephens.]
For further discussion and examples of other works that have influenced my conception(s) of postcolonialism, see Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Postcolonial Literatures and The Post-Colonial Studies Reader; Chambers and Curti, The Post-Colonial Question: Common Skies, Divided Horizons; Childs and Williams, An Introduction to Postcolonial Theory; Gandhi, Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction; Loomba, Colonialism/ Postcolonialism; Moore-Gilbert, Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics; Quayson, Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice or Process?; Schwarz and Ray, A Companion to Postcolonial Studies; Williams and Chrisman, Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader; and Thieme, The Arnold Anthology of Postcolonial Literatures in English. Back
For further discussion, see McClintock, "The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term ‘Postcolonial’," and Rattansi, "Postcolonialism and Its Discontents." In terms of the problematics and some of the positives of postmodernism, see Dickens and Fontana, Postmodernism and Social Theory, esp. Robert J. Antonio and Douglass Kellner, "Postmodern Social Theory: Contributions and Limitations"; Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism; During, "Postmodernism or Postcolonialism Today"; Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity; Rosenau, Postmodernism and the Social Sciences; Graff, "The Myth of the Postmodern Breakthrough"; Hassan, The Postmodern Turn: Essays in Postmodern Theory and Culture; Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction; Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition; Seidman, Contested Knowledge: Social Theory in the Postmodern Era; Seidman and Wagner, Postmodernism and Social Theory; Smart, Modern Conditions, Postmodern Controversies; Smart, Postmodernity; and Best and Kellner, Postmodern Theory, The Postmodern Turn, and The Postmodern Adventure. Back
For analyses of Du Bois’s anti-colonial and (proto) post-colonial thought, see Mostern, "Postcolonialism after W.E.B. Du Bois"; Berman, "Shadows: Du Bois and the Colonial Prospect, 1925"; Blau and Brown, "Du Bois and Diasporic Identity: The Veil and Unveiling Project"; Contee, "W.E.B. Du Bois and African Nationalism, 1914 — 1945"; Contee, "The Emergence of Du Bois as an African Nationalist"; Horne, Black and Red: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Afro-American Response to the Cold War, 1944 — 1963; Ijere, "W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey as Pan-Africanists: A Study in Contrasts"; Magubane, The Ties that Bind: African American Consciousness of Africa; Marable, "Peace and Black Liberation: The Contributions of W.E.B. Du Bois"; Martin and Yeakey, "Pan-African and Asian Solidarity: A Central Theme in W.E.B. Du Bois’s Conception of Racial Stratification and Struggle on a World Scale"; Rogers, "W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Pan-Africa"; and Romero, "W.E.B. Du Bois, Pan-Africanists, and Africa, 1963 — 1973." Back
Olaniyan, "Africa: Varied Colonial Legacies." Back
See Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories; Chambers and Curtis, The Post-Colonial Question; Moore-Gilbert, Postcolonial Theory, esp. chapter 1; and Scharwz and Ray, A Companion to Postcolonial Studies. Back
For a discussion, see Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism; Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, Black Skin, White Masks, The Wretched of the Earth and Toward the African Revolution; Nkrumah, Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, Class Struggle in Africa, and Revolutionary Path; and Cabral, Revolution in Guinea: Selected Texts, Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral and Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabral. Back
The literature on Africana, Black, African, African American, and Pan-African Studies is extensive. For few of the more noteworthy overviews, see Bates, Mudimbe, and O’Barr, Africa and the Disciplines: The Contributions of Research in Africa to the Social Sciences and Humanities; Conyers, Africana Studies: A Disciplinary Quest for Both Theory and Method; Karenga, Introduction to Black Studies; Anderson, Black Studies: Theory, Method and Cultural Perspective; Norment, The African American Studies Reader; Azevedo, Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora; Nikongo, Leading Issues in African American Studies; Fossett and Tucker, Race Consciousness: African American Studies for the New Century; Marable, Dispatches from the Ebony Towers: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience; and Marable and Mullings, Let Nobody Turn Us Around. For a sampling of some of the more noteworthy recent research with regard to Du Bois studies, see Anderson and Zuberi, The Study of African American Problems: W.E.B. Du Bois’s Agenda, Then and Now; Andrews, Critical Essays on W.E.B. Du Bois; Bell, Grosholz, and Stewart, W.E.B. Du Bois: On Race and Culture; Fontenot, W.E.B. Du Bois & Race: Essays Celebrating the Centennial Publication of The Souls of Black Folk; Horne, Black and Red; Katz and Sugrue, W.E.B. Du Bois, Race, and the City: The Philadelphia Negro and Its Legacy; Lewis, W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868 — 1919 and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919 — 1963; Marable, W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat; Rabaka, "Africana Critical Theory: From W.E.B. Du Bois and C.L.R. James’s Discourse on Domination and Liberation to Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral’s Dialectics of Decolonization"; Rabaka, "W.E.B. Du Bois’s Evolving Africana Philosophy of Education"; Rampersad, The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. Du Bois; Reed, W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and The Color Line; and Yuan, W.E.B. Du Bois and His Socialist Thought. Back
For further discussion of Du Bois’s concept(s) of colonialism’s "common characteristics", see his The Negro; Africa, Its Geography, People and Products; Africa, Its Place in Modern History; Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of Race; Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace, esp. chapters 2 — 5; Pan-Africa, 1919 — 1958; The World and Africa: An inquiry into the part which Africa has played in world history; and Africa: An Essay Toward a History of the Continent of Africa and Its Inhabitants. Back
In light of the fact that many, if not most, of the formerly colonized countries remain under some mutated and/or (post)modern form of colonialism, Amilcar Cabral’s assertions concerning classical colonialism as "direct domination," and neocolonialism as "indirect domination" help to highlight and accent a bitter and brutal truth: We — meaning, formerly and currently colonized people — are not in a postcolonial period, which is to say that we are not in a period after colonialism when and where we understand colonialism as Cabral did: as interlocking systems of racial and gender domination and discrimination and economic exploitation (Unity and Struggle, 128). In fact, at this point it seems safe to say that we are actually in a transitional stage/state between a now-aging colonial era and an emerging postcolonial era that remains to be adequately conceptualized, charted, and mapped. This point will be discussed in greater detail in the subsequent section. For other examples of works which question and confront the "post" in "postcolonial," see Appiah, "The Postcolonial and the Postmodern," in In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture; McClintock, "The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term ‘Postcolonial’" and Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Context; During, "Postmodernism or Postcolonialism Today"; Mishra and Hodge, "What is Post (-) colonialism?"; Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism; Olaniyan, "Narrativizing Postcoloniality: Responsibilities" and "Africa: Varied Colonial Legacies"; Parry, "Problems in Current Theories of Colonial Discourse"; Rattansi, "Postcolonialism and Its Discontents"; Sadar, Postmodernism and the Other: The New Imperialism of Western Culture; and Shobat, "Notes on the ‘Post-Colonial’." Back
Tejumola Olaniyan also addresses this issue in "Narrativizing Postcoloniality." Back
For a fuller discussion and other corroborating claims, see Prakash, After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements; Rajan and Mohanran, Postcolonial Discourse and Changing Cultural Context: Theory and Criticism; and Slemon, "Unsettling the Empire: Resistance Theory for the Second World," in Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (104 — 110). Back
As with Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth (see chapter 1: "Concerning Violence"), Cabral’s concept of violence extends well beyond the realm of physical violation and encompasses those psychological factors and forces that inhibit human wholeness, critical self-consciousness, and free and full development. Which, in other words, is to say that the ethical and justificatory hub and hinge of Cabral’s concept of violence is a struggling peoples’ right to self-definition, self-determination, and self-defense. For further discussion, see Bienen, "State and Revolution: The Work of Amilcar Cabral"; Blackey, "Fanon and Cabral: A Contrast in Theories of Revolution for Africa"; Chabal, "The Social and Political Thought of Amilcar Cabral: A Reassessment" and Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People’s War; Chilcote, "The Political Thought of Amilcar Cabral" and Chilcote, Amilcar Cabral’s Revolutionary Theory and Practice; McCollester, "The Political Thought of Amilcar Cabral"; McCulloch, In the Twilight of Revolution: The Political Theory of Amilcar Cabral; Rabaka, "Africana Critical Theory"; Táíwò, "Cabral" and "Fanon"; and Serequeberhan, The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy: Horizon and Discourse. Back
See, for instance, Du Bois, Color and Democracy; Du Bois, Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil; Du Bois, Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept; Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks; Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth; Guevara, Venceremos!: The Speeches and Writings of Che Guevara; Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation and Counter-Revolution and Revolt. On national liberation, see Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness" and "On National Culture," both in The Wretched of the Earth; Fanon, "Decolonization and Independence" and "Unity and Effective Solidarity are the Conditions for African Liberation," both in Toward the African Revolution; Nkrumah, Towards Colonial Freedom, Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, Africa Must Unite, Class Struggle in Africa, Revolutionary Path, and The Struggle Continues; Cabral, "National Liberation and Peace: Cornerstones of Non-Alignment," "The National Movements of the Portuguese Colonies," and "The Development of the Struggle," all in Revolution in Guinea; Cabral, "National Liberation and Culture" and "Identity and Dignity in the Context of National Liberation Struggle," both in Return to the Source; Cabral, "Presuppositions and Objectives of National Liberation in Relation to Social Structure," in Unity and Struggle; Chabal, "National Liberation in Portuguese Guinea, 1956 — 1974"; and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literatures, Culture and Politics and Barrel of a Pen. Back
For critical discussions of Pan-African theory and praxis, see Axelsen, "Philosophical Justifications for Contemporary African Social and Political Values and Strategies," in Richard A. Wright, African Philosophy, 227 — 244; English and Kalumba, African Philosophy; Esedebe, Pan-Africanism; Eze, African Philosophy; Geiss, The Pan-African Movement; Langley, Pan-Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa and Ideologies of Liberation in Black Africa; Serequeberhan, African Philosophy; Thompson, Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan-Africanism; and Walters, Pan-Africanism in the African Diaspora. And, for discussions of Pan-Africanism that detail Du Bois’s position as doyen of this discourse, see Contee, "W.E.B. Du Bois and African Nationalism, 1914 — 1945," "The Emergence of Du Bois as an African Nationalist," "A Crucial Friendship Begins: Du Bois and Nkrumah, 1935 — 1945," and "Du Bois, the NAACP, and the Pan-African Congress of 1919"; Efrat, "Incipient Pan-Africanism: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Early Days"; Gbadegesin, "Kinship of the Dispossessed: Du Bois, Nkrumah, and the Foundations of Pan-Africanism"; Gershoni, "Contributions of W.E.B. Du Bois to Pan-Africanism"; Martin and Yeakey, "Pan-African and Asian Solidarity: A Central Theme in W.E.B. Du Bois’s Conception of Racial Stratification and Struggle on a World Scale"; Moore, "Du Bois and Pan-Africa," in Clarke et al, 187 — 212; Recht, "From W.E.B. Du Bois to Marcus Garvey: Shadows and Lights"; Reed, "The Political Philosophy of Pan-Africanism and W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought; Rogers "W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Pan-Africa"; and Romero, "W.E.B. Du Bois, Pan-Africanists, and Africa, 1963 — 1973." Back
See Du Bois, Color and Democracy; Du Bois, Pan-Africa; Du Bois, The World and Africa; Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (2); Loomba (12); Cook and Henderson, The Militant Black Writer in Africa and the United States; Drachler, Black Homeland/Black Diaspora: Cross Currents of the African Relationship; Harris, Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora; Lemelle and Kelley, Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African Diaspora; Thompson, The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas; Von Eschehen, Race Against Empire; and Walters, Pan-Africanism in the African Diasporan. Back
For a discussion, see Alva, "The Postcolonization of the (Latin) American Experience; Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (11 — 12). On postmodern conceptions of history and the history of ideas, see Appleby, Covington, Hoyt, Latham, and Snieder, Knowledge and Postmodernism in Historical Perspective. And, for strong critiques of Eurocentricism and other linear conceptions of human history, see Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments; James Blaut, The Colonizer’s Model of the World; and Keita, Race and the Writing of History. Back
See Dirlik, "The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism in the Age of Global Capitalism"; Bartolovich, "Global Capital and Transnationalism." Back
With regard to the primary sources, see Du Bois, The Seventh Son: The Thought and Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, Du Bois: Writings, W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader, and The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois Reader. Back
On the concept of "cognitive mapping," see Jameson, "Cognitive Mapping." For discussions of some of the ways in which race, gender, class, and sexuality interlock and intersect, see Hull, Scott, and Smith, All the Women are White; Smith, Home Girls; Guy-Sheftall, Words of Fire; James and Sharpley-Whiting, The Black Feminist Reader; and Zack, Shrage, and Sartwell, Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality. Back
For those with specific interests in other representative works by Du Bois that more or less simultaneously engage racism, sexism, colonialism and capitalism, see his often overlooked, Africa in Battle Against Colonialism, Racism, and Imperialism, and his novels The Quest of the Silver Fleece, Dark Princess, and The Black Flame Trilogy: Book One, The Ordeal of Mansart; Book Two, Mansart Builds a School; and Book Three, Worlds of Color. Du Bois’s histories are also helpful, especially his later historical writings that accentuate and place the agency of women of African descent on par with that of men of African descent. See The Negro, The Gift of Black Folk: Negroes in the Making of America, Black Folk Then and Now: An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race, and The World and Africa. Back
For Du Bois’s criticisms of Marxism’s inattention to the socio-historic realities of colonialism and racism, and the life-worlds and life-struggles of people of color in general, see: "Socialist of the Path" (1907), "The Negro and Socialism" (1907), "Socialism and the Negro Problem" (1913), "Socialism and the Negro" (1921), "The Negro and Radical Thought" (1921), "Class Struggle" (1921), "The Negro and Communism" (1931), "Communists and the Color Line" (1931), "Karl Marx and the Negro" (1933), "Marxism and the Negro Problem" (1933), "The Negro and Imperialism" (1944), "Socialism" (1948), "Negroes and the Crisis of Capitalism in the United States" (1953), "Colonialism and the Russian Revolution" (1956), "Negroes and Socialism" (1957), "A Future for Pan-Africa: Freedom, Peace, Socialism" (1957), "The Negro and Socialism" (1958), and "Socialism and the American Negro" (1960), in The Seventh Son, Selections from the Crisis, and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader. And, for other Africana theorists’ criticisms of Marxism’s neglect of the realities of racism and colonialism, and the life-worlds and life-struggles of people of color in general, see C.L.R. James, C.L.R. James and Revolutionary Marxism: Selected Writings of C.L.R. James, 1939 — 1949, C.L.R. James on the "Negro Question," and Marxism for Our Times: C.L.R. James on Revolutionary Organization; Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Marx in the Liberation of Africa, and Walter Rodney Speaks; Wright, White Man Listen!; Robinson, Black Marxism; Davis, The Angela Y. Davis Reader; hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center and Where We Stand: Class Matters; Marable, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America and Speaking Truth to Power; West, "Marxist Theory and the Specificity of Afro-American Oppression"; and Rabaka, "Africana Critical Theory" and "Malcolm X and/as Critical Theory." Back
For a further discussion of Du Bois’s theoretical practice(s) of "displacement," see Byerman, Seizing the Word (90), and also his extremely provocative, "Two Warring Ideals." Back
For a fuller discussion of Du Bois’s pro-feminist politics, see Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader; Joy James, "The Profeminist Politics of W.E.B. Du Bois, with Respects to Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells Barnett" and Transcending the Talented Tenth, 35 — 60; Gilkes, "The Margin as the Center of a Theory of History: African American Women, Social Change, and the Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois"; Diggs, "Du Bois and Women: A Short Story of Black Women, 1910 — 1934"; McKay, "W.E.B. Du Bois: The Black Woman in His Writings" and "The Souls of Black Women Folk in the Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois"; Lucal, "Race, Class, and Gender in the Work of W.E.B. Du Bois"; Roof, "W.E.B. Du Bois, Isabel Allende, and the Empowerment of Third World Women"; Griffin, "Black Feminists and W.E.B. Du Bois"; and Pauley, "W.E.B. Du Bois on Woman Suffrage." Back
See Du Bois: An ABC of Color: Selections from over a Half Century of the Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, The Emerging Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois, Selections from the Crisis, The Souls of Black Folk, and Darkwater. Also resourceful in this regard, The Best of the Brownies Book, edited by Diane Johnson-Feelings. For a sampling of some of the better secondary sources, see Diggs, "Du Bois and Children"; and Lee, "Whose Images?: An Africological Study of the Brownies Book Series". Back
See Du Bois: Color and Democracy, The World and Africa, Against Racism, and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader. For a discussion, see Horne, Black and Red; Juguo, W.E.B. Du Bois; Marable, W.E.B. Du Bois; and Yuan, W.E.B. Du Bois and His Socialist Thought. Back
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