The Psychology of Colonization
     The colonial situation has a profound effect on the psychology both of the colonizer (i.e., the colonial master) and the colonized (i.e., the colonial subject). This psychology was examined during the 1950s, near the end of the colonial period, by several writers from the French colonial world: Albert Memmi, a Tunisian writer; Franz Fanon, a physician from Martinique; and (Dominique) O. Mannoni, an Italian psychologist working in Madagascar.
     Memmi was a Tunisian Jew, whose ambivalent status gave him perspective both on the colonized and the colonizer -- as a colonial subject of the French, and as a non-Moslem, which placed him in a social position slightly above that of the average colonial subject, with access to some of the privileges of the colonizer. Memmi describes this "pyramid of petty tyrants" (17), each of whom responds to social oppression from above by turning around and participating in the oppression of those below. The psychic state of the colonizers is connected to economic advantages: "If his living standards are high, it is because those of the colonized are low; if he can benefit from plentiful and undemanding labor and servants, it is because the colonized can be exploited at will and are not protected by the laws of the colony; if he can easily obtain administrative positions, it is because they are reserved for him and the colonized are excluded from them; the more freely he breathes, the more the colonized are choked." (Memmi, 8)
     Mannoni argues, on the other hand, that the colonial situation is perpetuated not by the colonials' economic profit, but by the psychic satisfaction of the position of master (203). The two positions seem oppositional, but in fact may be complementary; that is, the economic force creates the opportunity for psychic satisfaction, which then perpetuates itself even when/if economic factors change. Colonizers are privileged at every step of the way, as against the "native" and in contradistinction to the way they would be/are treated in the home country: Fundamental distinctions between colonizer and colonized operate in a colonial society, even if the colonizer is sympathetic to the plight of the colonized. One cannot deny this privilege; it comes as a result of one's birth into the colonizer group, not from one's merits or desires. Thus, colonial society seduces even the reluctant colonizer into complicity with the colonial situation.
     Colonizers, if they did not experience the automatic deference from the colonized that comes with race, skin color, or nationality, would typically be only petty individuals in their home society (49); this is exacerbated as the quality intellects and morally aware individuals depart from the colony, leaving behind entrenched mediocrity (50). Colonial Europeans, Mannoni argues, mask an inherent inferiority complex by asserting dominance over the colonized natives. The colonials project their own feelings of inferiority onto the natives, of whom they are secretly terrified: "[Colonial] man is afraid because he is alone and his fear is the fear of other men." (100) The misanthropic urges that lead colonials to separate themselves from their "natural" society splits the native Other into two images: "monstrous, terrifying creatures" (Shakespeare's Caliban, Defoe's cannibals) who must be kept in their place for public safety, and "gracious beings bereft of will and purpose" (Ariel, Friday) (104).
     In the colonial situation, a majority of the colonists typically perceive the "native" as hostile; even the "gracious beings" simply overlay their animosity to the colonizers with an appearance of obsequious friendship, dropping the façade when the forces of imperial law are absent. To protect themselves, then, the colonials turn inward, shirking contact with the native Other. The colonizer, sensitive that he has received privileges that are unwarranted by personal merit and depend entirely on the distinction between himself and the colonial subject, responds by further aggrandizing his own position, to seek justification for his privilege. This may take the form of increasing harshness of judgment against the colonized; this in turn creates further guilt feelings, and thus further self-aggrandizement. "With all his power he (the colonialist) must disown the colonized while their existence is indispensable to his own." (54)

     Responses of the colonized to the colonial situation:

1. Assimilation: "The first attempt of the colonized is to change his condition by changing his skin. There is a tempting model very close at hand -- the colonizer." (120) In other words, the colonial subject seeks to become like the colonial master, emulating the colonizers' behavioral characteristics (as Memmi describes the Jewish community in Tunisia eagerly embracing "Western" modes) and seeking education into the dominant culture (cf. the heavily British basis of educational system in India, which persists long after the colonial power has departed. "This fit of passion for the colonizer's values would not be so suspect, however, if it did not involve such a negative side." (121) In drawing himself closer to the master, the colonial subject seeks to dissociate himself from his original culture and its traditions -- he therefore becomes alienated from his "true" self.

2. Revolution: "Being unable to change his condition in harmony and communion with the colonizer, he tries to become free despite him. . ." (127) This includes both active resistance to the colonial situation, but also an attempt to recapture the cultural legacy that the colonial situation has tried to eradicate. (For instance, consider the way in which the Gaelic League sought to resurrect the Irish language, folk literature, and traditional instruments and folkways, during the Celtic Revival of the late 19th century.) This period is also characterized by a sense of xenophobia -- what may be considered, seen from the colonizers' perspective, as a "reverse racism."

Partial list of sources: Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized (1957/1965); O. Mannoni, Prospero and Caliban: The Psychology of Colonization (1964).

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