theme 1: epistemological foundation Flashcards
(18 cards)
What does Frantz Fanon argue about the creation of identity in colonialism?
Colonialism relies on a binary between the coloniser and colonised, where the colonised subject exists only in relation to the coloniser’s Self.
Why is it necessary to begin with epistemological constructions when examining colonial legacies in modern politics?
In order to examine how colonial legacies are constitutive of modern politics, it is necessary to begin with the epistemological constructions that shaped the racial and civilisational logics of colonial domination.
How does Fanon describe the construction of blackness in relation to whiteness?
Not only must the black man be black; he must be black in relation to the white man.
According to Fanon, what is the consequence of this relational identity for the colonised subject?
It reduces the colonised subject to an absence, defined only by negation, offering no ontological resistance.
How does race function in the colonial framework according to Fanon?
Race becomes the prism through which value, rationality, and modernity are distributed, positioning the black body as the enemy of value.
What does Édouard Glissant mean by the “will to civilise”?
Colonialism seeks not only to dominate but to remake the colonised in the image of the coloniser, imposing European notions of civilisation as universal.
How does Glissant’s concept of the “will to civilise” extend Fanon’s critique?
It frames colonialism as an epistemological and moral project, where racism is foundational and constructs hierarchies by naturalising difference as deficiency.
What do Nelson Maldonado-Torres and Ramon Grosfoguel argue about the persistence of colonial knowledge?
They argue that colonialism installed a “coloniality of knowledge” that continues to structure the global order long after the formal end of empire.
What was the purpose of the Hamitic hypothesis according to Mahmood Mamdani?
Central to this was the belief that any evidence of political organisation in Africa must have originated from external, civilising influences.
To position Tutsis as a “black Caucasian race” and favour them for leadership roles in administration, education, and the church.
How was the colonial equation of whiteness with modernity expressed in Rwanda and Burundi?
Building on German precedent, pre-existingsocial categories to install a system of indirect rule through a fabricated Tutsi supremacy
How did the Belgian colonial administration implement racial categories in Rwanda and Burundi from the 1920s?
From the 1920s, colonial censuses fixed ethnic identity as biological, and schools run by Catholic missionaries taught Tutsi children in French to prepare them for civil service, while Hutu children received “inferior” Kiswahili education.
How did education serve as a tool for racial ideology in Rwanda and Burundi?
Education became, as Mahmood Mamdani notes, the womb of racial ideology, institutionalising the Hamitic hypothesis and reinforcing Tutsi supremacy.
How did similar racial dynamics manifest in the Dominican Republic?
The Trujillo regime repurposed colonial categories to define Dominican identity against Haitian blackness, implementing Law 2909 to base Dominican education on “Christian civilisation and Hispanic tradition.”
What was the role of education in the Trujillo regime’s racial project?
Schools in border regions were instrumentalised to instil narratives of Dominican “gallant suffering” in the face of Haitian aggression, portraying Haitians as African, Vodou-practising, and savage.
How did Trujillo’s regime mirror colonial strategies in its racial policies?
Just as Belgians crafted a Tutsi elite to serve as auxiliaries of empire, Trujillo sought to inscribe whiteness onto the Dominican body politic, framing “Hispanidad” as synonymous with civilisation.
According to Fanon, how are the colonised denied autonomous identity?
The colonised are forced to inhabit a distorted mirror, where their value is determined by their distance from the coloniser’s ideal.
How do the examples of Rwanda/Burundi and the Dominican Republic illustrate the persistence of colonial racial ideologies?
Both cases demonstrate how educational and legal institutions were used to stabilise a racial order in which modernity and national belonging were accessible only through proximity to whiteness.
What is the overarching argument regarding the politics of modernity in the theme?
The politics of modernity remain haunted by the colonial past, not as memory, but as structure, where the coloniality of race continues to shape perceptions of who is seen as modern, rational, and capable of self-rule.
