Hello everyone.
To understand clearly what is post colonial study our teacher gives us a task to watch some videos and we are supposed to do postcolonial analysis of that particular video and to see postcolonial elements in the video. So the task assigned by our professor Dilip sir. In this blog I'm going to see the video with some interesting postcolonial point of views.
Have you ever thought about what post colonialism is ? I have never, because there is no need to know why because there is no sense of seeing the thing in a different perspective and in a different point of view. But the sense developed while studying literature and criticism.
So the first thing which we have to understand here is what is postcolonialism ? Let's see one video,
Postcolonialism is the historical period or state of affairs representing the aftermath of Western colonialism; the term can also be used to describe the concurrent project to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under various forms of imperialism. Postcolonialism signals a possible future of overcoming colonialism, yet new forms of domination or subordination can come in the wake of such changes, including new forms of global empire. Postcolonialism should not be confused with the claim that the world we live in now is actually devoid of colonialism.
"Postcolonialism... involves a studied engagement with the experience of colonialism and its past and present effects"
To understand postcolonialism with examples we have to watch the video of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie born on 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian novelist, writer of short stories, and nonfiction. She has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014).
Here is the video :-
1.The Danger of single story
In her speech she tells about the experiences which she felt in her life. This talk helps me to understand postcolonialism. So let's see what are the arguments of her.
She said that in her childhood she started reading at the age of two, probably four. And she read British and American children's books. And she started writing at the age of seven. Her father was a professor and her mother was an administrator. She grew up in Nigerian campus. In her stories all characters are white and blue eyed. Because she read that type of story. But in Nigeria she said that they don't have snow, they ate mangoes, and they never talked about the weather, because there was no need to. Here we can see cultural differences.
Then she said that she took inspiration from Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye. She went through a mental shift in her perception of literature. She said that she realized that people like her, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature. So she proves that literature doesn't have any condition for becoming a great writer.
She talked about a little house boy, his name was Fide. And her mother used to tell her that Fide's family was very poor. Her mother sent yams and rice, and old clothes to his family. And when Chimamanda didn't finish her food, her mother said to her that,
"Finish your food ! Don't you know ? People like Fide's family have nothing"
Here she tells one interesting experience that when they went to visit Fide's village, his mother showed them a beautiful patterned basket made of dyed raffia that Fide's brother had made. So she was really startled. Because she only listens about Fide's poverty, it is quite impossible for her to see them as they can make something except poorness.
Another experience she shares and says that when she went to university her roommate was shocked by her skill of speaking fluent English. Why because she had a single story of Africa : a single story of catastrophe. She included in this single story, there was no possibility of African being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feeling more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals. Why does it happen ? Because we already have a single story for any particular place, person, matter. And that's why our mind doesn't think about other aspects.
She felt like others in University. In U.S. Whenever Africa came up, all people turned to her. She added that people have some type of images for particular things. If she was not born in Nigeria, she has some things in her mind for Africa also.
One of his pivotal arguments is when she spoke at a University and one student told her that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in adichie's novel. And she gave answers to the student that recently she had read a novel named "American Psycho"... and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers !!! The intention is that you can not blame all for any one person. All are not the same. Because of one we can't judge the whole community. She was able to give the right answer because she had read many stories of America, she didn't have a single story of America. This is what is happening in our today's time also. We haven't enough knowledge about anybody and we started blaming them. Why ? Because somebody tells us about them and we simply believe in them, without any inquiry we made up a single story !
Through the speech she wants to say that stories influence our understanding of other people and places. She also state confidently that the danger of the single story is that it can result in perspectives based on stereotypes.
Then she talked about the importance of the stories. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
She ended her speech with this quote,
"When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise".
So overall she wants to tell that there is no single story for any place, there are many sides of people, places. So we have to see them with different perspectives also.
2.We Should All be Feminist
The video of that talk :-
The first thing which we need to understand is what is the meaning of word Feminist
"A person who believes in social, political and economical equality of the sexes."
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about feminism in this talk. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie also needs to be appreciated for being an advocate about educating people on the whole about feminism. Some argue that it should not be the responsibility of a woman to teach a man about treating women as humans, and not objects or those that need to be saved. Adichie does not disagree, but at the same time, she points to the imbalance that is being created. Girls are being empowered but at the same time, boys are not being taught, consciously, about equality for all.
This is not creating a balance, where people can co-exist without being discriminated against on the basis of gender. Instead, it’s probably reversing patriarchy. It is important to teach boys and young men to feel comfortable around women who are powerful, who make more money, are more talented or even more vocal. People of all genders, should be made to realise that no one should feel weaker than any other for any reason.
In another instance, Adichie also talked about how opening the door for a woman is considered an act of chivalry and her point was to open the door for a person, irrespective of their gender.
The point which we can make with Adichie’s blessing, is that men should not be made victims for being men, because that is not what feminism is about. This happens quite a bit and we need to be a little more conscious, because we are all products of patriarchal societies. This is also not to say that people of certain genders, say women, are not to be encouraged to be given reservations, for example. While that is necessary, we also need to be careful before disregarding people’s talents just like women have been disregarded for centuries, despite being talented and hard working.
So we can say that the arguments which she makes are convincing with the time.
3.Third talk : Importance of Truth in Post-truth Era
When we think about Truth some people fail to remain true. We are the generation of the 21st century. The Postmodern era in which people are highly civilized. So, in this talk Chimamanda said that speaking lies is speaking lies to yourself. She said in her talk that,
"Be courageous enough to accept your life as messy, your life is not always perfectly matching to your ideology."
There is also a reference of a poem by Mary Oliver, that Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, The world offers itself to your imagination.
So, she wants to tell us that we have to be true. Not only with others but also with ourselves. So the word has significance in our life.
4.significant changes
Here I want to say that these talks bring very significant changes in my way of looking at literature and life also.
The first significant change is to look at others with different aspects not only based on the single story about them. From now I will trust on any matter with my research of that particular matter only. I shouldn't believe what others say.
The second thing which I learned from Chimamanda Adichie is we have to be true with ourselves. To be true with others is the second thing. The first thing is to be satisfied and to be true and honest with yourself is very pivotal.
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