I want to preface this by saying that if you come from a colonised state and you have a different opinion to me, I respect that. You are entitled to your opinions and I am in no way trying to personally attack anyone (except people who are long dead).
So I just finished a class called Literature and Decolonisation. Yes, I know. A very politically charged unit. We discussed the idea of decolonisation in terms of returning colonised states to their original state before colonisation and I basically responded that I think it’s futile.
Very pessimistic, I know. But I think we have a tendency to forget just how violent colonisation is. A lot of colonised states were the victims of genocide. Everything from their language to their culture to even their children were stolen from them. Simply put, the changes made by colonisation is permanent and attempting to overthrow those structures requires violence and bloodshed. I’m sorry for my optimistic readers but people in power will rarely ever give up their power without a fight. And even if all that bloodshed happened and the descendants of colonisers were kicked out of colonised nations or forced to follow the tradition and lifestyle of the native people, it would never go back to what it once was. Many of the people who could have passed on the culture and language are dead. Even the environment has changed dramatically in many cases.
The past is unreachable. All we can do now is create a future of greater equality. And even that goal is met with so much pushback.
So knowing all that I do about the violence perpetuated by colonisers, I cannot view them as anything other than evil. They killed and preyed on the vulnerable. They destroyed nations and countries to spread their own way of life. And many of the descendants of colonisers don’t even have the decency to acknowledge the permanent harm caused by their ancestors or the privilege given to them by colonisation. So I was shocked to find people defending colonisation by stating that it advanced societies and was overall a good thing. That our lives are now better because of colonisation. And this wasn’t simply coming from the descendants of colonisers but rather the people of colonised states.
To me that sounds like propaganda. I, too, was taught about the advancements brought on by colonisers (200 years after they committed genocide) and this idea suggests that the colonised states were primitive and inferior to colonisers and incapable of advancing without the help of colonisers. Let’s be real here, even if that were true, which it isn’t, those advancements were not made for the colonised people. Colonised people were actively banned and prevented from access to any advancements made by colonisers.
At the same time, their own innovations were erased. New innovations would also be unlikely as clearly, while they were fighting against genocide and invasion, they would not have the freedom and leisure to invent.
This rhetoric of advancements only happening due to colonisation blatantly ignores the fact that other societies have been inventing and discovering for a long time before they were colonised. One need only look at ancient remains to see technology and innovation that cannot be replicated even in modern society.
It is unfair and illogical to compare a society that had its culture stolen from it and that struggled for survival to a society that benefitted from genocide and invasion. Many colonised nations had their wealth pillaged by others and they were left impoverished and with a political system that had been decimated by colonisation.
In fact, because of colonisation and white supremacy, the many advancements and innovations made by people of colour and natives are ignored. The European invaders were not the first to discover and invent, they were simply greedy enough to prevent others from doing the same. And they have the privilege of writing our history. We may never know all the great minds that were lost to genocide so while I agree that we shouldn’t take revenge on the descendants of colonisers, I will never accept their clearly evil act as benevolent and beneficial. Instead of comparing colonised societies before they were colonised to society today, let’s stick to comparing the colonised people to the colonisers at the time of colonisation. And in that regard, if anyone was primitive, it was the colonisers themselves.
When the British invaders came to Australia, they slaughtered the native people and imposed on them a justice system that only benefitted white Australians. Even when Aboriginal people accepted or asked the justice system for help, they were ignored. White colonisers viewed Aboriginal people as part of the flora and fauna so there was certainly nothing benevolent about their actions.
In fact, the British made every attempt to wipe out the native people (whether through murder or rape). Many mixed children were stolen so they could be forced to forget their culture and language. A culture that had a strong respect for the land. A culture that was able to maintain its actual flora and fauna and know how to reduce the severity of bushfires. The British pushed many of the native species into extinction and stopped back burning (a process of starting small fires that reduces the amount of fuel available during bushfire season).
That is not advancement. That ignorance is a clear sign of a primitive culture. Just because there have been advancements made by colonisers since then does not undo the harm they caused. And I don’t know about you but I value human life way more than I value my iPhone. It wouldn’t even be a choice for me.
Though we may not have had the same advancements if not for colonisation, to say there would have been no advancements suggests that you believe the native people were primitive and inferior. They were not. They knew the land they lived in and they lived in the way they did for a reason. They had thousands of years of knowledge and experience.
We may have even become a more advanced society with greater diversity of technology and innovation. We’ll never know now. That possibility has been destroyed and it hurts my heart to see people taking it so lightly now.
Now I’m definitely not asking for the vilification of the descendants of colonisers. We are, after all, not responsible for our parents (or ancestors) mistakes. I simply want us to acknowledge how evil colonisation was and I want us to acknowledge the harm caused by it.
Aboriginal children are still incarcerated at much higher rates to their white counterparts. Native people have a lower mortality rate and native women are going missing at alarming rates.
Colonialist structures still exist today. They ensure that the descendants of colonisers retain their privilege (whether that be through material wealth or white supremacy). And colonised people are still disadvantaged due to their history. Many are displaced from their culture and poorer due to the theft of their land and resources.
Many nations that were colonised were left in a mess when colonisers left. Their political system was decimated by colonisation and when colonisers finally left, they made no attempts at reparations for the resources they stole, the people they murdered or fixing the problems they caused.
No, colonisation was not a necessary evil and it should have never happened. It has brought about no positive change and we will never know what we truly have lost. How many great minds were killed or prevented from achieving their full potential, we’ll never know.
Let’s not express gratitude for such a horrific event. I would rather forget it entirely than suggest it was good or necessary in any way. And if you are under the assumption that being colonised helped you or made your life better, you are mistaken.
If you want to hear me speak more in-depth on this, let me know.
