The best and worst of Colonialism and post-Colonialism theory

## DISCUSSION: definitions

1. Colonialism: definition
**Video = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOOpBnCSdps**
‘What is Colonialism?’ | Douglas Murray | 1 minute
A Definition
"Western colonialism, a political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world." (‘Western colonialism’ Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism)

2. Decolonisation : definition
**Video= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_32LJcvQc0**
‘What is Decolonization?’ | Helpful Professor Explains | 3 minute
A Definition
"While decolonisation has acquired an obvious importance in our times, it is not however a new phenomenon. In the past it had profound effects on the world's political structure. This was certainly the case with the revolutionary decolonisation which gave birth to the United States in the second half of the 18th century and the Latin American States in the first half of the 19th century; likewise with the progressive, peaceful emancipation of the British dominions over the best part of a hundred years.”
(‘Factors of Decolonisation’ by F. Van Langenhove Civilisations, Vol. 11, No. 4 (1961), pp. 401-428 https://www.jstor.org/stable/41378282)

3. Anti-Colonialism / postcolonialism : definition
**Video=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d92dN8EoAbc**
‘Colonial Discourse: Postcolonial Theory concepts | Postcolonialism’ | Dr. Masood Raja | 0:00-5:00
A Definition
"The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism, and constitutes one of the main connections between them."
— Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)

## DISCUSSION: case-studies

1. Colonisation and de-colonisation : "Mad dogs and Englishman go out in the midday sun"

| Belgian Congo | West Papua | East Timor | South Africa |
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2 Anti-Colonialism / postcolonialism as a political (& interpretive?) paradigm

| Oppressed / Oppressor | Narrative / Discourse | Edward Said “Orientalism” |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------- |
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"The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences. . . . The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other." Orientalism by Edward Said (1978)

3. Bible Translation vs Theological Syncretism

"The translation of the Bible was not just a literary exercise; it was an act of cultural empowerment. By adopting the mother tongue, the translator was saying that the culture of the people was a worthy vessel for the divine word. It gave people a sense of their own dignity and worth in the eyes of God." — Lamin Sanneh, Translating the Message (1989)

vs

"The danger of syncretism is not just that it introduces 'foreign' elements into the faith, but that it allows the 'world' to provide the framework, while the gospel is merely used to fill in the gaps. In syncretism, the gospel loses its power to challenge the culture because it has become a prisoner of the culture." — Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989)

4. Australian context: see image handout (applied Anti-Colonialism / postcolonialism ?)