Colonialism
Colonialism Memmi's main idea is that colonialism is built on
the psychological perception of the situation by the two groups
of a society -- colonized and colonizer. Memmi states that
collapse of colonialism is inevitable and that the only means
for this eventual collapse will come through revolt. Memmi
describes the influences of the colonial atmosphere on the
ultimate psychological make-up of colonizers and colonized, and
their reactions to colonialism. All his theories and
descriptions lead to the conclusion that colonialism is doomed
for destruction. I agree with Memmi that colonialism is doomed
to fail. According to Memmi, the colonial system is
fundamentally unstable and will lead to its own destruction, due
to the mere rigidity of the system. The vivid example is our
entire history where every empire was destroyed from within or
from without. Soviet Union or Roman Empire or British and French
colonies collapsed because of their own inner structure. To
prove his point, Memmi describes psychological basis for a
certain behavior of both groups, colonized and colonizers. The
colonizers assume the behaviors inherent in his role --
brutality, oppression, exploitation, and bigotry. After they
arrive in the colony, their actions are already determined by
the institutions and social rules that already exist there.
Because of the driving economic force, colonizers develop a big
distance between themselves and the colonized. Memmi describes a
mythical portrait of the colonized, as seen through the eyes of
the colonizer. The colonizers attribute many negative traits
such as laziness, corruption and lack of civility to the
colonized. Central to this discussion is the issue of racism,
which Memmi defines as "the substantive expression, to the
accuser's benefit, of a real or imaginary trait of the accused."
It is the colonizer's supreme ambition to turn the colonized
into an object existing only as a function of the needs of the
colonizer. All social institutions and relations between the two
groups are shaped by the colonizers' constructed mythical
portrait of the colonized. Memmi also argues that there is a
negative correlation between the brutality employed by
colonizers and the humanism and other positive attributes found
in the colonized. However, colonialism not only serves to
brutalize the colonized but also to instill in them inferiority
and submission complexes that prevent them from acting to
reverse colonialism sooner. Memmi shows why colonialism can only
end through revolt. To dismiss any hope of colonialism ending
through the initiative of the colonizers, Memmi points to
left-wing Europeans refusing to accept the status quo and hence
acting in discordance with it, going as far as to support the
quest for freedom of the colonized. While serving to alienate
them from the other colonizers, their actions are largely
meaningless from the perspective of the colonized, who continue
to group them with other colonizers and show no intention of
advancing leftist doctrines once liberated, to the
disillusionment of the left-wingers who then abandon their
cause. According to Memmi, the options thus remaining to bring
about the end of colonialism are either assimilation of the
colonized or revolt. Assimilation can never occur because
inherent in it is the overthrow of the colonial status quo, and
as such it will never be tolerated by colonizers. Subsequently,
the only tool left to the colonized is to reclaim their liberty
by force. Sociologist Benjamin Ringer has also discussed the
issue of colonialism and its relation to slavery in the American
society. According to him, the British, Spanish, and other
European conquests of the Americas created here two different
groups -- colonizers and colonized. The Whites created a
mythical portrait of the African Americans ant other ethnicities
as inferior group. Rebelling from British colonialism, colonial
rebels sought a more egalitarian society. Yet, as an expanding
culture based on private ownership and white, male citizenship,
Indian tribes, Mexicans, African Americans, and Asians were
considered unworthy. Everyone who was non-Protestant and
non-white, was considered inferior. Each ethnic-racial group
entering New York may have had a different language and history,
but all encountered being excluded from the mainstream. In
secular Protestant Anglo-America, to own property conferred
power and rights--the rights of a citizen and the power to vote.
The promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" was
a social contract meant for white men. Inferior races and women
were not believed by many elite white Protestant men to be
capable of making rational and independent judgments. According
to Ringer this duality has deeply rooted in the American
society. The slavery stood like on the pillars on the
psychological believe of the Whites that they were superior to
all other races. It also explains the negative effects of the
Reconstruction - the Whites did not want to give up their place
of a superior race. Racism was built into the very foundations
of the society. With the same ideas of colonialism deals movie
Battle of Algiers. It represents the final hours of the colonial
system, being destroyed by the revolt of the colonized as
predicted by Albert Memmi's The Colonizer and the Colonized. The
Algerians, unable to assimilate, turn to revolution and violence
which the French are rather willing to return. As a consequence,
the vicious cycle of mutual degradation and hate predicted by
Memmi continues. Battle of Algiers presents, according to Memmi,
the only two possible choices of assimilation and rebellion. As
the three women are preparing to bomb civilian targets in the
heart of European Algiers, they dye their hair, remove their
veils, and create as far as possible the illusion of being
"white." Memmi claims that "the first ambition of the colonized
is to become equal to that splendid [European] and to resemble
him to the point of disappearing in him." While the terrorists
are successful in creating the illusions of being European, they
are not assimilated. The French work against them to prevent
integration into French culture - the checkpoints consciously
remind them of their place, making their usurped identity more
of a crime. Yet the women cannot assimilate into French culture,
as they only awkwardly enter into the soda parlor and the dance
hall. They cannot interact with the patrons for fear of being
discovered. Despite their implicit acceptance into society, they
still realize that they are different, and must carry out their
plan of destruction. Thus, the racism that makes such emulation
necessary creates the violence that will fuel the racism to grow
on each side. When assimilation fails Memmi contends that, "the
day has come when it is the colonized who must refuse the
colonizer." Now that assimilation has failed and violent
rebellion is the means of resistance, Memmi sees the struggle as
a cycle of hate and repression, each act of repression
contributing to the next. This is the embodiment of the central
theme of Memmi's work - the mutual corruption of both the
colonizer and the colonized. The initial degradation is the
state of colonization, which turns the Algerians from and
independent people to an oppressed populace. Albert Memmi
contends that the cycle of mutual hatred that stems from
colonization is unavoidable, and that a colony cannot continue
indefinitely - either the colony ceases to exist because of
extermination or assimilation, or revolt occurs. The movie shows
the attempts at assimilation of the Algerians and their
subsequent failure, which Memmi contends is a result of the
unwillingness of the colonizer to allow assimilation and thus
the end of the colony. The result is violence poured upon
violence, and the mutual corruption of both the colonizer and
the colonizer. This revolt is clearly seen in the movie,
although the aftermath is not. The question is not whether the
colonized will throw off their shackles, but if they can
overcome the violent means that they have adopted in their
struggle and reform their personal identity that was usurped by
the French. I think that slavery is very similar to
colonialism. They have the same psychological foundation. In my
opinion, Memmi's concepts and ideas are sufficient to comprehend
the essence of colonialism and why it is doomed to collapse.