Transcript THE COLONIZER AND THE COLONIZED

THE COLONIZER
AND
THE COLONIZED
BY
Albert Memmi
The Colonizer and the
Colonized
Albert Memmi(1920-)
About the author :Born on December 15,1920 in Tunisia.
Also a writer, educator and sociologist
apart from being a novelist.
‘The pillar of Salt’ and ‘Strangers’ –
considered to be his best fiction works till
date.
The Colonizer and The
Colonized
Memmi’s most influential and most
controversial non-fiction work.
First published in French in 1957 and later
translated into English in 1965.
Autobiographical work- focuses on his first
hand experiences as a Jew growing up in a
Muslim predominant Tunisia.
The book focuses on Racism and African
Colonialism.
He wrote this specifically in response to
the Decolonization of North Africa in 1956.
The dynamics he illuminates here are
similar to any colonial system.
Memmi describes this work as “portraits of
the two protagonists of the colonial drama
and the relationship that binds them”
Albert Memmi’s Tunisia
 1881 – Tunisia became a colony of the french
It was home to French colonizers, Italians,
Tunisian Muslims and to a minority of Jews.
 Of the four groups:French – the obvious profiteers and
Muslims – the most oppressed.
 The Jews were more willing to try and assilmilate
to the French.
The Jews even supported the French
during the Independence uprising.
But Tunisia gained independence from
France in 1956.
Democratic Constitutional Assembly (an
Islamic fundamental organization) came
into power.
As a result of this many Jews left Tunisia.
Even Albert Memmi also left for Paris with
his wife.
Preface
The Preface of the text was written by
Memmi himself.
In the preface he recollects about Tunisia
and the oppressions he had to face there.
He wrote this work to identify his place in
society.
Realized it to be an universal experience.
His main aim :- to define the colonial
relationship between the colonizer and the
colonized.
The colonial privilege is not solely
economic.
The Jewish population identified
themselves with the colonizers as with the
colonized.
He says “ I was a sort of half-breed of
colonization, understanding everyone
because I belonged completely to no one.“
Memmi is also unconditionally oppossed
to all forms of oppression. He says
“Oppression is the greatest calamity of
humanity.”
Introduction
The introduction to the work ‘ The Colonizer
and the Colonized’ was written by Jean Paul
Sartre.
He was a French existentialist philosopher,
playwright, novelist, screen writer, political
activist, biographer and a literary critic.
Jean Paul Sartre(19051980)
Highlights:Three factors typify the colonizer:Profit , privilege and usurpation
 “Colonizer who refuses” and “colonizer
who accepts”
The colonizer questions the validity of his
own identity.
Presence of Nero complex.
Memmi describes Colonialism as ‘ one
variety of fascism’.
Its key tools are racism and terror.
The colonial system also favours
population growth.
The colonized becomes “divorced from
reality”.
The colonized are denied of all their
human rights. They are treated like
animals.
But Memmi believes that the colonial
system is fundamentally unstable and will
lead to its own destruction, due to mere
rigidity of the system.
The text has two parts:Part One:
Portrait of the Colonizer
Part Two:
Portrait of the Colonized
Part One
Portrait of the
Colonized
Does the colonial
Exist?
The colonial who
refuses
The colonial who
accepts
Part Two
Portrait of the
Colonized
Mythical portrait
of
the colonized
Situation of the
colonized
The two answers
of
the colonized
Conclusion
The colonized have ultimately three
answers to the colonial system:Assimilation.
Revolt.
Revolution.
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