Colonizers: The True Savages

by K.C.
A flat world map where most of the countries are gray. The other countries are color-coded based on colonization.

Featured image: Image by Sesmith in WikiMedia Commons. For audio, see the highlight from the video of my live reading on Twitch.

 

Double click or tap any English word in this post to open its definition in a new window (external).

 

4 for Now

When I think of colonizers, I think first of the US, England, and lately, Israel. But after some thought, and looking at the Wikipedia entry for the UN’s Non-Self-Governing Territories (since the UN seems to have taken down its page and resources on colonization), there’s a LOT more to it.

While the list only includes 17 current entries, many of the territories that were removed simply aren’t referred to as territories anymore (rather than having become self-governing). For example:

  • Alaska and Hawaii were removed, despite becoming US states under US governance. (The list was created in 1946, so other states were never on it.)
  • Some territories, such as Guadeloupe and French Guiana, became departments of France (like counties in the US), under French governance.
  • Puerto Rico, while formally considered a commonwealth, is still a territory in practice. The other US commonwealth, Northern Mariana Islands, is also still under federal US control.
  • Some places, like Aruba, Curaçao, and Greenland, are considered autonomous but still fall under the sovereignty of their colonizing countries (Netherlands for the first two, Denmark for Greenland).
  • Hong Kong and Macau were both removed in 1972 by China’s request, but are now Special Administrative Regions of China (since 1997 and 1999, respectively).

It’s important to note that the list only included territories from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the US. It was never exhaustive nor historical.

While all these places are colonized, not all of them are settled. Settler-colonialism is when folks from the imperialist power move into the territory and start taking over space and resources, with no plans on leaving. Even if they do leave, imperialist powers often turn to neocolonialism.

Methods of Neocolonial Control

  • Wars of attrition
  • Stealing land through military conquest
  • Creating systems to dehumanize, subjugate, and dispossess the indigenous population
  • Destruction, manipulation, and/or criminalization of Indigenous identities, languages, religions, and cultures
  • Miseducation systems for colonizing and colonized folks alike
  • Apartheid and ethnic cleansing

Current examples of Colonialism and Neocolonialism

What we can do to help fight colonialism and neocolonialism

  • Unlearn white supremacy and the constructed human hierarchy.
  • Participate in BDS and other movements that put pressure on colonizing entities to return land and sovereignty to Indigenous peoples.
  • Continue to inform yourself (especially by listening to Indigenous peoples and their diasporas)!
 

4 for Later

  1. Colonialism by Maia Ramnath (11-minute read)
  2. A thread by @suhayllo in response to Al Jazeera’s #BecauseColonialism campaign (5-minute read)
  3. Settler-Colonialism, Nationalism, and Patriarchy by Onyesonwu Chatoyer (23-minute read)
  4. FMI on the colonization of what is now called the US, I recommend An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. (I only highlight what I don’t know or what I’d like to remember when I read … I highlighted about 95% of this text. They leave a lot out in history class.)