Colonized Peoples Readings on Discourse on Colonialism and Lost Names

Discourse on Colonialism

When, in the process of rebuking colonialism's "howling savagery" (p. 15), author / poet / social critic Aime Cesaire invokes a hot-button name like Hitler, the ultimate savage, slaughterer of millions of innocents, it is no surprise. Cesaire does not limit her justifiable vitriolic passion to Hitler's carnage and brutality; she also rages against "pseudo-humanism" and against racist attitudes which do not originate with Hitler. But when Cesaire attacks clergy, such as "Rev. Barde," and Barde's "fellow Christian, the Rev. Muller," it is indeed worthwhile to learn about her indignation towards men of the cloth.

Because, this is perhaps her way of showing that the Bardes and Mullers of the world are contributing to the "colonization of the spirit" of oppressed peoples.

Cesaire is outraged at those who are not outraged at Barde; Barde, according to Cesaire, stated (p. 17) that...

[nor] academician, not one preacher, not one crusader for the right..." responded to Rev Muller's statement that "Humanity must not...allow the incompetence, negligence, and laziness of the uncivilized peoples..." To fail in the full exploitation of their natural resources, which will certainly be fully exploited, it is implied by the reverend, by colonialist occupiers.
Another "colonization of the spirit" in Cesaire's book is shown through (p. 39) the Rev. Father Temples, part of the Belgian colonization of the Congo. The way in which Belgian conquerors break the spirits of - and ruin the identities of - native peoples, is by introducing "techniques that are ill adapted to them, from corvees, porter service, forced labor, slavery, from…