It becomes very easy for an individual to understand the meaning of post-colonialism only after understanding colonialism because the two are related. Colonialism is the political ideology that legalizes the invasion, occupation, and exploitation of a given land by stronger states which use their military powers thus displacing the powers of the original inhabitants of the land (Arjun, 67). When we use the prefix “post” before the word colonialism, it becomes post-colonialism which has a different meaning even though they are connected. Post-colonialism refers to a land that is no longer under its former colonial powers (McClintock, 254). Therefore it simply refers to a land that has regained its political independence.
Concerning post-colonialism, countries and their former colonizers share some common features especially in political structures, social issues, and economic fields (Cooper, 19). Another very important aspect that was initiated by colonialism is diaspora. Diaspora means the movement of a group of people who have common national and ethnic backgrounds. Colonialism made many people move and settle in different parts of the world because of different reasons.
Colonization laws were not very friendly to the original inhabitants of the colonies. This made most people resist colonial rules and laws but it was obvious that the colonial masters could neither bend their rules nor laws to allow the existence of such resistant elements in their colonies (Said, 197). The original inhabitants formed some rebel groups to resist the rules by colonizers who were the minority groups. The rebel groups were led by specific ring leaders who organized the moves and attacks on the colonial military. The colonizers decided to eliminate all the ring leaders of these rebel groups to gain effective control of their colonies which they frequently referred to as their protectorate. This led many ring leaders into exile to seek refuge for their lives. Some of these people who went to exile stayed there for so long that they became assimilated to an extent that they chose to disown or forget about their homelands.
Another factor that led to the development of the diaspora is the fact that the colonizers were importing some people from their colonies to offer labor in their farms as slaves. When the colonies regained their independence, the slaves who were working in a foreign land did not find any means of getting back home and so they continued to stay in foreign land thus forming a diaspora (Dipesh, 127). Most of the colonizers were from European countries such as Portugal, France, Germany, and Britain. Their colonies were in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and all the colonies that were under one rule formed an empire (Arjun, 118). For example, all the countries that were under British rules such as Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria formed the British Empire.
In conclusion, when colonization ended, some families of the colonizers remained in their former colonies as settlers because they did not want to leave their properties. Under the new rules of the original inhabitants, these settlers continued to live in foreign land thus forming a diaspora. Since most countries have good links with their former colonizers, their citizens migrate to these bigger economies in search of employment and education thus forming a diaspora. The imperials which are the former colonizers sometimes even give aid to their poor former colonies.
Works Cited
Arjun, Appadurai. Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy: Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Cooper, Fredrick. Colonizing Time: Work Rhythms and Labor Conflict in Colonial Mombasa. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1993.
Dipesh, Chakrabarty. The Difference – Deferral of a Colonial Modernity. Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
McClintock, Anne. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest. London: Routledge, 1995.
Said, Edward. Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.