The demo mixtape that I aim to present for my final project, will consist of a collection of tracks recorded by myself. The concept behind the tape is to give the Post-Colonial State/Third World a voice. It seeks to explore its different nuances, internal struggles, issues with identity, grief and lost sense of pride. The mixtape will hence be in first person and each track will end with a narration of different writers from our course e.g: Cesaire’s Journal of a Homecoming and the crux of that narration will inform what the following track will address. Hence, as listeners you will be aware of whats to come next but where its eventually leading to is this very question of “what is there left to redeem?”.

By personifying the Post-Colonial/Third World I intend to explore its different personalities through the African/American/Indian experience. The sonics of each track and the instruments etc used will represent that very locality, trying to transform the listener into the heat of that particular situation.

Lastly the picture used above is Bibighar Well which during the final stages of the Siege of Cawnpore 1857 (India) was filled with both bodies of Indian Sepoys (Colonized) and British Soldiers/Families (Colonizer). I aim to design and use this particular picture as the artwork for the tape as it (in my opinion) perfectly captures the dual effect of colonization in terms of dehumanizing the colonizer and the colonized. It shows that in the end both lay collectively in a dark pit.

Negritude as a concept was formulated by the Afro-French intelligentsia during the 1930’s particularly by Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor. It seeks to highlight certain essences of being an African which include art, rhythm, poetry and superstition. Starting off as a defense against European modernity it was further developed to
reaffirm a collective African identity and simultaneously inculcate a sense of pride. Initially the idea existed only in poetry e.g: Cesaire’s “Journal of a Homecoming” and was formally theorized upon in Leopold Senghor’s essay “Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century”. The essay seeks to present a variety of “inherent” values among the African people in contrast to rationality driven Europe. The themes that stands out in particular is its appeal to African Universalism.

“What is Negritude? Who would deny that Africans too have a certain way of conceiving life and of living it? A certain way of speaking, singing and dancing; of painting and sculpturing and even of laughing and crying?” – Senghor (Negritude)

“Well then what is Negritude? The sum of the cultural values of the black world.” – Senghor (Negritude)

Senghor’s definitions of Negritude form the crux of the rest of his elaboration. They exercise communal lumping at a continental level hence the values he presents throughout are in his opinion uniform across the African people

Senghor talks about the African Spirit (Xel, Sagi or Degal) from a collective perspective. An inherent conscience among all Africans that exists independently of historical and Western scientific progress.

“His attitude is fundamentally ethical.” – Senghor (Negritude)

This spirit enables the African to be sensually sensitive and on the basis of this conscience, the African classifies and distinguishes the world around them. He goes on to combine art with this collective spirit claiming that it is not an external activity and is rather a “technique of living”. Aesthetic expression for Senghor is universal for all Africans and exist within them in its purest state, through shape, color, sound and movement. It pulsates within them and finally culminates through a sense of Rhythm which is for Senghor, one of the main driving force of African being. Lastly, Senghor views the contribution of Negritude to the “Civilization of the Universal” as necessary. He claims the sense of the collective acts as a defense mechanism in the extremely divided yet interdependent world system.

In conclusion, by creating a universal dichotomy between order and rhythm, rationality and impulse, Senghor not only universalizes certain values which vary within the African context themselves but he reduces African identity to an essence. This concept of universal essence is a-historical and consequently freezes the African in time, leaving no room for change.

The mere absence of the female narrative in de-colonial and post-colonial studies can be regarded as one of the most important shortcomings of history. Buried beneath a layer that was twofold, the woman seems to be missing from the struggles for independence. The first layer being the narrative of the colonizer and secondly, the narrative of the patriarchal native.

The very foundation of Orientalism, Colonialism and Imperialism was grounded upon communal lumping. The problem lies in not just viewing a diverse group of people with their own conceptions of native history and culture as homogeneous, but also how this view informs colonial policy. First world feminism seems to echo this same issue. They firstly create a binary in terms of the all powerful man and the powerless woman and impose this across the third world. Local structures of power, traditions and religion is not taken into account and it is assumed that issues faced by all women across the e.g: the Arab world, South Asia, Africa are symmetric. The terminology that follows serves as evidence to First World Feminists engaging in communal lumping. Phrases such as “Women of Africa/Middle Eastern Women” are casually thrown around not just online but even in academic papers. Phrases as such completely ignore local level differences by grouping them under one banner.

“To treat them as a unified group characterized by the fact of their “exchange” between male kin, is to deny the socio-historical and cultural specificities of their existence.” – Mohanty

First World Feminism’s failure to understand women outside their relation to the patriarch freezes them in a timeless past. In an attempt to prevent “Western influence” the local patriarchs evoke religious tradition and authority, and in some cases even appeal to anthropology and science. Taking the example of Africa for example, Kenyatta in Facing Mount Kenya mentions the practice of female circumcision among the Giyuku people in Kenya and how the entire tribal system revolves around that practice as it serves as a rite of passage. The author closes by saying:

“The African is in the best position properly to discuss and disclose the psychological background of tribal customs, such as irua, etc., and he should be given the opportunity to acquire the scientific training which will enable him to do so. This is a point which should be appreciated by well-meaning anthropologists who have had experience of the difficulties of field-work in various parts of the world.” – Kenyatta

One can observe here how British attempts to directly attack a religious ritual without developing a micro level understanding of local culture infact has solidified tradition even further in the eyes of Kenyatta. Patriarchal relationships are hence reforged in the struggle to prevent foreign influence.

First world feminism attacking issues of patriarchy at a macro level not only bears similar results but also causes a major setback to local modes of female resistance who understand their native culture much better than someone addressing their issues in the “West”. Statistically even one may find local institutions of empowerment gaining much more traction than feminist institutions based on “western” scholarship. In our own local context in Pakistan, Al-Huda with around 200 branches dominates the Women’s Action Forum with its 3-4 branches as Al-Huda operates at a more grass root level, and also because the latter is seen as “liberal” and “corrupting” due to the states constant evocation of religious authority post-1947.

Chandra Mohanty talks about how First World Feminists sometimes equate the Veil with rape and prostitution. In doing so, they deny the Veil of its historical/cultural significance in terms of how it links to female dignity in Muslim societies. In some cases it has even been revolutionized to some extent for instance Fanon in “Algeria Unveiled” talks about how the Veil itself became a tool for combat which in return places women at equal footing as males:

“The Algerian woman rises directly to the level of tragedy.” – Fanon

So the same veil that was seen as oppressive by First World Feminists and Colonialists became a source of empowerment for Women in Algeria, which according to Fanon places the “Algerian Women at the heart of combat”. Hence one can observe that the gaps that both First World Feminism and Imperialism create are immediately filled by timeless religion and culture.

In conclusion, the hegemony of Western scholarship plays a role in why First World Feminism spread rapidly and became the dominant discourse for feminism, while its ignorance of local contexts, cross border homogenization, cultural reductionism and marginalization of local feminist movements or modes of resistance has caused it to be heavily laden with imperialist undertones.

Published in 1989, Dada Amir Haider Khan’s “Chains to Lose” is a collection of his memoirs and personal accounts as a revolutionary/socialist/student/traveler during much of the 20th Century. For our purposes we will be specifically focusing on Chapter 7 “Break With The Old World”. Written during the mid-late 1920’s, the strategically chosen name of this chapter itself is highly symbolic of what every young, aged or colored socialist was seeking to achieve back then. This blog will hence highlight certain themes in Dada’s account and place them with actual Socialist Realism posters to depict the variety of ideas that were being both propagated and to a large extent, implemented.

“I had visited and lived in many great cities…But nowhere had I even met people of so many diverse races and nationalities, and been able to share a communal life with them, as in this university.“

“After continuously mixing and living with innumerable types of individuals I had lost all my religious prejudices.”

Dada talks about the influx of an extremely diverse group of people into the Soviet Union. These included teachers, authors, artists, ideologues, laborers etc. Dada mentions how several of them were expelled from their countries because they “sympathized” with the Russian Revolution. They mostly consisted of Americans, Africans, Chinese and even Indians. The poster also represents this diverse group literally travelling hand in hand in Moscow. It depicts not only equality but also a shared collective goal.

“The teacher of economic geography, with the help of regular maps as well as charts and diagrams, demonstrated to us the economic inter-dependence of various parts of the world. It was for this reason the industrial capitalist countries maintained their political domination over backward agricultural countries.“

When describing the university, Dada firstly talks about the curriculum which contains subjects such as politics, history, anthropology and surprisingly enough, comparative religion. He goes on to discuss how this curriculum was implemented at a more practical level as the students were taken to tours of e.g: factories where they were exposed to the rapid industrialization project as part of the Soviet 5 year plan. They were also taken to Czarist monuments, which were preserved specifically to represent historical progress from a “backward monarchy” towards an equitable industrialized society. Activities mentioned under “The Judgement”, where groups critiqued themselves and one another on conduct etc encouraged dialogue among the different groups. In Dada’s opinion this greatly improved cultural understanding and tolerance.

Furthermore, the university also managed to highlight what was common among the students, for instance most of them belonged to colonies and had witnessed exploitation first hand. The university thus attempted to unite them under the anti-colonial banner by demonstrating how socialism could break them free from these very chains. Similarly, both posters aim to demonstrate that very idea.

“In the United States we used to hear that people in the Soviet Union are prosecuted for observing their religious rites. But during this period I went to watch the Easter Sunday procession and other ceremonies in the company of some Russian friends.“

Dada attempts to clear this conception of the Soviet Union curtailing religious freedom by discussing how processions and public rituals were common even in Moscow. He himself was able to take part in these openly without any action by the state. However, the posters/artwork say otherwise.

Socialist Realism posters depicted religion as a tool used by the upper class, a means of control/extraction and one of the major hindrances on the path to progress and education.

Propaganda such as this aims to trickle down eventually, so Dada’s view here might be problematic as it is limited to that initial period only. There are well documented reports of the Soviet state repressing the church and these posters may serve as counters to the claims of the state being tolerant in terms of religion.

“The students who had finished their studies at the university usually prepared themselves for surprise departures that could take place at any moment.“

“After all India was the land of my birth, and I owed my duty and allegiance to her.“

Dada talks about how he opted for India as he felt like he was morally and more importantly, as a socialist, responsible to bring what he had learned back to his native country. It is important to note that the entire notion behind this education/rehabilitation program was to send this diverse group of individuals into other territories (mostly their homelands) to create an international network of socialist groups. The creation of the Comintern was therefore a result of socialist internationalism. Hence, one can safely assume that what Dada felt was common for nearly all the individuals who completed their program at the university. The poster serves to highlight this very internationalism. Depicting all proletarians, irrespective of color, as one.

In conclusion, Dada’s account of his training in the Soviet Union can be placed directly in comparison to Socialist Realism artwork/posters. His practical experience and what was being propagated through the art go hand in hand. Inconsistencies in the artwork in comparison to the social conditions of Soviet Union may be more prominent in other accounts, but in Dada’s case they nearly seem to be absent.

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