Langues & Cultures
Volume 4, Numéro 2, Pages 143-166
2023-12-31
Decolonizing The Discourse Of Coloniability From The Algerian Intellectual Mind: Coping With Algeria Pre-colonial Past
Authors : Koudded Mohamed . Mehdaoui Ahmed .
Abstract
Post colonial theorists (Frantz Fanon, 1952, 1963; Edward Said, 1978; Homi Bhabha, 1994, among others) observed that despite the ceremonial departure of the colonizers, some independent states still adhere themselves to the colonial discourse, which tend to persuade them about its superiority over them and their inferiority in everything, and thus their inability to manage their lives without their colonizer. Like many postcolonial states, in Algeria, this form of adherence can be seen today through many aspects of life, in which dismissing the own local language and culture as backward, due to the internalization of the colonial ideology, and preferring everything that is Western are a subject of this psychological complex. In explaining such phenomenon, concepts like mimicry, imitation, and otherness popularized by Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha and others are widely used. However, the important point to be discussed here is that if ‘the way the colonizer constitutes knowledge about the colonized’ has been termed as ‘colonialism discourse' because it was achieved through 'military and institutional powers', what proper term can be used for ‘the adoption of colonial discourse in the identification of the self’? Reducing the problem to imitation or mimicry has become irrelevant. An alternative term needs to be articulated. I use the term “discourse of Colonisability” to refer to the acceptance and application of the old colonial discourse on self-presentation, which used to be useful in time of colonialism and has become useful for today's imperial powers. Therefore, this paper attempts to discuss the issue of colonisability and definitions of the self that emerged in Algeria after the departure of French colonialism. In this paper, we argue that this self-presentation discourse has to do with the French colonial policies in Algeria and has to do with the lack of knowledge about Algeria's pre-colonial cultural and intellectual past that had been deliberately destroyed and wore off from the Algerians' memory after the French arrival. To diagnose the issue, this research used an inductive and analytical approach by relying on collecting some historical and philosophical documents that dealt with subject and related them to the context being treated.
Keywords
Algeria, ; French Colonialism ; Colonial Discourse ; Coloniability ; Decolonization
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