Answer

Week 1 and Week 2 Response

Colonialism played a significant role in shaping the modern world in many ways, both negative and positive. To understand the connection between colonialism and the contemporary world, many scholars have studied the world before, during, and after the colonial era. Loomba’s Colonialism/postcolonialism and Hawley’s Post-colonial, Queer: Theoretical Intersections, which form part of the course materials, are some of the existing and insightful research works.

From a positive perspective, Loomba views colonialism as the founding father of the modern world. Though debatable, we can all unanimously agree that most of the different structures in human knowledge, economy, governance, religion, and many more are due to colonialism. Civilization, for instance, is still evidenced up to date. During colonial times, the Europeans used their powers to force other people to adopt their culture, religion, and systems, which has since been the norm. Their oppressive divide and rule tactics are directly linked to most current world challenges such as racism and the effects of capitalism. During that time, non-whites, mostly blacks, were perceived as inferior, mistreated, enslaved, and inhumanly killed.

On the other hand, Hawley brings onboard new ideas in his definition of “post-colonial”, which he describes as “complex elements”. Ideally, when the colonial era came to an end, and all countries gain their independence, I think people expected a new peaceful world. It was easy to expect people, perhaps, to turn back to their normal ways of doing things before European interruption. However, that has not been the case, and things seem to be getting worse. Same-sex relationships and homosexuality has dominated the world, with some world’s powers supporting the act. As strange as it sounds, gays and lesbians are increasingly being recognized in most parts of the world today. In my opinion, it will be better to stop relying on western centered literature works and instead rely on our roots to develop better ways of facing and overcoming the inherent post-colonial predicaments.