Cesaire and Memmi's Essays and the Concept of Negritude

Cesaire and Memmi Essays
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Cesaire and Memmi Essays
1. Compare Cesaire and Memmi's essays. Which one do you find more convincing? Explain why.
Aimé Césair and Albert Memmi were influential figures in shaping the ideas of postcolonial theory. In “Discourse on Colonialism” (1955), Césair indicates colonization degrades the colonizers. The author, influenced by Karl Marx's ideas, faults European powers for justifying colonization as a means to civilization. He calls for a classless society where no one is superior to another. Césair exposes Europeans for taking advantage of colonization to get power and amass influence. They misused their power and influence to portray them as civilized while painting the colonized as uncivilized. Memmi’s “The Colonizer and the Colonized” (1965) demonstrates that colonialism is a “variety of fascism” because it is based on economic privilege, despite the misleading notion that its goals are religious conversion and civilization. Memmi attacks the colonizer for failing to promote the religious conversion of the colonized since this would be a major step towards assimilation, something the former fears can cause the disappearance of colonial relationships. Memmi foresees doom for the colonizer because the colonial system is unstable and will cause its destruction. While the works explore European’s faulty colonial system and predict its demise, Memmi presents more convincing arguments on the same.
Memmi’s arguments are more convincing, considering his ability to view the issue of colonialism from a more objective position. On the one hand, Memmi is the colonizer by the virtual of being a European. On the other hand, he is colonized since he is Tunisian. Memmi’s approach is hybrid since he lives as a Jew and a Tunisian. Being a Jew exposed him to double anti-Semitism in Tunisia and France, where Jews were deported to death camps. Memmi’s constant navigation between home in Tunis and diaspora in Paris offers him more insight into the effects of colonialism. The author acknowledges that he is a half-breed of colonization, which makes him understand “everyone because [he belongs] completed to no one” (Memmi, 1965). However, Césair is of French origin. While he considers himself of Igbo origin from Nigeria, Césair’s experience with colonialism is limited to academic discourse. Césair has lived most of his life in France and his experience. He lacks firsthand knowledge of the challenges the colonized undergo at the hands of the European imperialists. Hence, since Memmi has firsthand experience being a colonizer and colonized, he argues against the former with more authority than Césair. Memmi takes advantage of his predicaments as a Jew in an African country colonized by the French. While narrative the events, Memmi is aware of what it means to be the colonizer and the colonized. He, therefore, presents his arguments more straightforwardly because of his vast array of experience.
Further, whereas both authors predict the eventual end of European powers, Memmi is more articulate on how that will happen. Césair approaches the downfall of the colonizer through the narrow lenses of Marxism. He sees a time when the proletariat would rise against the brutality of the colonial powers and restore order. In this regard, Césair believes that order comes from the destruction of capitalism and its replacement with socialism. Césair thinks that the Europeans destroyed an anti-capitalist society to impose capitalist exploitation. He does not understand why the European powers advance their civilization agenda by enacting barbaric violence. Césair indicates that the modern bourgeois used scholarly prowess to mask the realities of European colonialist violence (Césair, 1955). He, therefore, calls upon the workers to rise against their oppressors with the sole aim of instituting socialism. In a world where most of the population is capitalistic, it would be challenging for the colonized to work towards instituting socialism. It would become harder for the colonized to succeed since they may not get the assistance of their...