"First we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer, to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred, and moral relativism; and we must show that each time a head is cut off or an eye put out in Vietnam and in France they accept the fact, each time a little girl is raped and in France they accept the fact, each time a Madagascan is tortured and in France they accept the fact, civilization acquires another dead weight, a universal regression takes place, a gangrene sets in, a center of infection begins to spread; and that at the end of all these treaties that have been violated, all these lies that have been propagated, all these punitive expeditions that have been tolerated, all these prisoners who have been tied up and interrogated, all these patriots who have been tortured, at the end of all the racial pride that has been encouraged, all the boastfulness that has been displayed, a poison has been instilled into the veins of Europe and, slowly but surely, the continent proceeds toward savagery."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1955), as translated by Joan Pinkham (1972), pp. 35-36
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Postcolonialism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Postcolonialism
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Postcolonialism →
Related Quotes
"Bond and Gilliam's Social Construction of the Past (1994) focuses on how historical reconstructions are crucial eleme…"
"Post colonialism can be described as a powerful interdisciplinary mood in the social sciences and humanities that is …"
"If you look, you're sure going to find Through mankind's history A colonized mind. The one in power makes law Under w…"
"There are many dark chapters in mankind's history ranging from transatlantic slave trade to holocaust to dropping of …"
"The process by which Africa produced thirty-odd sovereign states was an extremely complex one, characterized by an in…"
"The American Negro saw, in the land from which he had been snatched and thrown into slavery, a great pageant of polit…"
"The United States, under President Kennedy, welcomed and supported the growth of free and independent nations in Afri…"
"One of the main purposes of the colonial taxation system was to provide requisite funds for administering the colony …"
"One major problem in Africa from a capitalist viewpoint was how to induce Africans to become laborers or cash-crop fa…"
"It would be extremely simple-minded to say that colonialism in Africa or anywhere else caused Europe to develop its s…"