"Indeed, the stranger has unusual customs. The white man held the paper like a sacred thing. His hands shook, and we mistrusted him... For how many moons will the stranger be among us?" (Vera 43)
Postcolonialism deals with cultural identity in colonised societies: the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; the ways in which the knowledge of the colonised people has been generated and used to serve the coloniser's interests; and the ways in which the coloniser's literature has justified colonialism via images of the colonised as a perpetually inferior people, society and culture.
When the Europeans came travelling down to Africa, they took hold of the land, cultures and people. They found that the way of life for these many tribal communities was not only uncivilised and wrong, but pure evil. The Europeans set out to assimilate the new colonies into what was "right for mankind". Though assimilation took place, racism was used constantly; unfortunately this hasn't seemed to have changed over the many years.
This political cartoon makes fun of the fact that Africans are supposedly uneducated when compared to someone of western society. The underlying message is that the Africans may have put on new clothes and acted with more sophistication, but they are still "different"; assimilation doesnt work. They are still not as smart, still not as beautiful, still lesser than the white man. The cartoon is saying that it is all an act and that you cannot cover up what was previously there. Due to postcolonialism there is now this question of what is the african image and whether it is all fake.
racism is horrible and needs to stop-whether it is a joke or intentional we shouldn't be laughing
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon is indeed very straight forward when comparing the people of Africa and the people of European descent. Other than the many things you saw, I also think the physical size of both people in this cartoon explains something itself. The "black" man is chubby and is generally bigger in size. I see this as a sign that African people are more out of control and more barbaric. On the contrary, the "white" man is lean, fit, and more composed than his servant, ultimately showing that he is more deserving of the higher rank. Overall, this post was very enlightening. Thank you :)
Hi
ReplyDeleteIn addition to what Danielle said, the cartoonist used caricature to exaggerate the appear of both men. The dark skinned man's lips are drawn larger than normal to bring attention to this aspect of "black" people. As a whole, the "white" man appears more sophisticated and more groomed than the "black" man, who is portrayed as silly and immature. For example, the dark skinned man's teeth are large, giving him a goofy appearance.
Secondly, the light skinned man has an abundance of watermelon and drink in front of him. The watermelon appears to be only for him. This symbolizes the wealth of the two men. The dark skinned man has no food while the light skinned man has an excess of watermelon.
Lastly, the education levels of the two men are shown by their speech. The "black" man does not enunciate his words properly and uses slang. But the "white" man speaks with proper grammar. This implies that the "white" man is educated while the "black" man is not. This could also imply if the "black" man is not educated, then he could possibly be barbaric and uncivilized, as Danielle mentioned earlier.
Once you think about it, many aspects of this cartoon are results of post colonialism.