CivilXChange

View Original

The Art of Resistance

Resistance is an art. Painted with a blood stained brush … but it paints beautiful strokes.

Many African and South American nations have fought to decolonize their respective countries from foreign oppression throughout the last couple of centuries. But what can we learn from these nations? What can we learn from the people who came before us, and wrote about their experiences?

Before we can understand the people that became synonymous with the resistance, and are now symbols for revolution, we need to look at the ancient world.

During the reign of the Greek empire, the prevailing political ideology was to amalgamate vassal nation-states into Greek culture and customs. This was called Hellenization. The aim of this was to inseparably join these weaker nation-states into the larger empire, lessening the likelihood of defection, and simultaneously depleting the host nation’s culture and heritage. Many ancient sources document this practice, even in much older societies, but the western nations of today modeled their practice after the Greek and incumbent Roman cultures. Biblical sources point out what this looked like in the Maccabees:

Moreover king Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people,And every one should leave his laws: so all the heathen agreed according to the commandment of the king. Yea, many also of the Israelites consented to his religion, and sacrificed unto idols, and profaned the sabbath. For the king had sent letters by messengers unto Jerusalem and the cities of Juda that they should follow the strange laws of the land

1 Macc 1:41-44

(Side note: think … Greek fraternities)

This practice was very successful, and through this political ideology, Greek and Roman culture was able to engulf many nations along with their cultures, and practices.

These same practices were carried on by Western nations and this campaign became the ideological ancestor of Western expansion and imperialist-colonialism.

Due to the economic and political advantages of colonialism, many European nations began racing to colonize portions of the African continent, and later South American countries. Here is a shortened list of a few of the African and South American countries that were colonized during these years:

 

-       Algeria

-       Benin

-       Ghana

-       Nigeria

-       Senegal

-       South Africa

-       Zimbabwe

-       Argentina

-       Brazil

-       Colombia

-       Peru

-       Uruguay

-       Venezuela

Colonization simultaneously cripples the host country, while empowering the occupying power.

Because of this process many great Freedom Fighters were born. They were imprisoned, lynched, excommunicated and many forgotten, but their resistance demonstrated the beauty that comes from the struggle. Their revolutionary zeal inspired many and now lays the framework for our endeavors today. Their names and stories will be shared here on CivilXChange to teach our communities about their struggles, successes, and messages in forming the area of study we now call post-colonial studies. We will take the best of their research, documentation, and thoughts to form our own resistance.

Hopefully, through this process we can see the beauty in the struggle … the art in the resistance.

For additional reading in the social sciences and post-colonial studies, check out some of my favorites from the list below:

See this content in the original post