Postcolonial language : rejection and subversion

Postcolonial literature is often depicted as a form of cultural translation, a privileged space from which to rewrite history and retroactively reflect upon the colonial experience. Based on this notion of cultural translation, the article seeks to examine, respectively, Aimé Césaire’s Une Tempête (1969) and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) as regards the “written-back” characters Caliban and Friday. Both characters will be compared and contrasted concerning their peculiar use of language as an instrument of power, subversion, and rejection of the European ruling.

Rethinking Polycentric Structures in the Postcolonial Church: Dangers of “Drone Missiology” or Afghanization of Christianity

In this brief essay I shall obviously draw from my reflections which I shared over the past three decades and to which I have provided some bibliographical references. It is clear from them that I had several opportunities to share my views beyond the Anglo-Saxon world, and some of them in events organized by K. Koschorke himself in the German academic circles as Munich-Freising Conferences. It is important that we do not get misled by words. We also need clarity of the concepts involved. Koschorke’s emphasis on “ploycentric structures” requires to be discussed and analysed critically to sort out its geographic components and its political-cultural implications, in order to be clear where lie the priorities. Without such exercise we will run the risk of hiding behind the ambiguity of words and concepts. My gut feelings make me believe that “polycentric structures” is just what the West needs in the postcolonial era to replace the control it has lost with decolonization.

La noción de "derecho" o las paradojas de la modernidad postcolonial: indígenas y mujeres en Bolivia

Este artículo intentará realizar una lectura de "género” de la historia de la juridicidad boliviana, para proponer algunos temas de debate que considero pertinentes a la hora de discutir los "derechos de los pueblos indígenas", y su estrecho vínculo, tal como yo los veo -con el tema de los "derechos de las mujeres" (indí-genas, cholas, birlochas o refinadas). En un primer momento, me interesarán los aspectos masculinos y letrados de este proceso, que son los que han producido los documentos conocidos como leyes de la República. El derecho y la formación histórica moderna de lo que se conoce como "espacio público", tienen en Europa un anclaje renacentista e ilustrado a través del cual re-nace el ser humano como Sujeto Universal (y masculino) de la noción misma de "derecho". No otra cosa significa el que "derechos humanos" de hoy, hayan sido llamados en el siglo XVIII, "derechos del hombre" (droits de J'homme). A esto se han referido autores como Derrida y Butler, que nos hablan de una versión "falogocéntrica" del Sujeto de la modernidad, el individuo ilustrado. Esta versión estaría inscrita en la historia de occidente y habría sido proyectada al mundo en los últimos siglos, a través de multiformes procesos de hegemonía política, militar y cultural.

Continentes y colonialismos: perspectivas sobre género y nación (Debates)

Este artículo explora los discursos del colonialismo y nacionalismo en países y períodos diferentes a través del prisma de género, para comprender las exigencias y supuestos, así como la contingencia y la contradicción que son inherentes a tales proyectos. Se basa en críticos que ofrecen la teoría poscolonial y feminista, en particular, las poderosas advertencias –postuladas a partir de matizados entendimientos de la cultura y el poder– acerca de cómo el género y la sexualidad modularon las formaciones de la Colonia y el imperio. Un enfoque particular en la representación cultural, por parte de las élites, de la nación en India y México, permite desmitificar a la nación y descubrir los lazos latentes pero fuertes que vinculan el pasado colonial con la nación nacional (¿poscolonial?).

Feminism and IR and the Conditions for Critical Dialogue

My objective in this paper is to problematize the call for dialogue and engagement between feminists and non-feminist International Relations (IR) scholars. I will concentrate on two pieces of scholarship to discuss the issue of dialogue: first, Robert Keohane’s “Beyond Dychotomies: Conversations between International Relations and Feminist Theory’s” (Keohane, 1998); and second, Anne Tickner’s (1997) “You Just don’t Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists.” In both pieces the question of dialogue is of most importance.

Crocodile crimes: people versus wildlife and the politics of postcolonial conservation on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

This article is about the politics of conservation in postcolonial Southern Africa. It focuses on the process and consequences of redefining the Nile crocodile as an endangered species and explores the linked local and international, commercial and conservationist interests that allowed the animal to re-establish itself in state-protected waterways in colonial and postcolonial contexts. It investigates the effects of the animal's successful re-accommodation by examining conflicts between crocodiles and the fishing communities sharing space on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. Fishermen's hostile representations of the animal emphasize competition for fish, harassment, fear, loss of assets and loss of life. Their fear of crocodiles is heightened by the animal's entanglement in local social life, through its association with witchcraft. The article emphasizes the importance of considering both hegemonic and marginalized ideas about animals in the light of the material interactions, relations of power and historical contexts that shape them. Understanding the attitudes and circumstances of the local communities who bear the physical and economic costs of living with dangerous animals is important-it threatens the future of conservation programmes and reveals the potential for significant abuses to accompany the conservation of wildlife in postcolonial contexts. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

'Black skins-white masks': Postcolonial reflections on 'race', gender and second generation return migration to the Caribbean

This paper illustrates the opportunities afforded by the adoption of postcolonial discourse in development geography, drawing specifically on issues of transnationalism, hybridity and inbetweeness. The utility of such notions and associated approaches is illustrated by the authors' current research on the migration of young, second generation and foreign-born 'Bajan-Brits' to the small Caribbean island nation of Barbados, the homeland of their parents. Focussing on issues of 'race' and gender, the paper examines the experiences of return migration among this cohort from an interpretative perspective framed within postcolonial discourse. It argues that notwithstanding the considerable sociocultural problems of adjustment encountered, these Bajan-Brit 'returnees' may be seen as occupying positions of relative economic privilege. Theirs is a liminal space derived by virtue of having been born and/or raised in the UK and being of the black 'race'. Accordingly, they are demonstrated to be both advantaged and disadvantaged; both transnational and national; and black but, in some senses, symbolically white.