#French colonialism

[icedsodapop]

Man, these colonizers are stingy...

[sissa-arrows]

A French general casually saying that France must recolonize Africa in the next 10 years… he was saying that Europe is losing its influence in Africa and it’s a bad thing so the solution is “taking it back even if we have to do it militarily”.

At least he had the decency to be honest and say that it had nothing to do with democracy or freedom and that it was all about France’s economical interests and influence.

Edit: Okay I forced myself to listen to his full interview without throwing up and he was actually implying that it’s for Africa’s own good and that all of Europe must do something not just France. Fuck him.

[belleandre-belle]

Jamila, the Algerian is a 1958 Egyptian historical film from Youssef Chahine about one of the most important figures in the history of Algeria, Djamila Bouhired.

[aworldofpattern]

Team Haiti's opening ceremony uniforms for the 2024 Olympics, designed by Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean.

The trousers and skirts are printed with 'Passage', an artwork by Haitian artist Philipe Dodard.

'...Stella Jean says she created uniforms on a humble budget for Team Haiti, one of the smallest delegations in the Olympics with just seven athletes...

...The look takes its white, red, and blue hues from the Haitian flag, with the men’s uniform consisting of a light blue jacket, an adaptation of the guayabera shirt worn by men in the Caribbean, vibrant trousers channeling Naïve folk art, and a Fular scarf. The women’s look features a skirt in the same material, paired with a light blue shirt and structured jacket with a cinched waist. Philippe Dodard, an acclaimed Haitian painter, designed the fabric for the trousers and skirt. 

Wearing these uniforms at the Paris Olympics takes on an even deeper meaning for Haiti, once known as Saint-Domingue, a French colony that fought for its independence during the Haitian Revolution, the first successful resistance movement led by enslaved people against the French colonial regime from 1971 to 1804. “It’s hugely symbolic,” says Jean, who is Haitian-Italian, adding that she merged Haitian fabrics and motifs with Western silhouettes as “a tool of counter colonization.”

Jean ran into some issues as she worked to create her designs. Export embargoes in Haiti made sourcing chambray, a cotton-like material, for the women’s shirt difficult. “I used one of my dresses that my grandmother gave to me, because we were not able to source it otherwise. I hope she will forgive me because she's not here anymore,” Jean says, joking that her design unintentionally became more sustainable.

Throughout the process, she recognized the rare opportunity to present the world with a positive news story about Haiti, as the country struggles with a recent history of political violence, coups, and the deadly 2020 earthquake. Ongoing violence at the hands of armed gangs has displaced approximately 580,000 people, per U.N. figures.  

“Haiti has no materials now. We have nothing to sell to the world. Our strength right now is this intangible richness [from] our deep culture,” Jean says. “We are here, we are joyful, and we will be back on our own two feet again.”...' Time Magazine

[verkhovenskaya]

Guillotine is on my mind again due to the strange anti-French revolution discourse here, and I am reminded of how the guillotine utterly fails as some symbol for modern revolution. Putting aside it’s origin within a liberal bourgeoise revolution, it served as a tool for and symbol of colonial violence in the French empire. For countries colonized by France, the guillotine was a threat and a means for subjugation, often times under the false veneer of “liberty, equality and fraternity”. In Vietnam the French paraded a guillotine, and if in this, you see any liberation, your views of revolution remain racist, colonialist and misplaced.

[occvltswim]

‘Femme du Makhzen, Meknes (1934)’ — Jean Besancenot (French, 1902-1992)

[lotusinjadewell]

City Hall of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. Credit to chupchoetsaigon (Instagram).

[ash-tea]

I am a 100% with the people of New Caledonia. Get your independance my brothers and sisters. Get these french colonizers out and take your Land back. Just like my people did in Algeria against the french colonizers. LET'S GOOO 🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨

[thozhar]

The people who are coming to Auroville are often coming from the places that were settler colonies. A lot of Australians, people from North America. Even if they weren’t colonial citizens. The Mother is, on the face of it, anti-colonial. But she practised these settler colonial activities, under the guise of spiritual enlightenment. And this is nothing new. This is the story of the French Republic, particularly If you look at histories of Haiti, for example. I haven’t looked at spiritual settlements in other parts of India, but I’m sure there are similarities there, where you have wandering Westerners who have been completely immersed in these orientalist fantasies of the spiritual lives in India. Spiritual utopianism and settler utopianism, the terms are meant to ask people to think about how someone who has a utopian vision is dispossessing and displacing indigenous people at the same time. To this very day Auroville’s promotional material are full of words like “frontier” and “pioneer”, all of these things that come straight from the United States experience of settlement. And it’s glorified, as if you’re doing it for the greater good.

— Jessica Namakkal on what Auroville tells us about the ‘end of colonialism and empire’

[thomasthetankieengine]

MFW a motherfucker tells everyone that he apparently believes the Uyghurs and Rohingya people are "invaders"

Look, tlaquetzqui, we all know you have the IQ of a rattle, but you failing to realize that both groups have resided in Central and/or East Asia for centuries for is just embarrassing. (Mind you, the government of Myanmar has tried to argue that the Rohingya people only migrated during the period of the British Raj, but most of the evidence is not on their side).

Yes, yes, most Muslims in western Europe and the Americas are immigrants, but that ain't how it works elsewhere.

One wonders if he thinks the Albanians, Bosniaks, Crimean and Volga Tatars, Adjarians, Chechens, and Ingush are also "invaders" because they're Muslims and therefore foreign... Then again, we're probably better off not knowing.

Him calling the Muslims in France "invaders" is also pretty rich considering that most of them are North Africans from France's former colonies and that they were widely invited to move there after World War II to help in France's economic reconstruction, much like the Turks in Germany and South Asians in Great Britain.

[thattunisiandude]

French colonial era map of Tunisia (circa 1930-1950 )

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

The situation in Lebanon today is bleak. Carved out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire and subjected to years of colonialism-lite administration by France, its economy and infrastructure have been devastated by a long civil war, overlapping occupations by Syria and Israel, and corruption on a massive scale. Since 2019, Lebanon has been in the midst of a severe financial crisis, with widespread unemployment and hyperinflation. Now 80% of the population is poor and Lebanon is on the brink of becoming a failed state.

And yet, JD Harlock, Poetry Editor at Solarpunk Magazine, who lives in Beirut, believes in solarpunk. Join us for this episode to find out how that can be and what day to day life is like in Beirut right now.

You can find JD on X and Instagram at @JD_Harlock.

[sissa-arrows]

France banning TikTok in Kanaky. I guess France doesn’t want its soldiers to expose their colonial crimes on TikTok the way Israeli soldiers do it. And they don’t want people on TikTok to support the liberation of Kanaky.

[tidal123]

The Ouled Naïl, an Arabic nomadic/semi-nomadic people of Algeria, North Africa, were once most famously known for their tradition of Nailiyat dancers. The city they frequented were known in the Arab world as “Place of Happiness”.

The women of Ouled Naïl were traditionally trained as dancers and entertainers, Nailiyat dancers. They enjoyed freedom of movement and economic freedom, as they travel to nearby villages and cities to perform dance and music for earnings. They return to their home after they establish enough independent wealth and would marry for love and settle down into married life. Their society do not view their careers as anything less.

In the 1956 book Flute of Sand, author Lawrence Morgan quotes one man as saying, “Our wives, knowing what love is, and having wealth of their own, will marry only the man they love. And, unlike the wives of other men, will remain faithful to death. Thanks be to Allah.” (Source)

There were also women who chose not to marry and instead t establish a career based on dancing/entertainment.

The tradition of Ouled Naïl, preserved throughout their initial conversion to Islamic, beautiful and free, was destroyed by the French colonial occupation in the name of eradicating “moral corruption and prostitution” of the women dancers. At that time, the French ideal of womanhood was higher-class ladies confined to the inner chambers, while a woman taking a walk alone in the street was considered a bold move. The French used legal enforcements to destroyed Ouled Naïl’s female-centric dancer collectives which was crucial to ensure their safety, and the women were subsequently subjected to abuse and murders for their money and the jewelry they often wear. They destroyed their cultural tradition by a hundred years of colonialism, wars, and authoritarian rules.

It’s interesting their history and the destructive French colonization of the Ouled Naïl people were not included in Wikipedia.

As I searched for their history, I come across a BBC video titled “barbaric beauty under starlight.” Put aside the romanticism, I wonder, who is the barbaric?

The beautiful and free Ouled Naïl people, or the French colonial government that destroyed and murdered their culture?

[piononostalgia]

Anonyme

« Deux Antillaises »

Fin 18e siècle

[thoughtportal]

History of french colonization