#French colonialism

[icedsodapop]

Man, these colonizers are stingy...

[sissa-arrows]

I’m staying away from Tumblr because y’all tend to encourage me a bit too much and lately I don’t need to be encouraged to say what I think. I need to calm down.

But I will make one comment about Macron and France these past few weeks.

Once a colonizer always a colonizer.

[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.

[lotusinjadewell]

Tonkin Palace in Hanoi. Credit to Marcus Lacey.

[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

[alpaca-clouds]

Colonialism Never Ended - The French Colonial Tax

Something I definitely wanted to talk about in terms of my Castlevania Nocturne in historical context essays is this one thing: People think that somehow colonialism has ended. The general idea goes something like this: "The first world war happened, and in the aftermath, the colonial countries realized that actually colonialism was immoral, so they stopped it." And this once more is another thing, in which history class lies to you.

First: No, they did not end colonialism out of the goodness of their hearts. They ended it because the world war had eaten up so many of their finances, that they could no longer support their colonial power. Because - this is the other thing they do not tell you - there were violent revolts happening constantly in the colonies. And beating those down with counter-violence cost money.

Second: But they actually for the most part did not end colonialism. Instead they just put some sort of puppet government into power to create a sense of independence among the colonial subjects, while that government worked for them and a lot of the land (especially the land that was worth some money because of resources to be gained from it) was still in the ownership of the colonialists.

Nowhere is this more clear than in the former French colonies.

I think no matter where you are from, if you have looked into colonial history, you have at some point wondered this one thing: Why is Haiti so poor?

See, yesterday I talked about the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution and how the massacre of the French happened. (Please note, it is quite interesting how history books tend to use the word "massacre" for the killing of about 5000 white people, but see the 200 000 Black people killed as just "victims of war".) But technically that "massacre" was not the end of te Haitian revolution.

Because over the next few decades there were again and again attempts by the colonial powers to assert their dominance over Haiti again. And eventually Charles X had his marine come up to Haiti and offer the people a choice: Either he would rain down the entire military might of France down on the island, or the island would agree to pay an "independence tax" amounting to 150 million francs at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that is more than 20 billion today.

It was not really a choice. They had to agree. And just for reference: When the US bought Louisiana from France, they paid way, way less - because they were other white people after all.

And with some on and off payments... Well, Haiti spend more than 122 years paying off their freedom, while they are very small and do not have a whole lot of resources. Just as an example: Haiti has about 27,560 square miles of landmass, which is just about a tenth of the landmass of France.

In any fair world, France would have paid the Haitians money for the years and years of slavery that France had profited from - but that is not the world in which we live.

And Haiti is not the only land. While a ton of former colonies of France - especially in Africa - are still made to pay a colonial tax to France. And if you think this is some small sum, think again. In many cases France takes more than 80% of the governmental takes in those countries.

Currently these countries pay that tax: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

The money they take from these countries is close to half a trillion US dollars each year!

Now, of course, technically while some of this money is indeed paid as a tax for the "independence" of the countries, most of it is appropriated through other means. Often times colonial people who hold power will propose a new project to build that is needed in the former colony, and France simply is the one country gladly willing to borrow the money to that former colonies - at often very high interest rates.

(Please note, this is the reason western countries hate China: because China right now offers a lot of African countries loans under better conditions than the former colonial powers, in a way that in some cases helps stabilize those countries.)

But in the end, yeah: Most of those countries will use most of the money they get from taxes to France. And if anyone says: "Hey, that is unfair," it just so happens that sometime soon a "coup d'etat" will happen in the country and get rid of that specific rebellious country leader.

France is the most ruthless country in this regard, but do not be mistaken. Pretty much all colonial powers treat some of their former colonies this way. And this is an issue. It is why the global south is so darn poor - while the global north is often so rich. They exploit those former colonies to this day.

And frankly, we need to pay back that money. It is only fair.

[occvltswim]

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

[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.

[icedsodapop]

[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.

[algerian-lady]

It'd be absurd to except me to not be political, idk shit abt politics, I'm more in the science field, but when you're a citizen of the third world your existence is politicized and you get shitted on all day long, politics are forced into you. So anyways, a couple of days ago the French president was again flexing his decomplexed colonizer and Neocolonialist side and told us Africans "that you should atleast tell us thanks" for what? French Interventionism, lol, no literally, France is also polite enough to let us have the first word of us kicking their ass out of our lands, "it's all coordinated" he lied.

I like the Senegalese minister responding that not not only the French army is getting their ass handed to them and that they are indeed fleeing the lands that aren't theirs, but that the benefit of this intervention can be very palpable in cases like Libya, but also that if we're talking about thanks than France still needs to thank Senegal for fighting in Ww2 for their sake and that if it wasn't for them, France would still be German. A minister from Tchad declared something similar (I think it's the foreign affairs minister and I saw smth abt the president also making a declaration).

Honestly i can't agree more, it's like they said, first of all nobody asked for French Interventionism or any other in Africa, plus it has never fixed anything (he says it himself, it maintains ppl they want in power, for their own benefits oui) on the contrary, for more than 60 years of neocolonialism, where is Africa today? Still the poorest continent on Earth while the west take all we have and give us crumbs if they are feeling generous enough then bitches like Macaroni would say bitch stuff like "without France you'd be worse" to his colonies. And yes, Africans were forced to fight during colonialism in French army ranks, we were never thanked for that, they also did the whole colonialism thing, no thanks for the stolen goods, neither sorry for the damage.

Frankly what that Macaron is advancing is ridiculous, it's not upsetting as much as it is embarrassing and cringe, I'm not the type to be expecting anything from western dirigeants, I've always been and will always be a South x South supporter, but this all just goes to show the state of France today and the west in general, they have reached the bottom and are digging their graves now. Ofc you could say that the French president only represents himself and is he's a disliked figure in France anyways, but them hating him doesn't have to do with his attitude toward Africa (which had always been there anyways) and only because he's a clown that says what he shouldn't doesn't mean it's not France's true thoughts and intentions. Even then he's considered a centrist and it's the extreme right that are winning on many votes (it's not like I'm counting I really don't care).

I give Jack shit abt them neocolonisers, but it's interesting to watch their fall, to see their masks fall, people finally seeing them for who they really are. Africa is waking up, hopefully this is only the start and better is coming soon, inchallah, praying for the day we are truly free from Western imperialism and neocolonialism.

[lotusinjadewell]

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

[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.