ABSTRACT COLONIALISM, EDUCATION, AND GABON: AN EXAMINATION OF THE SELF-TRANSLATION OF GABONESE CITIZENS IN THEIR POSTCOLONIAL SPACE THROUGH EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE. SEPTEMBER 2016 MOUSSAVOU FROY BATSIELILIT, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Maria Tymoczko Gabon’s educational model, mode, and language of instruction are similar to that of France. Likewise, the official language in Gabon remains French. The similarities between both countries, as a result, have continued to perpetuate and reinforce the indirect, or direct, influence of French culture in Gabon. The resemblance also contributed to the inability of Gabon to create an independent identity from France. As a result, Gabonese citizens are self-translating and rewriting themselves as an extension of France while simultaneously censoring half of their identities from the narrative of nation. To understand the current situation, I investigate education and the language situation in Gabon and relate them to the field of Translation Studies in terms of the latter’s concepts. The thesis begins with a historical background of Gabon. The discussion then shifts to analyze the connection between language and power, and its use during French colonialism in Africa. The importance of language and power is in turn linked to education, resulting in an analysis of Gabon and France’s educational systems and materials. The issues of education, language, and identity are discussed so as to determine the influences on Gabonese citizens’ identities.

The father in Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips is a character burdened by guilt due to his implication in his children’s enslavement. He can be considered a supernatural being since his character transcends time. He is also connected to a supernatural essence called the “many-tongued chorus” that can be seen to represent the people of the African diaspora. The father is desperately trying to communicate with his children, and to the people of the African diaspora, but to no avail. He can, however, be interpreted as having a healing function. This essay explores this function. It analyzes how the father tries to heal the people of the African diaspora’s loss of ‘home’ and identity by looking at what he conveys in the prologue and the epilogue. The concepts of displacement, colonized minds, and roots and routes within postcolonialism is used for this purpose.

This paper examines how Sami identity is related and affected by the nomadic school's textbooks during the 1920's. This is followed by a comparison with the textbooks for the Swedish elementary school during the same time period to examine the differences in mediated norms in the textbooks of the two schools. Previous research shows that the school system is a way of controlling and creating desirable citizens that fit into the majority of society's norms. Previous research also shows that there is a hierarchy in the Sami community where Sami occupied with reindeer herding stand above other Sami, and this affects the extent of how a Sami chooses and dares to identify as Sami. This study examines how Sami people are portrayed and by which norms the children are met in textbooks. The results indicate that the norm for a Sami created and portrayed by white men is a nomadic reindeer herder and this norm was enforced upon Sami children through the nomadic school but also shown in the textbook for the Swedish elementary school. The opportunities for creating their own identity were greater for Swedish children than Sami children. The result is analysed on theories of postcolonial theory regarding the exercise of power through language, and norm-critical theory focusing on norms regarding ethnicity and masculinity.

This thesis investigates some social factors that instigated Bengal’s peasants to revolt against theBritish colonial raj repeatedly. The majority of peasant rebellions of Bengal have been examinedfrom the view of political economy, where the general perspective is that peasants revolted becauseof economic exploitations by planters, landlords, and other classes. However, this study argues forextending beyond the political-economic view, and for the importance of also bringing in overallsocial conditions in the examination of peasant rebellions. From these perspectives, this studyexamines a single case, the Indigo rebellion of Bengal, in relation to colonial policy, institutionalarrangements and peasants’ social condition.Archival data, Indigo commission report of 1860, books, academic articles, political drama, etc.,have been used as data sources for the study. To get a personal experience of the indigo rebellion,I have traveled to some districts where the indigo rebellion occurred and discussed with thepeasants to find some oral history. By applying the case study research method, I have analyzedthe data with the thematic analysis method. Commercialization of agriculture, moral economy, andexpansion of the market economy theory has been applied to analyze the data.This study finds that colonial policy and institutional arrangement created conditions to exploit thepeasants’ labor and wealth. The first significant change brought in Bengal by colonial power wasthe change in land ownership. Because of the Permanent Settlement Act, land became a productof money-making in the colonial state. The second significant effect of colonial rule is the changeof agricultural mode of production. The study also shows the commercialization of agriculture thattransformed the traditional method of agriculture, shifted the entire ‘production risk’ on thepeasants’ shoulders, and created insecurity of peasants’ subsistence. Thus, this study indicates thatBengal’s peasants repeatedly revolted because of colonial institutional arrangements andextractive land, economic, social, and indigo production policies that made peasant life miserable

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis seeks to explore how the life histories and the voices of the contract labourers from the Kavango contribute to our understanding of the contract labour system in Namibia. In particular, it seek to ask what light do they shed on migration and on new living and working experiences, their experiences with recruiting organizations and local recruiting agents and the effect of the contract labour system on them? Is it possible to view the migration of the Kavango . workers as a progressive step or does the paradigm of exploitation and suppression remains dominant? Oral interviews were carried out among the former contract labourers and their narratives were used empirically for information about their experiences. Yet this thesis also pays attention to analyzing these narratives for meaning. Archival sources further provided insight into the colonial views about contract labourers and the operation of the system itself. This thesis points to the slow inclusion of the Kavango in the contract labour system. It also draws attention to how there is a silencing of the Kavango in the contract labour system due to the colonial counting of contract labourers earlier where they were often included under the 'Ovambo' label. During the South African colonial rule, traditional chiefs sided with South Africa for continued survival and they supported the colonialists in labour recruitment. Although contract labourers made their own decision to leave home to get recruited they did so because of the compelling social and economic hardships that resulted from the activities of the colonial officials. Labour narratives point to many journeys both within and outside Namibia. Contract labourers aimed to purchase clothing which they lacked locally, as a result of the stringent colonial laws. The 1923 Kavango workers' protest against being sent to the diamond mines in the south, where they heard workers were dying in high numbers, played a role in shaping their labour recruitment and distribution to the copper mines such as Tsumeb, Otavi, and Grootfontein according to their wishes. From the perspective of workers, the contract labour system was nothing but slavery. They felt treated like property to be sold. The naming of employers became a way to deal emotionally with this mistreatment. The memory of the 'missus' lingers on centrally because workers related to their home experience of the submissive role of women and, therefore, they could have found it traumatizing to be shouted at by a woman. The labourers adapted to new colonial times and a new rhythm of labour such as bells and whistles. They developed good inter-ethnic relations among them. Contrary to the literature, the workers' relation with the location residents was not always bad. The impact of the labour system was that there were but small benefits and these were not long lasting and necessitated a return to contract. The thesis points to this cycle of entrapment which led to the mobilizing of workers. The workers' mobilization extended to the Kavango and resulted in rebelliousness against SWANLA and its institutions. While this thesis hopes to contribute to ending silences about the Kavango's engagement within the contract labour system, it points also to the need for future research highlighting women's narratives about life in the Kavango as well as postcolonial labour migration to the charcoal and grape farms which, as narratives of the former Kavango contract labourers show, continues.

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Populism in Europe has heightened racial tensions in many countries, including the Netherlands. Since the early 2010s, the Dutch have been debating whether the traditional blackface character Black Pete is a racist remnant of colonialism and should be changed for modern society. Though many politicians consider Black Pete a “matter for the people”, different agents in meaning-making provide different perspectives and influences. This dissertation explores the Black Pete debate holistically and considers how he is interpreted and changed through multiple entry points. By tracing the historical changes of the image and critically examining the discourses created by politicians, the media, and activists, the analysis shows how Black Pete comes the stand in for Dutch identity and how this gives him political utility. The process of resignifying Black Pete highlights the difficulty of addressing racial inequalities in a postcolonial nation. Each agent uses Black Pete to either maintain or challenge the existing racial hierarchy, but lone agents can neither make change nor stop the demand for it. These agents often only tangentially interact, but each action affects what the others do. Throughout the analysis of each entry point, the connecting role of the news media is shown, as it interprets these actions for the public at large. Colonialism created boundaries around the Dutch identity through violence, capital, and racial classifications, the Black Pete is about moving those boundaries to include those who least benefit from the colonial legacy. / Communication Sciences

In 2011, France was the first European country to enforce the Concealment Act which statesthat any type of face concealing clothing in the public sphere is banned. France is a memberof the European Union, and the right to freedom of thought, religion and conscience is one ofthe significant fundamental human rights. Thus, questions arise whether this legislationinterferes with the religious liberty of Muslim women. This research is evaluating how thecontemporary ban is related to religious liberty when accounting for the historicalbackground. The research addresses the continuous attempt of France, especially afterIslamic terror attacks, to restrict the Islamic clothing and assimilate the French andwesternized identity to Muslim women. The principle of laicite and France’s historicalbackground shows the country's strong separation of religion and state.