BSAC Struggling For Knowledge And Unity 
The Colonizer and the Colonized
Reviewed by Jaber Baloch
Baloch Students Action Committee
The author of this nonfiction book is Albert Memmi, which was published in French in 1957 and later published with English translation in 1965 .One of his greatest pieces is The Pillar of Salt, in which he explores colonial mindset from several angles. Many wellknown intellectuals, like Jean Paul Sartre and Nadine Gordimer, have spoken about his work. In this book, he mostly discusses acceptance and rejection of colonialism. He is shown in a varityof ways, primarily doing selfcriticism of how individuals accept colonizers and become, whetherknowingly or unconsciously, a part of the system. He focuses mostly on the lifestyles of the colonizer and the colonized in this book. The majority of the book’s first section, which is broken up into three sections that cover a varieyof subjects including colonizers who accept or reject, is devoted to the author’s discussion of the portrait of the colonizer.
Portrait of the colonizer
The author states that the colonizer always has an image of himself in his head, one that includes his appearance, his style of presentation, and his methods for helping those in need and waiting for someone tall, strong, and board chest. This image is ingrained in the colonizer’s mind, and he accepts responsibility for the people because he believes that, the vast majority of the population believes that the colonizer is right because he is a better race, but as the writer goes on, those who accept the colonizer have many opportunities for career advancement and have happy, fulfilling families. As they progress through life, things are arranged for them to the point where the colonizer is persuaded to accept their rules and regulations. New immigrants to the colony are provided with all amenities and basic necessities, so it is safe to say that they have been given the golden spoon in the colony rather than their home country.
There are several mentalities in the colony that oppose all policies that are merely intended to take advantage of their riches and economy. According to the author, when it comes to rejection, you need an ideology that all people can relate to on an emotional level and that connects them to the problem. All of this can be achieved when your ideology is nationalism, which connects people to one another and is a clear ideology in and of itself that allows native people to easily fit in and support the force that opposes the system that was created solely to exploit them. You have a choice once every issue has been resolved and you are headed in the direction of your destiny.
The Colonized’s Portrait
This section of the essay explores how colonizers create portraits intended to reflect the lives and lifestyles of the colonized and present it in various ways, such as;
MYTHICAL PORTRAIT OF THE COLONIZED
Regarding the colonizers responsible for sustaining the colony, they create mythical images of the colony’s native population. The author noted that in this regard, they primarily employ strategies that lead the colonists to feel that their misfortune is entirely their own, and they have been injected with the notion that there were feel that due of their lethargy, any work they choose to accomplish cannot be excellent. When compared to Europeans, they were three times less likely to think that they lack the strength to stand shoulder to shoulder due to a long-persisted myth. As a result, all nations have been labeled as lazy, even if someone is flawless at what they do. In certain organizations, both native and settler employees perform comparable jobs, but the native will always be viewed as more valuable to the colonizer. It is crucial to preserve this attitude around the colony and give the impression that this is their fate
Furthermore, the author discusses the lifestyle that the colonized adopt in accordance with myth. Accordingly, there is a situation wherein any problem that arises is caused by a native of the colony; in this case, the native should be held accountable for his actions, and the court will approve a search to find the perpetrator and hold him accountable for his work.
As it is said, their educational system is designed in such a way that native people are not taught how to help the country throughout their lives and are instead kept out of the workforce. Only a select few native people who are the colonizer’s favorite are allowed to enter government and are granted full privileges, while the rest of the native people are kept out of the system and are eliminated from the game. However, some nationalist leaders are working to raise national consciousness by teaching people about their own language, history, and culture, which helps them relate than They have be succeeded in creating rebels who confront the colonizer.
Regarding the colonizer, they employ various strategies to oppose the colonized. One of these is religion, which forces the people to feel physiologically tied to their families and prevents them from participating in social life because it is prohibited in religious contexts. Occasionally, the colonizer instills in the minds of the natives the idea that those who have the power to choose the government are chosen because their presence is unimportant and that voting will only make them feel like outsiders who will never be granted citizenship in their nation.
There is a difference between a person’s native language and their culture language. People who speak their native language are able to connect with others on an emotional level, dream, and feel the objects of their surroundings. However, because of colonization, people are forced to learn the cultural language of their master, and anyone who cannot learn it will not be considered for any job they choose. In addition, if a person does not speak their master language, they are classified as literary.
Throughout the entire book, the author aimed to draw distinctions between the roles of colonizer and colonized in various portraits and create a balance sheet that showed where the colonized person was absent and how the colonizer was profiting from them in a cunning way.
