Francisco Lobo
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Nov 15 2025
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This is an excerpt from The Praeter-Colonial Mind: An Intellectual Journey Through the Back Alleys of Empire by Francisco Lobo. Download the ebook freed from chargefrom E-International Relations.
This mental journey throughout the again alleys of empire has been stored intentionally brief, as it’s the easy, sensible, and catchy philosophy that lasts (McDarrah 2024). In such a brief area no definitive conclusive argument has been tried of the type that places an finish to all dialogue and reflection as a result of it’s so compelling. Rather, the purpose of this examine has been to operate as a immediate to get a dialog began, not solely with our associates, household, colleagues and even strangers, however simply as essential, to start a dialog with ourselves (Arendt 1976, 476), to assist our minds higher navigate these backstreets we all know lie behind the clear-cut constructs inviting us in.
In this sense, that is additionally not an apology or justification of all of the evils of colonialism, as it will be very straightforward to easily declare with a shrug that all the pieces is praeter-colonial and theres nothing we will do. Rather, the praeter-colonial thoughts inquires if all the pieces is pre-colonial, colonial, and post- colonial unexpectedly, how can I make sense of all of it? It is additional not an try at weaponizing the mind (Galeotti 2023, 11) to set a political agenda or an ideological manifesto calling folks to motion. On the opposite, it is a name to replicate and to reside an examined life, to probe our prejudices and assumptions and take with us solely what rings true, a lot because the prudent traveler who strictly packs solely what they can not half with. The remainder of our baggage we should always depart behind, or pray somebody loses it for us.
One of the champions of decolonizing the thoughts whose work I’ve used on this examine, Kenyan novelist Ngg wa Thiongo, believes that language has a twin character, as it’s each a method of communication and a service of tradition (Thiongo 2005, 12). For instance, English is spoken the world over, however when it’s utilized by non-native English audio system like Swedish and Danish (or Chilean) folks, it could solely serve the primary operate, specifically it could solely work as a method of communication when mentioned peoples interact with others who don’t converse their native tongue. For English audio system, conversely, this language serves a twin operate, each as a method for speaking with non-native English audio system, whereas on the identical time carrying the actual tradition of the native audio system, most distinctively the British (Ibid, 13).
Thiongo additional contends that language as tradition has three essential features. First, tradition (and its articulation, language) is a product of historical past. Second, language as tradition is an image-forming agent within the thoughts of a kid a tool for identity-building. Third, though speech is a common human capacity, a selected tradition is just not transmitted by language in its universality however in its particularity because the language of a selected group with a selected historical past (Ibid, 15).
In different phrases, all people are endowed with the power to talk, however as soon as future assigns them their first language, they’re ceaselessly caught on this unintentional pigeonhole through which alone they’ll actually expertise their tradition, and as consequence, their very own identification. Thus, the argument goes that solely native audio system can carry their very own tradition and historical past in that first language assuming that there aren’t any bilingual or multilingual cultures, which is after all counter-factual as we all know of many such cultures. Consequently, anybody making an attempt to specific tradition in a language aside from these assigned to them as a baby should be confused, alienated, pretending, or flat out mendacity. I encourage to vary. Many phenomena in todays world are being skilled, designated and rationalized by folks in English even when this isn’t their native tongue.
For instance, there’s not one particular phrase in Spanish for accountability (the closest can be rendicin de cuentas) however the English phrase has nonetheless entered the vernacular of Spanish audio system around the globe, not solely as a phoneme but additionally as a lifestyle within the struggle towards corruption. Another instance is Gairaigo, or the set of Japanese phrases borrowed from overseas languages, particularly from English, which have turn out to be a part of that nations identification, equivalent to anime (from animation) and tekunoroj (from know-how). And it will be nothing in need of insulting to inform a Ukrainian drone operator ( ) that she or he is culturally confused or is faking an Anglo-Saxon identification by figuring out themselves as a person of an Anglo-Saxon idea (drone) as they shoulder the burden of defending a whole nation.
Language is, due to this fact, a lot richer as a automobile for tradition(s) than Thiongo would give it credit score for. The triumph of 1 language, English, that initially belonged to at least one tradition, the Anglo-Saxons, as a service of ideas and experiences accessible at present to each particular person on Earth is proof that language wants not be this inflexible, or tradition that parochial. After all, if Thiongo was proper and there can be no means of experiencing tradition exterior of our personal native language, then humanity would have, out of necessity, discovered a method to make work these scientific languages that don’t belong to at least one single tradition or civilization however which can be devised as a abstract of all of them, equivalent to Esperanto. But you aren’t studying this in Esperanto now, are you?
More personally, I’ve skilled first-hand what it seems like to hold and categorical tradition in a language aside from my native tongue. Indeed, though not rightfully mine by start, English has come to be the automobile by which I’ve been afforded the privilege of changing into a household man, as it’s the language of my spouse and of our son. The praeter-colonial thoughts can not however rejoice in the truth that the situation of risk for love and household for us kids of post-colonial areas from North and South America is the legacy of an empire that by no means reached the shores the place I used to be born. My spouse and my son at the moment are my kin, blood of my blood, and I can not pretend our bond any greater than I can faux a sense is really actual if I solely use the phrases spoken by my forebearers to specific it. However, I needed to categorical this solely in Spanish, I’d borrow a line from a Spaniard touring throughout trendy Ukraine whose folks ceaselessly stole his coronary heart, and declare that, in all truthfulness, ellos se convirtieron en mi gente (Lasheras 2022, 337) (they grew to become my folks).
The energy of those cultural spirits can additional be felt past the confines of our residence; they’ve additionally allowed our praeter-colonial minds to get a glimpse of whole new-old worlds, not least in all these post-Soviet/post-colonial areas, like Ukraine, the place Russian is just not at all times spoken and even welcome anymore. In such locations, English serves not solely as technique of communication, but additionally as a method to preserve alive an previous cultural legacy that started exactly within the pastoral lifetime of historical Ukraine, as Timothy Snyder reminds us, because it was there that every one Indo-European languages, together with English and Spanish, had been born (Snyder 2024).
We started this journey by speaking about Ukraines conflict of nationwide liberation towards the yoke of Russian imperialism. Indeed, Russia at present has been characterised as one thing the praeter-colonial thoughts could discover not too obscure, specifically a postmodern empire, through which most of the bodily options of empire have disappeared, however the place the imperial spirit remains to be current and even resurgent (Stent 2023, 180). The downside is, this spirit has really materialized in a most violent means with Russias conflict of aggression towards Ukraine. For Ukrainians, it is a struggle for their very own existence as a nation and can proceed to be so for generations to come back, till they attain the blessed state of affairs the place they’ll once more break bread with their former colonizers in peace, simply as our Pan-American household can at present with the little kids of our former European masters. Woefully, it would simply take some time for them to get there.
We additionally started this journey by taking a look at among the meanings of the phrase praeter, together with the previous and on the identical time what lies past. In that sense, Ukraines transcendent clamor for freedom at present is an echo from the previous of any unbiased nation that after fought and bled for its personal existence, a reminder of what all of us as soon as had been and the way far we’ve got come since. And so, as we discover ourselves again residence once more, whereas my spouse takes a name from Kyiv, our son hums Carol of the Bells (A Ukrainian Christmas carol), and I learn a ebook on Ukraines historical past, I treasure our little Ukrainian second as these post-colonial echoes completely encapsulate all of the wondrous issues historical past has to supply to these whose minds are sensible sufficient to not lose sight of the previous and whose hearts stay open to all the numerous prospects of the longer term.
Further Reading on E-International Relations
- New Book The Praeter-Colonial Mind: An Intellectual Journey Through the Back Alleys of Empire
- The Grand Inquest of the World: British Imperialism and Europe
- The Reluctant Empire: The United States and America
- Existential Battles: Culture Wars and Real Wars
- The Haves and the Have-Nots: The West, the Global South, and the Rest
- Colonial Politics of Digital Security Interfaces
About The Author(s)
Francisco Loboholds a PhD in War Studies from Kings College London. He additionally holds an LLM in International Legal Studies (New York University), an LLM in International Law and an LLB (University of Chile). He has labored as a authorized practitioner within the personal and public sectors. He has extra lately labored as an advisor for a global growth challenge to coach the Armed Forces of Ukraine in IHL and army ethics requirements. His analysis focuses on worldwide legislation, human rights, the legal guidelines and ethics of conflict, authorized idea, ethical philosophy, and historical past.
Tags
Decolonial TheoryEmpireImperialismPostcolonialism