Culture Wars and Social Justice: Week 4 Resistance

On Resistance and Amilcar Cabral

Cultural Resistance

• A will to elude a power, predominant norm, or social control

• Political resistance through cultural/everyday means

Infrapolitics (Scott)

Everyday, innocuous, quiet, and on-the-ground resistance to restrictions.

Tactics (De Certeau)

Oppositional actions used by the non-dominant in everyday life.

Subcultures

Group of marginalized people with shared interests/concerns who develop practices of self-expression/-respect within their confines.

Assimilado

(Portuguese, 1910-1960). To describe someone, usually an African living in a Portuguese colony, as someone who has reached “civilized” status.

National Independence

Handing over power to local elites.

National Liberation

Social justice, cultural and community development, critical consciousness, and liberation struggle

Culture in National Liberation Struggles

• Domination is in part done through the paralysis or destruction of culture.

• To stop cultural development is to stop resistance is to stop sociopolitical change.

Assimilation

• Creation of a social class among the colonized that behaves like or strives to become like the colonizers.

• To neutralize resistance and destroy cultural autonomy and self-esteem

Erasure

Removal of cultural infrastructures with a view to inhibit cultural development.

Pop Culture in National Liberation

LIberation movements must adapt to pop culture.

• Speak local dialects

• Use memetic devices known by the masses

• Cultural references

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Armed Struggle and Cultural Resistance

• Use of arms to fight for self-determination under colonialism

• Resulting from exploitation and oppression

• a last resort

Ideal Situations for Foreign Oppressive Rule

• Oppress the entire population and eliminate the possibility of cultural resistance

• Osmose/impose the dominant culture economically and politically but not culturally - impossible.

Culture as Element of Resistance

• Ideologically and idealistically a vigorous manifestation of the materialist/historical reality of society under domination or about to be dominated.

• Momentum in culture leads to revolutionary change.

Culture as Essential Element to Resistance

• Physical Base: Force/means of production

• History: Informs us of nature/causes of imbalances and conflicts

• Culture: What happened after the conflicts/imbalances

Culture as Liberatory

A person must:

• Understand/integrate with their environment

• Identify with the fundamental problems/aspirations of society

• Accept the possibility of change

Assimilado as Class Traitor

• They will assimilate into the mentality of the colonizer

• They will be confused by, ignorant of, or despise their own people.

• Their prestige will be affirmed by the colonizers.

Indigenizing the Liberation Movement

• The oppressed must reconnect with the culture they had been long divorced from.

• Culture in the everyday, across social classes.

• To better understand the material situation of the lower and working classes.