Edna Bonhomme is the author of Caring for our wounds: an expatriate memoirOut now from Haymarket Books. Below, she recommends three must-read books about colonialism.
All empires suffer from the possibility of their collapse.
For the marginalized people born and raised in the midst of empires, some plot and hope for their demise. As someone who is part of the many diasporas forced to leave their lands, I often turn to theorists and scholars who not only grapple with the shackles of colonialism but also understand how it shaped the psyche, family or rebellion.
There are so many books to choose from, texts that nourish my soul and inspire me to work toward building a better world. The texts I have selected are not only case studies of the psychological costs of colonialism, but also evidence that colonized people are not passive victims. Hopefully, they will provide some hope in these times.
wretched of the earth By Frantz Fanon: Fanon’s text is both a revolutionary pamphlet and a psychiatrist’s diagnosis of French colonialism in Algeria, and it also makes a convincing case that colonialism can psychologically impair the minds of the colonized. wretched of the earth It has inspired anti-colonial movements, primarily for its in-depth analysis of imperial violence and the ways in which class arose in the colonial context. It is a controversial text because of imperialism’s efforts to discredit and denigrate the colonizers. Nevertheless, Fanon shows that freedom is possible when people protest through collective struggle and socialism.
royal intimacies By Hazel V. Carby
Rebel empire: anti-colonial resistance and British dissent By Priyamvada Gopal
👉 Get Edna Bonhomme’s full recommendations on Book Riot!
