Freedom of the Captured and Subjected
Colonialism justified its barbaric slavery system by the proclaimed noble ambition to liberate and civilize
(westernize) the occupied and subjected people. The current White House justifies its barbaric empire
building ventures by the proclaimed noble ambition to bring freedom and democracy to the oppressed in
targeted countries. Yet in the U.S. homeland the individual is still to be freed from the domination of the
wealthy and powerful.
By Ndzana Seme
4/22/2004 - Most of the formerly colonized people are subjected to neocolonialist, despotic regimes and
are poorer today than they were before colonization. The major thing the colonialist occupation and
forced westernization, along with its empty shell called republicanism, did is capturing the colonized
people and subjecting them to the republican State and to the market, not liberating them.
The White House has no track record of having occupied, freed and led any nation to prosperity, if we
discard the controversial claim of Europe liberation during WWII. The nightmare of colonialism, still fresh
on memories, would make it hard for overseas people to accept the U.S. military occupation as a form of
actual liberation.
Most striking is the fact that the American people is not free itself, if we consider that scrapings of
freedom are just scrapings, not freedom itself.
A free individual is the one who would not encounter insurmountable obstacles because s/he decided to
ignore the State and the market. In a real free society, an individual can decide to settle in a place away
from the society or community, without being forced to pay bills to the dominating community.
A real free individual is the one who can use the nature as needed to get what s/he needs in terms of food,
clothing, shelter, copulation.
I wonder whether in Connecticut I can find a piece of nature that is ownership-free to settle in, grow
tomatoes, dig wells for pure water, avoid using roads and vehicles, enjoy love with my beloved, far away
from a stressing society, and therefore survive hardships. I don?t think I can.
I would be forced to purchase the land and, even when I have fully reimbursed my property loan, the city
would still snatch the land away from me if I fail to pay city taxes. Not only I am not free to build my
house but the way the city requires, any construction I make is reassessed and tax amounts are raised.
Even in my inner privacy, namely the relationship with my family partners, I am not free of choice. I cannot
claim that I am African and therefore I am free to take as many spouses as I want in my household. Even
when I show that I am wealthy enough and well skilled in people?s management to take care of my
people, I cannot be polygamist in my place, because the dominating Western culture prohibits polygamy
or polyandry.
I would like to get the job I want; but I am left alone on a job market to deal with dominating,
market-making employers. I spend more energies either looking for jobs or trying to keep a job ? notably
by finger-pointing my colleagues in order to pull the blanket in my side and benefit the supervisor?
rewarding attention ? than doing the job itself.
The only thing that is clear in the United States is that you are not free. Anyone of us may look around and
find that it is impossible change many things that matter the most in our existence. No one is free without
freedom of decision on one?s own existence.
In the U.S., decisions on the individual?s existence are made by the dominating State, city, corporate
employer, Western culture, and by various powerful groups. The "Land of the Free" is paradsoxically the
land of the dominators, which calls into question its founding principle of republicanism.
All other scrapings of freedom ? speech, association, religion, etc ?, that politicians are so beaming at
trumpeting, are just games compared to the natural freedom to decide on one?s own existence.
If we can?t comprehend this sad reality, the people we ambition to liberate do; because they often enjoy
that natural freedom and would not trade it for the uncertain.
(*) The anthropological theory of capture and submission is a political strategy consisting on capturing and placing the individual in
a relationship of dependence to the state and to the market. For societies to pass from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy
it is alleged that violence has to be done to the population, through reforms that would make ownership difficult to the poor, and
many other rules that seem obvious to us today. But in doing so, the freedom of yesteryear was traded off.
________________________________________________________________________________
___________
©2003 The African Independent, Inc. All rights to republication are reserved