Colonial domination operated by casting Europeans as normative and Africans as other.

Evidence

The colonial encounter in Africa thrived on the binarized conception of phenomena. This involved projecting Europe(ans) as normative and Africa(ns) as other. … The dichotomy between Europe(ans) as normative and Africa(ns) as other empowered the European colonizer to establish and maintain distance between himself or herself and the African colonial subject. Distance, as Fanon (1967) argues, rehearses and foregrounds difference. It separates supposedly civilized Europeans from so-called African savages and functions to shore up the myth of Europeans inducting purported African savages into culture and civilization. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 35

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the binary/distance mechanism by which colonial identity was constructed.
• XREF: connects to: Changing French stereotypes of Africans produced changing colonial policies. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 47; Willing departures from European milieu undid the racial categories colonial officials deployed — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 958; The idea of Africa as Europe’s Other precedes and justifies colonialism — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3387 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• The idea of Africa as Europe’s Other precedes and justifies colonialism #expands (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3387
• European racialism justified colonial expansion and rule #expands (0.88) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 513
• The colonial enterprise required representing Africans as opaque and extraordinary rather than ordinary. #expands (0.87)
• Belief in French superiority shaped how colonial administrators governed. #exemplifies (0.85) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 27
• Othering and essentialism predate and exceed Europe; colonial capitalism gave them world-historical force #qualifies (0.85) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 336
• Colonial domination is justified by inventing a dependency complex in the colonized #expands (0.82) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 149
• Colonial officials rationalized domination by claiming trusteeship over the colonized #exemplifies (0.80)
• Colonized African elites, culturally remade as European, initiated elite nationalism #exemplifies (0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 858
• Willing departures from European milieu undid the racial categories colonial officials deployed #complicates (0.78) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 958
• Postcolonial Orientalism preserved colonialist residues under altered forms of power. #expands (0.76) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 467
• Changing French stereotypes of Africans produced changing colonial policies. #qualifies (0.75) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 47