Colonial rule’s epistemic anxieties are readable in everyday material objects

Evidence

As an instrumental technique in the limited sense, the radio receiving set develops the sensorial, intellectual, and muscular powers of man in a given society. The radio in occupied Algeria is a technique in the hands of the occupier which, within the framework of colonial domination, corresponds to no vital need insofar as the “native” is concerned. The radio, as a symbol of French presence, as a material representation of the colonial configuration, is characterized by an extremely important negative valence. The possible intensification and extension of sensorial or intellectual powers by the French radio are implicitly rejected or denied by the native. The technical instrument, the new scientific acquisitions, when they contain a sufficient charge to threaten a given feature of the native society, are never perceived in themselves, in calm objectivity. The technical instrument is rooted in the colonial situation where, as we know, the negative or positive coefficients always exist in a very accentuated way. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 266 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial occupation extends into the individual body and daily life itself; Epistemic confusion itself characterized colonial governance across the Indies; Archival genres themselves shaped colonial epistemic practices (+8 more)

Related

• Technical instruments carry negative valence rooted in the colonial situation (similarity 0.88)
• Radios let settlers resist cultural absorption by the native environment (similarity 0.80)
• The colonized relation to radio underwent dialectical mutation, not ambivalence (similarity 0.79)
• French colonial rule counteracted Algerian radio access by banning radio sales. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Technical instruments carry negative valence rooted in the colonial situation #exemplifies (0.70) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 266
• Colonial knowledge production was driven by uncertainty, not clarity #corroborates (0.65)
• Epistemic confusion itself characterized colonial governance across the Indies #corroborates (0.60)
• Archival genres themselves shaped colonial epistemic practices #expands (0.55)
• Colonial categories formed in the same ambiguous space as scientific objects #expands (0.50)