Technical instruments carry negative valence rooted in the colonial situation

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

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Fanon’s key concept that technology is never neutral — perceived through the weighted colonial situation.
• XREF: connects to: Colonial rule’s epistemic anxieties are readable in everyday material objects; Radios let settlers resist cultural absorption by the native environment — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 261; Colonial domination distorts the colonized’s relationship with their own culture and traditions — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 421 (+3 more)

Related

• Colonial rule’s epistemic anxieties are readable in everyday material objects (similarity 0.88)
• Radios let settlers resist cultural absorption by the native environment (similarity 0.85)
• The colonized relation to radio underwent dialectical mutation, not ambivalence (similarity 0.81)
• Owning a radio before 1954 meant surrendering the home to the colonizer (similarity 0.81)
• French colonial rule counteracted Algerian radio access by banning radio sales. (similarity 0.80)
• The settler’s radio functioned as psychological armor against the surrounding native environment (similarity 0.79)
• Radio confirmed settlers’ sense of rightful continuity with the conquest (similarity 0.79)
• Native non-adoption reinforced the impression of radio as a closed colonial world (similarity 0.79)
• Colonized peoples accept technology once it serves their own revolution (similarity 0.79)
• The liberation radio’s effect was a dialectical mutation, not mere ambivalence (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Colonial domination distorts the colonized’s relationship with their own culture and traditions #expands (0.65) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 421
• Colonial oppression transforms the colonized psyche wholesale rather than adding to it #expands (0.55) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 347