Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

EJik. Nlcosisuggests that the myth of civilization written in fictional texts convinced
the European readers that such things as savages and canni bals exis t in Africa and
needto be enlightened and civilized. l ust as the violence is inseparable from the
enterprise, so in Robimon CnaM the element of myth "regarding the painstaking
Industry of building a civilization from nothing . ex nihilo, is inseparable from the
story of colonisation. of subjug ation , exploitation , and finally christianisation .. . •
(i54). In his discussion. Nkosi asserts that a vital part of the enterprise of empire
building wassubj ugating the natives ; and of equalimportance to the idea of
civilization basedon law and order was the caming and classification of objects:
Defoe makesCrusoe confess : 'I began to speakto him. and teachhim
to speak: to me; and first, I made him know his name should be Friday,
which was the day I saved his life; I called him so for the memory of
the time; I likewise taught him to say Master , and then let him know ,
that was [Q be my name ' •.•. Crusoe does not teach Friday to call him
by his name. He doesDot teach him to call him Robinson or Bob or
even Crusoe (156).
Permeating the language of imperial domination is the naming and categorizing of the
'other. ' Since language and power are inseparable, the ability to name and place in
fixed categories gives the one woo dominates that power of authority. The binaries
between 'self' and 'other' are established. According to Robert Young in While
Mythologies: "what is called 'other' is an alterity that does settle down and falls into
the dialectical circle. It is the other in the hierarchically organized re1arionship in
which the same is what rules , names, defines , and assigns ' Its' other' (2). Prakash
claims rhat if these binary opposi tions. "as Derrida 's analysis of the metaphysics of
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