Will They Ever Speak With Authority?
Language has always been a focal question in postcolonial studies. During the colonization period, the colonizer always impose and dictate his language on the colonized people to the extent that not allowing the natives to speak their mother tongue within their motherland which is colonized by the other, as the case with Morocco and France. Since the Colonization of Morocco the French language was dictated on it by force to consider it the second language, which I believe is just a metaphoric way to call it the first language by coercion, and also the language of education, news, and communication between the members of the society. And now it becomes the language of the powerful, the elite and in other words the bourgeoisies. From this example we can point out how language can be so powerful if it between the hands of a powerful country. Another example can be mentioned here is the English language. In the post-colonial period of America the former British Empire imposed its language on the Americans who was actually European immigrants, while the natives were killed defending themselves from the colonization of their beloved lands. However, now it is the language of the word, the first worldwide language par excellence because it is in the hands of the current most powerful country, which is the USA.
Language lay with the ones who own authority r power in other words. And the relationship of the master and the slave, which has been the most racial issue that black people suffer from, can be mentioned here. In Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, it is clear how the protagonist used language and authority (white) to discriminate a black person he rescued on a deserted island, naming him Friday and teach his the first words that were “master” and “Friday”. Here we cannot say that Robinson owns language but with his authority as a white person and own some few weapons could gain the ability to use language against “Friday” abusively as if he owns it too.
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