Class, capitalism, and the postcolonial question

Abstract

Colonialism emerged as a tumultuous collision between Western and precolonial power structures, resulting in an unexpected convergence of colonial and indigenous patriarchal ideologies. This had paradoxical consequences, such as the mutual reinforcement of these ideologies. In colonized societies, gender, sexuality, race, class, and religious distinctions became intricately intertwined, giving rise to complex systems of domination. As a result, postcolonial feminists caution against overly simplistic analyses that solely concentrate on single dimensions like race or class, or gender in isolation, without recognizing their interconnected and mutually co-constituting nature. Postcolonial feminism emphasizes the need to avoid universalizing tendencies that overlook the unique particulars of different contexts.