Edward Said wrote Orientalism in 1978. It was an explosive work that exposed the British, French and American patronisation of the people who inhabited the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Northern Africa. This mindset of otherising this region known as the “Orient” was coined orientalism. It is inextricably linked with the colonial regimes which produced it.
Those employing orientalism in academia skirt away from its inseparability from the political work and power it has been used to carry out. Said’s book proved to be foundational for post-colonial studies, debunking the underlying biases and structures that had upheld white supremacist discourse for centuries.
The idea of objectivity has been used as a tool for oppression in colonial scholarship. However, biases flow freely along with mystical snake charmers in the imaginations of the orientalists. These biases present today especially amongst white scholars continue to be powerful enough to shape history and culture.
The eurocentric nature of this lens is evident through the self-proclaimed purity of the knowledge that orientalists believe they are producing. Rather, orientalist works are a part of a political discourse that seeks to fulfil an agenda. Every human being has a different experience of life and view the world through the particular lens that has formed in their mind, making the idea of objective scholarship questionable.
As Said writes, “No one has ever devised a method for detaching the scholar from the circumstances of life, from the fact of his involvement (conscious or unconscious) with a class, a set of beliefs, a social position, or from the mere activity of being a member of society… For there is such a thing as knowledge that is less, rather than more, partial to the individual (with his entangling and distracting life circumstances) who produces it” (1978).
Painting a picture of “the East” or “the Orient” as a contrasting image, idea, personality and experience became so essential to the identity of “the West” or “the Occident”. It became a system of self-projection. Concepts about the Orient were developed by white eyes for white perceptions. The Orient became a mirror through which the superiority of whiteness was reflected.
By displaying the Orient as barbaric, primitive, irrational and feminine, the Occident could be portrayed as civilised, rational and masculine. Furthermore, the application of a Freudian lens became a method of release for the sexual fantasies that white men did not want to see as their own.
There was no neutrality in this area of examination and literature because of the very distinct cultural and political agenda that could be accomplished through depictions of the Orient.
Literature by white academicians studying Asia, the Middle East or Northern Africa continue to employ such a lens. Many such books even begin with an acknowledgment of the importance Said’s project only to thoroughly contradict him with what follows. The reality is people of colour have always been defined by white people, and not the definers of themselves.
The time has come for us to stop trying to redefine ourselves, but instead to undo the definitions that have been placed to shackle and keep us complicit. We cannot be reduced to identities or the purpose we can serve our colonisers. This hegemonic conceptualisation that underlies the way in which we speak about the world and ourselves must be rejected.
As Edward Said explained, “…there is no such thing as a merely given, or simply available, starting point: beginnings have to be made for each project in such a way to enable what follows from them” (1978).
This is the beginning of a project for liberation. It requires the ultimate disruption and destruction of whiteness. This is possible through the recognition and representation of the unique perspectives and emotions that are marginalised in academia.
We must be intersectional and collaborative in the understandings we develop and promote in society. Such a project can break binaries such as East and West, Orient and Occident, white and people of colour, and liberate the most critical aspect of our individual and collective existence — our minds.
Reference
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.
