Jan-Erik Olson is the man associated with what is called the Stockholm Syndrome. He took four hostages during a bank robbery in 1973 and eventually the victims not only developed a bond with their captor but even defended him in court. This matter of a victim of abuse developing psychological connection with the abuser is labeled a ‘contested illness,’ because validity is hard to obtain, the sample sizes just being too small.
Extrapolations are possible of course. And indeed sample size is not a problem in all cases. For example, it is pretty evident that peoples colonised or in other ways subjugated do develop a certain fascination for the oppressor. They even end up as defenders of the oppressor or apologists for oppression.
This is erroneously called the ‘Uncle Tom Syndrome,’ thanks largely to the misrepresentation of the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ in the earlier movie versions; Stowe’s heroic Uncle Tom, loyal to slaves in hiding and eventually beaten to death, was distorted into a man who would sell out his race to curry favour with white people.
The term has stayed, though. The condition too. In all conditions of subjugation. Especially in colonial and post-colonial context. Kalu Suddas there were and are, suffice to say.
There’s a flip side and it’s Frantz Omar Fanon, the Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist and political philosopher hailing from Martinique who is best known among those who identified and studied the condition. Fanon’s in ‘Peau Noire, Masques Blancs (Black Skin, White Masks)’ and ‘Les Damnés de la Terre (Wretched of the Earth)’ published in 1952 and 1963 respectively, speaks of the condition of victims being taught to and learning to hate themselves.
Fanon contends that colonialism distorts people’s self-perception. Bombarded relentlessly by negative references and description, they begin to believe the oppressor’s version of their reality. They who are hated, detested and despised eventually begin to hate, detest and despise themselves. Shame and self-hatred are not easy to live with. So, Fanon argues, ‘black people try to become “more white”.’ Wealth alone won’t do it. Remember Michael Jackson? And this engenders further shame and consequently demands further vilification of self and greater love for the oppressor in the endless struggle for acceptance and, hopefully, emancipation.
We see this even today. People bend over backwards to ridicule and vilify anything and everything even remotely associated with who they are or who their ancestors were simple because the oppressor(s) vilified and ridiculed them for centuries and they just cannot take it. It is so much easier to agree in the belief that agreement would open doors or qualify them for membership in the exclusive club(s) of the oppressor(s). Doesn’t happen, but imagination is a powerful thing; mimic the person who vilifies and you can fool yourself into believe that you are no longer victim.
Loving the oppressor is part of the story of course. Love, they may believe subconsciously, also grants membership, enables migration to a different and privileged social class. Doesn’t happen really. There’s the Royal Family and there are subjects. There’s the elite and those vilified by the elite.
à·ƒුද්දෝ à·€ෙà¶්
කල්ලෝ à·€ෙà¶්
à·ƒුද්දà¶්වය ලබා ඇà¶් බැà·€් à·ƒිà¶à¶±
ඔවුà·„ු කළු à·ƒුද්දෝම à·€ෙà¶්
à·ƒුද්දà¶්වය නොලà¶්
එනමුà¶් ලැබෙà¶ැයි à·ƒිà¶à¶±
කල්ලෝද à·€ෙà¶්
à·ƒුද්දà¶්වය සඳහා
කල්ලන්ටම කල්ලà¶්වයටම ගරහන
à·ƒුද්දà¶්වය නොà·€ කළු à·ƒුද්දà¶්වයවà¶් නොලබන
à·ƒුදු à·ƒිà·„ින දකින කළු ජීවචවලට ඇහැරෙන
ඔවුà·„ු මිà·„ිපිට අපා දුක් à·€ිඳින්නෝ à·€ෙà¶්.
There are those who are white
and then there are blacks
who believe they are white —
kalu-suddas they are
through and through
There are also blacks
convinced that they can be white
and to obtain whiteness
deride blacks and blackness
Denied whiteness
denied even kalu-suddatvaya
untold is the suffering
of those who dream white
Wretched of the earth. Black skin, white masks. Two excellent examples of titles telling the story. That’s our story. Don’t believe me. Go watch some of the English satirical plays performed at the Lionel Wendt from time to time.
['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a
column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day,
Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]
Other articles in this series:
Inscriptions: stubborn and erasable
Deveni: a priceless one-word koan
Recovering run-on lines and lost punctuation
'Wetness' is not the preserve of the Dry Zone
On sweeping close to one's feet
Kumkum Fernando installs Sri Lanka in Coachella, California
To be an island like the Roberts...
Debts that can never be repaid in full
An island which no flood can overwhelm
A melody faint and yet not beyond hearing
Heart dances that cannot be choreographed
Remembering to forget and forgetting to remember
Authors are assassinated, readers are immortal
It is good to be conscious of nudities
Saturday slides in after Monday and Sunday somersaults into Friday
There's a one in a million and a one in ten
Kumkum Fernando installs Sri Lanka in Coachella, California
Hemantha Gunawardena's signature
Architectures of the demolished
The exotic lunacy of parting gifts
Who the heck do you think I am?
Those fascinating 'Chitra Katha'
So how are things in Sri Lanka?
The sweetest three-letter poem
Teams, team-thinking, team-spirit and leadership
The songs we could sing in lifeboats when we are shipwrecked
Jekhan Aruliah set a ball rolling in Jaffna
Awaiting arrivals unlike any other
Teachers and students sometimes reverse roles
Colombo, Colombo, Colombo and so forth
The slowest road to Kumarigama, Ampara
Some play music, others listen
Mind and hearts, loquacious and taciturn
I am at Jaga Food, where are you?
On separating the missing from the disappeared
And intangible republics will save the day (as they always have)
The circuitous logic of Tony Muller
Rohana Kalyanaratne, an unforgettable 'Loku Aiya'
Mowgli, the Greatest Archaeologist
Figures and disfigurement, rocks and roses
Sujith Rathnayake and incarcerations imposed and embraced
Some stories are written on the covers themselves
A poetic enclave in the Republic of Literature
Landcapes of gone-time and going-time
The best insurance against the loud and repeated lie
So what if the best flutes will not go to the best flautists?
There's dust and words awaiting us at crossroads and crosswords
A song of terraced paddy fields
Of ants, bridges and possibilities
From A through Aardvark to Zyzzyva
Words, their potency, appropriation and abuse
Who did not listen, who's not listening still?
If you remember Kobe, visit GOAT Mountain
The world is made for re-colouring
No 27, Dickman's Road, Colombo 5
Visual cartographers and cartography
Ithaca from a long ago and right now
Lessons written in invisible ink
The amazing quality of 'equal-kindness'
The interchangeability of light and darkness
Sisterhood: moments, just moments
Chess is my life and perhaps your too
Reflections on ownership and belonging
The integrity of Nadeesha Rajapaksha
Signatures in the seasons of love
To Maceo Martinet as he flies over rainbows
Fragrances that will not be bottled
Colours and textures of living heritage
Countries of the past, present and future
Books launched and not-yet-launched
The sunrise as viewed from sacred mountains
Isaiah 58: 12-16 and the true meaning of grace
The age of Frederick Algernon Trotteville
Live and tell the tale as you will
Between struggle and cooperation
Neruda, Sekara and literary dimensions
Paul Christopher's heart of many chambers
Calmness gracefully cascades in the Dumbara Hills
Serendipitous amber rules the world
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