Lois Tyson points
out in Postcolonial theory that “Colonialist ideology is based on the
colonizers’ belief in their own superiority over the colonized, who were usually
the original inhabitants of the lands the colonizers invaded.” In the story The Old Chief Mshlanga the author illustrates
how detrimental colonialism and imperialism is on natives. The story also provides the overall statement
that is the realism behind colonialism: as long as it exists, the divisions it
creates and maintains are impossible.
In the beginning
of the story we can see how displeased the girl was with her culture and surroundings,
thus having a strong desire to venture off and see what’s beyond her epicenter.
She provides an illustrative depiction of Africa by stating it “as a hostile,
undesirable, and unruly place” and by her viewing it in such manner; she needed
a means to get away.
The story separates her from Africa by talking
about the natives in the land as “remote as the trees and rocks”. It provides
the separation between her and the people of Africa. Lois Tyson alludes a
postcolonial theory called ‘othering’ it is defined as “one of the clearest
symptoms of colonialist ideology is the practice of othering: judging those who
are different as inferior, as somehow less human. For example, the colonizers
saw themselves as the embodiment of what a human being should be the proper self;
the people they conquered were different, other and therefore inferior and
subhuman. In the short story she says, "The white children could tease a
small black child as if he were a puppy…" (825). by this quote one can
assume that there was a great level of race inequality.
