The Colonizer and the Colonized

By: Albert Memmi, Nadine Gordimer (Introduction by), Jean-Paul Sartre (Foreword by)

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eBook | 7 January 2021

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In this classic study of European colonialism, Albert Memmi examines the psychological effects of colonial ideology and system on both the coloniser and those colonised.

Written in 1957, when North African independence movements were gaining momentum, The Colonizer and the Colonized studies the enduring legacy, political as much as psychological, of colonisation throughout the world.

Albert Memmi depicts colonialism as a disease of the European but crucially he demonstrates that colonialism destroys both the coloniser and the colonised, providing penetrating insights into colonial inheritance and resistance that remain as relevant today.

One of the great works of twentieth-century political thought, The Colonizer and the Colonized speaks to experiences in the Global South as well as European countries such as Britain and France, who are still struggling with their imperial pasts. In revealing the mechanisms of colonial oppression, it also highlights the origins of all oppression of one group by another.

This edition includes introductions by two of the greatest writers of the twentieth-century: South African novelist and Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

About the Author

Born in 1920 in Tunisia, when it was a French protectorate, Albert Memmi was educated at the University of Algiers and the Sorbonne in Paris. He published several widely acclaimed novels as well as major works on racism and Judaism. He died in France in 2020.

Industry Reviews

"Widely influential"
New Yorker

"Enlightening, disturbing and thoughtful."
Glasgow Herald

"Confiscated by colonial police throughout the world since its 1957 publication, The Colonizer and the Colonized is an important document of our times, an invaluable warning for all future generations."
Los Angeles Times

"The subject of colonialism has rarely been treated more lucidly and devastatingly than in this book"
Library Journal

"The sickness of the world ... cannot be healed by traditional masters of the world alone."
Nadine Gordimer

"Memmi's analysis of the sociological and psychological effects of colonialism had and retains a wider application."
Guardian