Black organization rails against French dictionary's definition of 'colonization'

[Corals]

Black organization rails against French dictionary's definition of 'colonization'
The Associated Press

Published: September 5, 2006



PARIS The head of an organization representing France's black community called Tuesday for the iconic Petit Robert dictionary to be pulled off the shelves for putting what the group said was a positive spin on the definition of the word "colonization."

Patrick Lozes, the president of the Representative Council of Black Assiciations, complained that the dictionary's definition of colonization as getting the "best returns out of a country" perpetuated the notion that colonialism was a positive endeavor.

"It's not acceptable to continue to put out a message that colonization may have had a positive role," Lozes said in an interview with France-3 television.

Colonization has been a hot subject in France since parliament passed last year a law requiring schoolbooks to highlight the "positive role" of French colonialism, which touched off a series of protests. The term was later stripped from the legislation, but the law was an embarrassment for France.

While other dictionaries updated their definition in the wake of the scandal, the 2007 edition of the Petit Robert still defines "colonization" as "exploitation, getting the best return out of countries which have become colonies."

The dictionary's publishers, Le Robert Editions, defended its decision not to change the definition, saying in a statement it was just one of several meanings given for the word.

The statement alleged Lozes warped the definition's meaning by taking it out of context.

Le Robert's dictionaries are "written by professional lexicographers and linguists and in no case are to be dictated by an interest group of any kind," the statement said.

Lozes said he was in contact with Le Robert to request a recall of the dictionary.

"Our role is not to be the thought police. We don't want to dictate what is said," Lozes said. "But we don't want dictionaries to continue to make this country believe that colonization had positive outcomes."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/...ry_Dispute.php
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I managed to dig up an article that really shows that there were nothing positive about the role colonisation played in Africa.

French Revisionism: Case Of Positive Role Of French Colonisation

By Canute Tangwa

What positive role did colonisation play in Africa and Cameroon in particular? On June 30, 1960, late Patrice Lumumba declared loud and clear to the newborn Congolese nation and the world: "We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.


“This was our fate for 80 years of a colonial regime; our wounds are too fresh and too painful still for us to drive them from our memory. We have known harassing work exacted in exchange for salaries which did not permit us to eat enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to house ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us.

We have known ironies, insults, blows that we endured morning, noon, and evening, because we are Negroes. Who will forget that to a black one said "tu", certainly not as to a friend, but because the more honourable "vous" was reserved for whites alone?

“We have seen our lands seized in the name of allegedly legal laws which in fact recognised only that might is right. We have seen that the law was not the same for a white and for a black, accommodating for the first, cruel and inhuman for the other.

We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those condemned for their political opinions or religious beliefs; exiled in their own country, their fate truly worse than death itself.

“We have seen that in the towns there were magnificent houses for the whites and crumbling shanties for the blacks, that a black was not admitted in the motion-picture houses, in the restaurants, in the stores of the Europeans; that a black travelled in the holds, at the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.

“Who will ever forget the massacres, where so many of our brothers perished, the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of oppression and exploitation were thrown?"

By telling it as it was, Lumumba sealed his fate. He was killed in very humiliating circumstances by forces that saw the positive role of colonisation. The Algerian war of liberation and the massacres that ensued is an apt example of the negative role of colonisation.

Yet, history textbooks used by high school students in France make scant reference to it. This is also true of French atrocities in Indochina that ended in the routing of the French army in Dien Bien Phu.

Few Kenyans, particularly those who lived the Mau Mau years would look at the British Union Jack with pride and longing. This holds same for Zimbabweans who fought a longstanding liberation war against Ian Smith, backed covertly by the West. In Kenya like in Zimbabwe and South Africa most of the arable and fertile lands are owned by whites.

In Cameroon, the negative role of colonialism included the forceful eviction of the Bakweris from their fertile lands (present day plantations) and their relocation to barren homelands by the Germans; genocide committed in Bamileke country by the French colonial administration in the guise of a war against UPC communist maquisards; elimination of prominent nationalist leaders like Felix Moumie, Ernest Ouandie, Um Nyobe, Ossende Afana, Douala Manga Bell and so on.

Last November, unemployed, uneducated, angry and rudderless black and Arab youths transformed their despicable suburbs in France into roaring infernos; setting ablaze cars and buildings. This was in apparent reaction to the electrocution of two of theirs who were fleeing from alleged French police brutality. It was also an indirect call for attention to their plight.

In reaction, French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, an immigrant himself, used very harsh words - "scum" and "rogues" to describe the rampaging youths. The outburst fuelled the anger of the youths.

Then on December 13, French President, Jacques Chirac, retorted belatedly to the offensive remarks of his loquacious Interior Minister. He said; "In politics the choice of words is important, there is no category of Frenchmen…and when a person commits an offence or crime, he is a delinquent or criminal…that is what the law says…" (my translation). However, the damage had been done.

Still in November, the people of Martinique protested strongly against the visit of Sarkozy there. This was in reaction to the law on the positive role of French colonisation enacted in France and the harsh language of Sarkozy.

The celebrated Martiniquais novelist, poet, negritude champion and populist leader, Aimé Césaire, had already served notice to Sarkozy that he would not receive him. Sarkozy had to cancel his trip but vowed to make one later.
http://www.postnewsline.com/2005/12/..._revision.html

[jamesfrmphilly]

does this definition apply to the nazis "colonization" of france during WWII?

[Ifayomi]

France: Revised Dictionary Elevates Colonialism and Critics Fume

Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
NEWS
September 23, 2006
Paris

PARIS, September 22, 2006 (CISA) - A definition of colonialism in the new edition of a French dictionary has stirred yet another debate on how France views its past.

The new edition of Le Petit Robert that appeared this month defines colonialism as "valuing, enhancing, and exploiting the natural resources of foreign territories. "

The definition in the widely consulted French dictionary has provoked angry reactions from groups representing the French black population and groups that fight racism, reports IPS.

"This definition aims at justifying colonialism, " the Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples (MRAP, after its French name) said in a statement.

"Le Petit Robert's choice of words conveys a racist view of history and contempt towards the former colonies," MRAP president Mouloud Aounit told IPS.

"We consider this definition a new attempt to glorify colonialism, " Aounit went on. Other French dictionaries, he said, "offer a technical, non-controversial definition of colonialism. "

In a letter addressed to the dictionary's editor Alain Rey, president of the newly founded Council of French Black Organizations (CRAN), Pascal LozPs said such a definition aims at comforting those who profess racism. "With this choice of words, (you are) granting bail to colonialism, " LozPs said.

In a statement, the dictionary editors turned down demands to revise the offered meaning. "Nothing in the definition justifies the attacks made by CRAN and MRAP," the editors said.

Speaking to media representatives, Rey said he shared the general views of CRAN and MRAP on racism. "But I am surprised by the lack of economic culture their complaints express. If we are not allowed to speak of the positive aspects of a globally negative phenomenon, then we are facing a form of revisionism. "


Forward Ever (by any means necessary)!
Karen C. Aboiralor

[Baba Ahmed]

The only way a colonized people can change the views of their colonizer's p.o.v. is to formulate their own definitions and live by them. Such self determinations are a function of POWER!

The krakkka said straight up; his crew ain't about to listen to a "group." And notice the krakkka projecting historical European crimes by put'n his attackers on the defense by implying they're "revisionists."

And who has omitted and "re-written" other people's Stories as long and as effective than Europeans? In fact often they impose their definitions ona people, who're ignorant and/or just don't give a f....