Decolonizing the consciousness

Like many other decolonial theorists, Anzaldua’s writing speaks to an audience caught between the confusion of identities and subjugated to suppression of their own minds as a consequence of neo-colonization and white supremacy. Through her work and the deployment of specific terms she advocates the realization of one’s own self as substantial for freedom after decolonization. This realization of self comes as a process of understanding the position that the subject occupies in the contemporary world, their active engagement with the consciousness and their recognition of fluid identities. 

Underlying her analysis of decolonizing our way of knowing is the realization of one’s own self in contrast to the understanding offered by the oppressor’ gaze. This is where it is important to see through her usage of the term “coatlicue state” when defining the formerly colonized subjects and their everyday consciousness. This state refers to the hybrid nature of the individuals living in the “borderlands” both physically and mentally. It results from the internalization of the subject as the “other” when in direct contact with the dominant race, culture and language of the oppressor. For Anzaldua this state needs to be properly defined as the existing reality for individuals who are negated by “otherisation”. Moreover, it later needs to be acknowledged as the first step in the process of decolonization of the mind. Although this state comes as a painful reality, where personal histories, traditions and cultures of have been raided on by colonial forces, it needs to be embraced in its existing form. It is only through this recognition that this state of confusion, where the formerly colonized subjects find themselves, can be thought of as a method of sustaining as well as decolonizing the native self and his consciousness. However, according to Anzaldua this acknowledgement is one of the many stepping stones in this long journey of attaining complete freedom.  

In her writing this understanding is complimented with embracing the spiritual result of residing in the “boderlands”; something Andzula defines as the “nepantla”. This draws from the conceptualization of how the colonized subject is continuously transitioning between the different time periods and crossing the border between cultures. However, what makes this state of “nepantla” more personal is its mental counterpart that emerges directly from an anti-colonial struggle against intellectual domination that suppresses the minds of the colonized. This state serves as the ground basis for decolonizing the imagination and setting out a new thinking space of possibilities for the colonized subject. The process of embracing the present as well as expanding the horizons of possibilities goes hand in hand for Anzaldua as one is not possible without the other if complete decolonization of the mind is to happen. Hence by advocating a new perception of one’s self, the colonized subject must take into account the fluidity of his existence in the present that he occupies. This fluidity speaks to the constant state of transition that Anzaldua address in her book.  “A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants”. This constant state of transition continues to mold the colonized subject in a new direction every day. However, Anzaldua stresses that the subject should take matters of inclusivity into his own hands after embracing his present reality. This is the only way where negative connotation attached to the “other” can be discarded.  

And so, if one is to summarize how Anzaldua speaks to the colonized minds we should take into consideration the how she intends to revive the consciousness of the subject. This revival intends to wash off any traces of the “other” being perceived as the inferior and works to promote the acceptance of the ‘hybrid’ existence of the colonized subject. It is only through this process of embracing that the imagination of one’s self is no longer confined to what is enforced upon him by the dominant white race. This reformation of the consciousness translates into the thinking space of vast possibilities.