Decolonization Quotes

“Do you know why people like me are shy about being capitalists? Well, its because we, for as long as we have known you, were capital, like bales of cotton and sacks of sugar, and you were commanding, cruel capitalists, and the memory of this so strong, the experience so recent, that we can't quite bring ourselves to embrace this idea that you think so much of. As for hat we were like before we met you, I no longer care. No periods of time over which my ancestors held sway, no documentation of complex civilisations, is any comfort to me. Even if I really came from people who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you.”
― Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

“Always remember that the people are not fighting for ideas, nor for what is in men’s minds. The people fight and accept the sacrifices demanded by the struggle in order to gain material advantages, to live better and in peace, to benefit from progress, and for the better future of their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence are hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into a real improvement of living conditions.”
― Amílcar Cabral, Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amílcar Cabral

“The act of writing, it seems to me, makes up a shelter, allows space to what would otherwise be hidden, crossed out, mutilated. Sometimes writing can work toward a reparation, making a sheltering space for the mind. Yet it feeds off ruptures, tears in what might otherwise seem a seamless, oppressive fabric.”
― Meena Alexander, The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience

“A trip to a Central American jungle to watch how Indians behave near a bridge won't make you see either the jungle or the bridge or the Indians if you believe that the civilization you were born into is the only one that counts. Go and look around with the idea that everything you learned in school and college is wrong.”
― B. Traven, The Bridge in the Jungle

“Our minds must be as ready to move as capital is, to trace its paths and to imagine alternative destinations.”
― Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity

“In matters of human rights, ethics, morality, reason, righteousness, philosophy and theology, white people must be seen, not heard - unless you've proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, with every ounce of your existence, that you value humanity more than you value your faith, your intellect, your philosophy, and every aspect of your whitewashed identikit.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“White is not a color, white is a mindset, and every person infected by that mindset is a potential threat to the human race, as such they must be crowdfunded with immediate psychiatric treatment.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“Either burn me or burn with me
(The Naskar Personalities, Sonnet 2924-2925)

Naskar has many zones - neuroscientist,
dervish, monk, decolonizer, sacred feminine,
and countless others I lose track of -

my nondual works are authored by Naskar the Monk,
my texts drunk on love are poured by Dervish Naskar,
my decolonial papers are penned by Indigenous Naskar,
my demisogynizing pieces are from Naskar the Feminine,
my behavioral documents are by Neuroscientist Naskar,

and all these are integrated personalities
of the Complete Human Naskar -
and fyi, your eurocentric narratives
do not have the scales to measure,
let alone analyze, such vast mental dimensions,
so I beg of you, do not bother -

either burn my manuscripts, as apes do, whenever
they're confronted with vastness beyond their
compartmental pea-brain, or throw yourself all in,
without ego, without intellect, without faith -

either burn me or burn with me,
there is no observation, no analysis -
fragmentation is distortion,
integration is creation.

I'm the experiment larger than labs,
I'm consciousness larger than brains,
my heart is larger than atria and ventricles,
I'm the Human larger than genetics.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“When the colored speak white (Sonnet 2942)

White delusion doesn't affect only white people,
it also affects colored people,
then they start making noises like white people -

they look at noneuropean science like white people,
they look at noneuropean philosophy like white people,
they look at noneuropean theology like white people,
they look at noneuropean humanity like white people -

which is, aloof from the window of an ivory castle,
and there is nothing uglier than a colored mouth
with a white colonial voice -

white people with white delusion are backward, but
colored people with white delusion are downright grotesque,
which is why, white is not a color, white is a mentality,
which affects everybody, particularly in a world which is whitewashed from head to toe, from future to the past,
from pulpit to the parliament, from belief to disbelief -

all the while plagiarizing from the global south,
because, history of the west is history of plagiarism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“White delusion doesn't affect only white people, it also affects colored people, then they start making noises like white people - and there is nothing uglier than a colored mouth with a white colonial voice - white is not a color, white is a mentality.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“History of the west is history of plagiarism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“There is nothing uglier than a colored mouth with a colonial voice.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“White is not a color, white is a mentality, which affects everybody, particularly in a world which is whitewashed from head to toe, from future to the past, from pulpit to the parliament, from belief to disbelief.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“White is not a color, white is a mentality.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“I don’t even consider most of your tribal white giants as my equal, and you think I’ll be rattled by the temper tantrums of a bunch of underdeveloped neanderthals.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“You cannot be civilized until you're decolonized, you cannot be cultured until you're unamericanized, you cannot be educated until you're de-europeanized, you cannot be human until you're unwhitewashed.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“You cannot be civilized until you're decolonized, you cannot be cultured until you're unamericanized, you cannot be human until you're unwhitewashed.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“Unzionized (Sonnet 2948)

You cannot be civilized until you're decolonized,
you cannot be cultured until you're unamericanized,

you cannot be educated until you're de-europeanized,
you cannot be human until you're unwhitewashed.

Don't leave the sanitarium till you no longer
confuse the voices in your head as divine decree,
and the blood in your veins as god's own bloodline.

Don't leave therapy until you're unbritannized,
don't quit rehab until you're denazified,
don't go off the meds until you're unzionized.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“The Naskar I Keep Tamed (Sonnet 2949)

There are many things I'm tempted to write,
such as, all oligarchic kids must be
legally mandated to be sterilized at birth -

one of the first duties of every
new government of the global south is
to mount a rescue operation to heist their
rightful relics from the british museum -

all faces of mount rushmore must be bombed to cinders,
every white person must sit for a human rights exam
when they turn 18, before they're allowed to vote -

every self-confirmed zionist must be mandated
to seek psychiatric treatment, or face house-arrest -

yet my conscience takes over
before my rage becomes canon,
but just imagine, what would happen
to the planet's pointless minority of
white fanatics, if every persecuted,
occupied, dehumanized, exploited,
appropriated, abducted, demoralized
community lost their conscience!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“I don't consider any white man's opinion worthy of respect until they've proven that they're on the side of humanity, not their thieving ancestors’ - and this applies not just to the white man of faith, but also the white man of reason.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“The Unholy Trinity (Sonnet 3109)

You don't need to cook up scandals to smear me,
I can give you all the real scandals you want,
hot out of the Naskar pen, go enjoy:

Churchill was a big fat cannibal,
Columbus was a wanted terrorist -

as far as historic records are concerned,
the religion of violence is christianity,
the government of violence is america,
the kingdom of violence is britain -

every culture has its skeletons,
but the vatican, america, and britain,
these three are the unholy trinity of
planet earth, built on a mountain of skeletons,
as opposed to my brother's sermon on the mount.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkoholic: Portrait of A Human

“Every culture has its skeletons, but the vatican, america, and britain, these three are the unholy trinity of planet earth, built on a mountain of skeletons, as opposed to my brother's sermon on the mount.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkoholic: Portrait of A Human

“As far as historic records are concerned,
the religion of violence is christianity,
the government of violence is america,
the kingdom of violence is britain.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkoholic: Portrait of A Human

“My first language is English,
my second language is Turkish,
my third language is Spanish.

English is my slave,
Spanish is my friend and brother,
and Turkish, my lover.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tierra Carta: Naskar Charter of Earth

“When you name our African children European and Arab names, what you are simply telling them is that only European and Arab children have a place on this earth.”
― Dumisani Tafadzwa Mayele

“Jewish trauma gets special treatment because of its colonial propaganda value, while "extinction level" Indigenous Holocausts are swept under the carpet, never to become mainstream history.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkoholic: Portrait of A Human

“Earthright Song

[Verse 1]
Humanity comes from Africa,
no crown owns a single grain.
If you are not indigenous,
you are an immigrant.

The soil is older than every border,
older than flags and state decree.
Earth is property of no brute empire,
nor promised prize of manifest atrocity.

[Pre-Chorus]
No badge can baptize brutality,
no holy water can bleach blood stains -
the land remembers the salt of tears
of every people ever slain.

[Chorus]
Awake, Arise, Adopt the World -
tolerate no intolerance, no inequality.
Naskar ignites, all humans unite -
our world is our responsibility.

Awake, Arise, Adopt the World -
reason is braver than conspiracy.
From the river to the galaxy,
kindness is braver than cruelty.

[Verse 2]
Women are indigenous to their bodies,
Palestinians are native to their home.
Privilege cannot buy righteousness,
nor can blind faith redraw chromosome.

Happiness is not an imperial gift,
Freedom is not a colonial property.
Joy is not a nationalist bequest,
Earth is not a zionist charity.

When erasure becomes religion,
mutiny becomes our right.
Stars that burn for others,
wither in body, but live in light.

[Pre-Chorus]
Divide and rule, marks the animal,
unite and integrate, makes humankind.
We are stardust come alive -
unbent, unflinching, borderless mind.

[Chorus]
Awake, Arise, Adopt the World -
tolerate no dogma as divinity.
Naskar ignites, and borders collapse -
our world is our responsibility.

Awake, Arise, Adopt the World -
hope blooms where a human stands.
Till all of us are free, none of us are free -
we lift the globe with naked hands.

[Bridge]
From Palestine to Kashmir to America,
every land shall be humanized,
not by bullets and atom bombs,
but by atomic people against the lies.

Acts of terror by governments
are still terror all the same,
genocide wrapped in diplomacy
is just murder by another name.

[Final Chorus]
Awake, Arise, Adopt the World -
tolerate no hate, no inhumanity.
Naskar calls to the champions of choice,
service of humanity is practical divinity.

Till all of us are free,
none of us are free -
heart, brain and backbone,
are the real holy trinity.

[Outro]
Human is the bridge,
and bridge is the truth.
Nobody is undocumented,
on a planet built on loot.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Naskar Goes to Earth: Field Notes from A Planet of Apes

“Zionism is racism - Colonialism is cannibalism - Nationalism is terrorism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkoholic: Portrait of A Human

“In a world built on exploitation it is impossible to be human without being political - only the super rich apes, and farm animals can afford to stay neutral, in fact, if the livestock ever became political, the whole world would have to become vegetarian.

So let's be political full steam ahead, let's be human for a change, not just goodlooking monkeys, or good little livestock: Zionism is racism - Colonialism is cannibalism - Nationalism is terrorism.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkoholic: Portrait of A Human

“This World is A Lie (Sonnet 3136/Song)

This world is a lie on top 'a lie on top 'a lie, oh!
All history is made up of a bunch of fake heroes.
Stripped homes 'n stole gold 'n burnt books, no scruples!
Years went by, tears ran dry, no remorse, no marrow.

Hate sold as holy, and fear sold as tradition.
Church built on erasure, by cannibals on a "mission".
Reich after reich after reich dressed as zion,
Trees are all empty for monkeys are in government.

Zion and zionism, not one, but different.
One thing to be Christlike 'n another to be Christian.
To each other we're promise, to each other we're medicine;
Shelter to each other, we're pilgrims on an island.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkoholic: Portrait of A Human