Postcolonial literat ...

The best-known work of Albert Memmi, another influential writer of post-colonial critique, is The Colonizer and the Colonized which was originally published in 1957 when the independence movements in the colonies were active including his own country, Tunusia. In this thought-provoking book, Memmi analyzes the psychological effects of colonialism like Fanon and his analysis includes both the colonized subjects and colonizers themselves. As Sartre points out in the preface of this book, Memmi, a Tunisian, belongs to one of those native but non-Muslim groups that are “more or less privileged in comparison with the colonized masses, but… rejected … by the colonizing group.” Sartre, therefore, tries to explore “who Memmi really is?” and maintains that he would say “neither the colonizer nor the colonized” or “both”iii (2003, pp. 17-18). This spiritual “twofold rejection” and “twofold liability” nourished Memmi’s writings. Memmi notes that although it is impossible for the colonizer to be aware of the illegitimacy of his status, the simple truth is that they are not concerned about the life of the colonized subjects more than they are worried about the weather of the colony where they will reside. By asking for how long the colonizer fail to see “the misery of the colonized and the relation of that misery to his own comfort”, Memmi maintains that the colonizer actually realizes that this was an easy profit and it was so great only because it is wrested from others. He, therefore, discovers the existence of the colonizer and his own privilege at the same time: If his living standars are high, it is because those of the colonized are low; if he can benefit from plentiful and undemanding labor and servants, it is because the colonized can be exploited at will and are not protected by the laws of the colony; if he can easily obtain administrative positions, it is because they are reserved for him and the colonized are excluded from them; the more freely he breathes, the more the colonized are choked… If he preferred to be blind and deaf to the operation of the whole machinery, it would suffice for him to reap its benefits; he is then the beneficiary of the entire enterprise (pp. 51-52).

   Albert Memmi maintains that the colonizers do not worry about their dehumanizing colonization as much as maintaining their dominance and keeping their comfort of the colony where they reside. 

Read this review of his book "The Colonizer and the Colonized"

http://voicesfromtheedge.wikispaces.com/Albert+Memmi+-+book+review