"Colonialism is known in its primitive form, that is to say, by the permanent settling of repressive foreign powers, with an army, services, policies. This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia"
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Ben Bella doesn’t describe colonialism as an abstract evil; he itemizes it like a bill of materials. “Permanent settling,” “army,” “services,” “policies” - the blunt inventory is the point. Colonialism isn’t just conquest, it’s administration with a gun: a foreign power that doesn’t merely arrive, but installs itself, builds routines, and makes repression feel like governance. The phrase “primitive form” is strategically loaded. It casts classic settler-occupation colonialism as the crude, obvious version of domination, implying there are “advanced” forms too - economic dependency, client regimes, technocratic “aid” - that can be harder to name and easier to excuse.
The Indonesia reference is doing political work beyond historical comparison. By citing “300 years,” Ben Bella pulls the lens wide: Algeria’s French occupation (and the war that brought him to prominence) becomes part of a global pattern rather than a local grievance. He’s not asking for sympathy; he’s building a prosecutorial timeline. Longevity becomes evidence of intent: this wasn’t a temporary “mission” or a misunderstood civilizing project. It was a durable system designed to outlast generations.
As a post-independence politician, Ben Bella is also staking out a moral vocabulary for the new state and for Third World solidarity. The subtext is a warning to his audience at home and abroad: if colonialism is a structure, not an episode, then liberation can’t stop at flags and speeches. You have to dismantle the machinery - or it will quietly keep running under a new name.
The Indonesia reference is doing political work beyond historical comparison. By citing “300 years,” Ben Bella pulls the lens wide: Algeria’s French occupation (and the war that brought him to prominence) becomes part of a global pattern rather than a local grievance. He’s not asking for sympathy; he’s building a prosecutorial timeline. Longevity becomes evidence of intent: this wasn’t a temporary “mission” or a misunderstood civilizing project. It was a durable system designed to outlast generations.
As a post-independence politician, Ben Bella is also staking out a moral vocabulary for the new state and for Third World solidarity. The subtext is a warning to his audience at home and abroad: if colonialism is a structure, not an episode, then liberation can’t stop at flags and speeches. You have to dismantle the machinery - or it will quietly keep running under a new name.
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| Topic | Human Rights |
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