From Autonomy to Instrument: Dehumanization in The Conscript

Overview

This article examines processes of dehumanization and thingification in Gebreyesus Hailu's The Conscript: A Novel of Libya's Anticolonial War through a postcolonial theoretical framework. The study investigates how colonial systems systematically reduce colonized subjects to instruments of imperial power, employing Aimé Césaire's concept of thingification alongside perspectives from Frantz Fanon, Ania Loomba, and Albert Memmi. The analysis centers on forced conscription as a mechanism through which colonialism achieves physical, psychological, and cultural erasure of colonized populations, with particular focus on the protagonist Tuquabo and Eritrean conscripts.

Methods and approach

The study employs colonial and postcolonial theoretical frameworks to conduct textual analysis of the novel. The methodological approach integrates Césaire's concept of thingification with broader postcolonial critical perspectives to examine how the narrative depicts the reduction of colonized subjects to commodified objects. The analysis traces mechanisms of dehumanization through the protagonist's experience of forced military service, examining the intersection of physical subjugation, psychological alienation, and cultural displacement. The study also investigates ideological strategies deployed to establish colonial loyalty and sever indigenous cultural connections.

Key Findings

The analysis reveals that Hailu's narrative critique demonstrates colonialism's multifaceted mechanisms of domination operating simultaneously across physical, psychological, and cultural registers. The depiction of forced conscription exposes how imperial systems effect identity erasure and autonomy deprivation through systematized violence and coerced complicity. The study identifies internalization of colonial hierarchies among the conscripted population and traces how colonial apparatus maintains power imbalances through perpetual alienation and the severing of indigenous cultural frameworks.

Implications

The study positions Hailu's work as a substantive theoretical intervention into postcolonial critique, demonstrating literature's capacity to articulate mechanisms of imperial domination that persist beyond formal decolonization. The analysis underscores the enduring analytical relevance of thingification frameworks for understanding colonial subjection and its structural legacies. The research contributes to postcolonial literary scholarship by demonstrating how narrative form can excavate and critique the systematic erasure of human autonomy within imperial systems.