Of Great Thinkers
I recently read the essay Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse by Homi Bhabha. The title of the essay has a certain ring to it — reminiscent of Montaigne’s Essays. Montaigne is another figure who detangled concepts that few others had taken the time to explore. In his essay Of Cannibals, he refers to cannibals in order to examine the morality of his times. Montaigne observed that many of the preconceived morals of his society were flawed: while civilization mocked and called cannibals barbaric, it was in fact civilization itself that was barbaric in the things it had come to accept as normal and good. He turns to the way cannibals lived and the morals they upheld to find answers.
It is this willingness to question the way things are, and to critically derive answers from such questioning, that makes great thinkers. By interrogating the very ways we function and what we have come to accept, we can move forward by the very laws of evolution: to remove weakness and adapt forward.
Montaigne’s works rely on unique examples from his own life to support his arguments and to rebut commonly accepted beliefs. Similarly, Bhabha is someone who has drawn from his own experiences (as he is a “mimic man” himself) and who has specialized in post-colonial theory. Through mimicry, not only do colonizers exercise power and train employees for their public sector, but the colonized also subtly undermine their authority. This is exactly what Bhabha observes: a subtle detail that he interrogates. Mimicry of the colonizer is always partial (“almost the same, but not quite”), and this incompleteness exposes the contradictions and limits of colonial authority. In this way, mimicry becomes a mockery of the colonizers’ ideals and a reminder that authority is never absolute. Mimicry operates in the space between imitation and mockery, and this is the “ambivalent nature of colonial discourse”.
Bhabha also introduces the concept of the “third space” or the “in-between” as a site of hybridity and cultural negotiation. He suggests that the colonized subject occupies this third space, which is neither fully colonizer nor colonized. This third space allows for the emergence of new cultural forms and identities that challenge the dominance of the colonizer.
The best example I can think of is the musical form Jazz, which has occupied a “third space” that was neither fully African nor European.
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By curiosity we explain concepts like these. Bhabha’s insights are significant for those who have lived under colonial power, while Montaigne’s observations remain vital to the study of ethics and morality. These moments of discovery drive our progress because they speak directly to human societies and the challenges we face every day. Though they may not be the discovery of a distant star or a deep-sea creature, they matter to how we live and move forward. Great thinking has shaped our species into what it is today, and it is great thinking that will continue to drive it tomorrow.
Sources that I recommend you read:
Conversations on post-colonial theory — Homi Bhabha’s “Of Mimicry and Man”
Homi Bhabha — Of Mimicry and Man. This is an arduous read for anyone — even at the collegiate teaching level. So, I advise you to look into any online forums or even AI works to understand this essay.
Michel de Montaigne — Of Cannibals. Montaigne is often regarded as the father of the modern essay, and his works, though philosophical, remain remarkably grounded. Anyone looking ahead to their future would benefit from reading his Essays in full.
