The Future is Not There for the Making: Enduring Colonialism, Shame and Silence

Abstract

In his memoir Out of Place (2000), Edward Said writes of a walk that he took with his father when he was a young child:

I scampered along behind him, while he pressed on with his hands behind his back at a resolute pace. When I stumbled and fell forward, scratching my hands and knees badly, I instinctively called out to him ‘Daddy…please’, at which he stopped and turned around slowly toward me. He paused like that for a couple of seconds, then turned back, resuming his walk without a word. That was all. It was also how he died, turning his face to the wall, without a sound. Had he, I wonder, ever really wanted to say more than he actually did (Said, 2000, p79).