Spectacle and the Colonial Imagination

THE SUCCESS AND LONGEVITY OF COLONIAL RULE depended on the use of force or the threat of superior force; and in any of its diverse manifestations and in all of its arenas, colonial rule was intimately linked with violence whether physical or psychological. But the beneficiaries of colonialism, although they utilised various forms of coercion, also hoped for popular consent to colonial rule. Those who managed the colonial project sought to encourage an acceptance of the status quo by seducing significant segments of the colonised population into believing that colonial rule was divinely ordained and/or the natural progression of human development. Part of this ongoing campaign to enlist the consent of the colonised to colonial rule involved the performances of white power which sought to elicit not only awe and fear but also respect and gratitude. These intermittent spectacles included celebrations of life milestones of the monarch, royal visits to the colonies, regular visits of British naval fleets accompanied by military route marches, and the ceremonies surrounding the arrivals and departures of the plumed-and-cork-hatted governors as representatives of the Crown. Celebrations like Empire Day, although initially aimed specifically at metropolitan schoolchildren, also became an important performance in the imperial panoply in the colonies.1 This essay explores the relationship between ‘spectacle’ and ‘imagination’ in a colonial context and discusses the ways in which some activities (whether consciously employed or not) had the potential of influencing the ways in which colonial subjects imagined themselves and the imperial context in which they were immersed. While emphasis is placed on military parades and their supporting music, the concept of spectacle used in this paper includes other kinds of non-military events. In addition to those imperial spectacles, where the public performance was organised by the state and clearly linked to some