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Colonialism did not end with the last foreign soldier leaving the last colonized shore. With the technological advancements and social progress, the world has known in the last two decades, it is easy to forget decolonization happened far less ago than how long it has lasted. Algeria, perhaps France’s bloodiest liberation war, obtained its independence less than sixty years ago. France colonized Algeria in 1830, totaling 132 years. In comparison, sixty years to heal do not seem much.
Colonialism is, first, a collective trauma passed through generations where some of the firsthand victims remain alive. Its lasting consequences range from genocides, lost patrilineages, environmental disasters, plumbed economies, racialized and segregated societies to tenacious stereotypes, idiomatic divisions, conflict-fueling borders, deported populations, etc.