The anti-imperialist vegetable

If you think about a struggle against imperialism, you see images of weapons and uprisings. Foods like corn or cassava usually aren’t in the picture, but we’ll soon find out why they should be. While armed struggles were forms of resistance to empire, they weren’t very common in the modern period. New imperial powers had greater technologies and deadlier weapons. Colonized peoples, most of whom were peasants, couldn’t fight them with weapons. There were subtle ways to resist the empire. Corn and cassava¹ were two of them.

Colonial states relied on income from fixed farming areas. They could reduce costs by using the forced labor of native people who stayed in one place.

But that all unravels when those local populations don’t stay put. After all, they weren’t getting any of the profits and only needed enough food for themselves. Crops like corn and cassava grow in a way that allowed growers to move around. Indigenous people sometimes migrated and changed their farming patterns to evade colonial oppression. Cassava, in particular, made this easier because it required relatively little labor for a pretty big return. Mobile groups could plant cassava and pretty much just walk away. A couple of years later, a community could come back and dig up the high- calorie tubers (it’s kind of like a potato). They could also eat the leaves in the meantime. Cassava gave indigenous people a cheap, easy way to feed themselves while resisting colonial systems of forced labor. Colonizers tried to brand cassava and corn as “lazy” crops for native people who wanted to avoid work—but these crops helped them resist empire. Like activists.

Aggressive and bloody? No. Effective and more common? Definitely. Let’s contextualize with the many different ways people responded to imperialism.

Anti-imperialism before decolonization

In the late nineteenth century, most of Southeast Asia came under either British, French, or Dutch control. This imperialism disrupted existing lives and societies affecting both empires and their subjects. Colonizers controlled wealth, status, and survival. So, people had to be careful and strategic about how they engaged with imperial power. But the people of the colonies—the “colonial subjects”—had some ability to shape their own lives. More than individual survival, they also wanted to maintain their dignity and culture. The case studies in this article will show how some communities in Southeast Asia responded to the new, industrial imperialism that began in the late nineteenth century.

French Indochina

French Indochina was the colonial name for French-occupied areas in Southeast Asia. In the late nineteenth century, the French invaded the places now called Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. European missionaries and merchants had already established some presence there.

But colonial maps can be misleading; conquering territory is not the same as truly controlling it. Although the local royal families technically accepted colonial rule, the French were met with constant mutinies and peasant uprisings, which are easily recognizable as resistance. Others—and that was most people—just tried to survive and thrive within a difficult system.

For instance, many Laotian villagers pretended to collaborate with the French while resisting at the same time. The French believed they were using local leaders to control villages, a key strategy in colonial empire-building. But the villages often put fake notables forward, who had no real power. Meanwhile, the real leaders secretly ran villages according to Laotian interests, rather than what the empire wanted. The French had no clue.

Another example comes from the city of Hanoi in Vietnam. French construction projects brought in large numbers of rats. The French offered to pay the locals for killing rats, demanding to see a rat’s tail as proof. The locals began to just clip the tails off of live rats and release them back into the sewers to breed. The French paid large sums of money to the locals and ended up with an even worse rat problem!

Not everybody resisted French rule. Some minority groups, like the small Christian population, saw French rule as a way to get ahead, especially by joining the military. Others escaped colonial oppression by fleeing into the hills, where the imperial government had trouble reaching. As with the cassava example earlier, deep local knowledge of the environment was an advantage the French didn’t have.

Even the French education policy backfired somewhat. It tried to make Southeast Asians embrace French values and culture. It worked to some extent, but it also gave many indigenous peoples intellectual tools to resist French imperialism. Colonial subjects formed networks and shared new ideas about revolution and resistance. Two great examples are Nguyen Thai Hoc, who founded the Vietnamese Nationalist Party in 1927, and Vo Nguyen Giap, who led the Vietnamese in a battle against the French in 1954.

Dutch East Indies

Dutch colonialism in modern-day Indonesia began with the commercial activity of the Dutch East India company. But both the company and the Dutch government struggled to control this very diverse region.

On the island of Java,² some Javanese aristocrats agreed to serve the Dutch in exchange for keeping some wealth. Those of lower social status could also gain some political rights in various ways. Many learned to speak Dutch, converted to Christianity, or adopted Dutch customs. These are examples of accommodation, where people adapt to colonial rule. They can benefit from it without entirely giving up their own culture or values.

But some Javanese aristocrats didn’t love this, like Raden Mas Adipati Brotodiningrat. Brotodiningrat protested against Dutch rule by stealing a curtain from a Dutch colonizer. The curtain was a symbol of the separation between the colonizer and the colonized. Brotodiningrat’s act of disobedience signaled that the Dutch held no real authority over him. A heated court battle followed this minor crime, giving Brotodiningrat’s act of disobedience great publicity. This inspired aristocrats to fundamentally question colonialism and its morality.

The Southeast Asian Highlands

The Southeast Asian highlands in Burma, Malaya, and Borneo are perhaps the strongest example of resistance to colonial rule. The British and other colonial powers had a lot of trouble controlling the people who lived here. These communities were incredibly mobile and were dispersed across a highland region roughly the size of Europe!

Many native peoples here moved around to avoid taxation and forced labor. They resisted being included in colonial censuses,³ colonial writing, and record-keeping in general. It was a kind of an “if you can’t count me, you can’t rule me” strategy. By some reports, peasants even vandalized or burned down offices of official records.

Compared to their Southeast Asian neighbors, these communities were more loosely organized. Colonizers found it hard to pin down local leaders or aristocrats who would work for them. The British tried to throw elaborate feasts to win favor with the local peoples and establish connections. However, the locals resisted by simply not showing up.

Creative resistance

English writer George Orwell, who witnessed the occupation of Burma, described how local peoples could resist anonymously. They would cause accidents by spitting at or tripping British colonizers or insult them from far away. Colonized people often had special language codes or inside jokes to share their feelings of dissent.

People were incredibly creative in how they resisted imperial power. Large rebellions are easily recorded in history. However, these subtler forms of resistance are difficult for historians to learn. Colonized people often expressed themselves in ways that weren’t easily understood by colonial powers and are still largely misunderstood by scholars.

1 Tapioca pearls, (the fun part of boba tea) come from cassava. Cassava can also be used to make bread flour and several other foods.
2 Java is an island that is part of today’s Indonesia.
3 A census is an official count of the population, along with other demographic information.