Moro dance

"Culture and the arts are potent forces in national development. With its colors and contrasts, our cultural heritage unifies our race, and gives it a national identity that lends pride and dignity to every Filipino." - Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino, 1991 Introduction Inspired largely by the excitement of Edward Said's work, much of the focus of post-colonial discourse has been on the role and effect of colonialism in the metropole. But as the agency of post-colonial subjects increasingly comes under scrutiny, Benedict Anderson's insights about the complex "mimicry" of colonialism in post-colonial states seems to me to be increasingly relevant. For example, in his penetrating analysis of colonialism and nationalism in the Philippines, Michael Salman comments that "when Benedict Anderson's work on the generalization of nationalism is put alongside Edward Said's writings on the pervasiveness of colonial culture, it does suggest the outlines of a parallel transformation of consciousness, and its containment in conservative ideology, neo-colonialism, and the repressive authoritarianism of so many..." (Barbara S. Gaerlan)

in witness there of capillary vanishing bogs treading forward, a plank across to the island, reckoning held at arms length by tiny birds feeding on the evening gnat population, during which fundamental change i forced myself to believe that your arms were enfolding the upper regions of my torso with impossible length, turning then into forceps i never knew, and tender, twisting the solid core of my body into itself in sweetness, tender gasp and long breathing song entering the space between us, this dance you call your work and i call my resignation.