Sömürgecilik fiilen bitmiş olsa da, hem sömürgeci hem sömürge üzerindeki etkisini sürdürmeye devam etmektedir. Bu etki sömürgecilik sonrası edebiyatta da açıkça görülür. Önemli bir Fas'lı yazar olan Tahar Ben Jelloun tarafından kaleme alınan Leaving Tangier (Tanca'dan Ayrılmak) adlı roman, sömürgeciliğin her iki taraf üzerindeki etkisini gösteren sömürgecilik sonrası edebi eserler arasında ilgi çekici örneklerden bir tanesidir. Leaving Tangier (Tanca'dan Ayrılmak) okuyucusuna Fas'ın yerel kültürünün, inanç sisteminin ve yaşam tarzının sömürge kültürü tarafından nasıl derinden etkilendiğini gösteren bir bakış açısı sunar. Roman, sömürgeci gücün Fas'ta yerli Afrikalıların hem kendi gözlerinde hem sömürgecilerin gözünde ikinci sınıf insan görüldüğü bir düzen yarattığını yansıtmaya çalışmaktadır. Okuyucu aynı zamanda Fas'taki yerel nüfusun sömürgeci gücün dayattığı aşağılık kompleksi sonucunda nasıl "Avrupalı Öteki" olma savaşı verdiğine şahit olur. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Leaving Tangier (Tanca'dan Ayrılmak) adlı romandaki karakterlerin üzerlerindeki sömürgeci baskı sonucu kendilerini ikinci sınıf teba olarak görüş biçimlerini yansıtmaktır. Yazının teorik çerçevesi ise Afrika kökenli Karayipli etkili bir yazar olan Franz Fanon'un sömürgecilik, sömürgeci ve sömürge üzerindeki düşünceleri etrafında çizilecektir. Tahar Ben Jelloun'un Leaving Tangier (Tanca'dan Ayrılmak) romanında yansıtılan sömürgeci gücün etkileri, sömürgenin ciddi bir aşağılık kompleksi yaşadığını ve bunun sonucunda sömürgeci gücün bir parçası olarak "Öteki" olmayı arzuladığını öne süren Franz Fanon'un düşünceleri ışığında incelenecektir

Colonialism has still effects on both the colonizer and the colonized. For that reason, many of its reflections can be found in post-colonial literature. Leaving Tangier, by Tahar Ben Jalloun, an influential Moroccan writer, is an example of post-colonial literary works which deal with the influences of the colonialism on both sides of the issue. Leaving Tangier gives the reader an insight about how colonialism destroyed the native culture, belief system, and lifestyle. The purpose of this paper is to show how the characters in the book are influenced by colonialist pressure which was created by the colonizer and was embraced by the colonized. The theoretical framework of the paper will be drawn by an influential Afro-Caribbean writer, Frantz Fanon’s thoughts on colonialism, the colonizer and the colonized, and the colonial influences as they are put forward by Tahar Ben Jelloun in Leaving Tangier will be shown under the light of Frantz Fanon’s thoughts, which suggest that the colonized suffer from a severe inferiority complex and it results in their desperate strive to be one of the “Other.” Fanon discusses that the colonial system both desires to have control over all aspects of the native’s life, and develops strategies that cause disruption in the native’s life. According to Fanon, “[….] Europe has a racist structure” (1967, p. 68). Fanon claims that he is evaluated by his outer appearance which has been loaded with negative connotations by white people. He believes that white people’s conception of blacks never changes. Fanon argues that all these attitudes of the white man lead blacks to have an inferiority complex. Fanon argues that not just any minority group, but specifically, black people feel inferior. The native suffers from two kinds of complexes as far as he is concerned with the perception of self, and it is mainly because of the fact that the native is the product of the colonial system as Fanon points out. The most obvious complex that the native suffers from is the inferiority complex in relation to the colonizer. Being in a dominated position in his own country, the native feels inferior. Likewise, Leaving Tangier discusses how the colonial power in Morocco created a world where the black native were accepted inferior both by themselves and by the colonizer. The colonized psychological handicap defined by Fanon is very well reflected in Leaving Tangier, which tells the story of the colonized Moroccans. .” In the novel, the Europeans’ point of view of the Moroccans are reappear in many cases, by which Ben Jelloun shows the reader how the white see themselves as superior to the black colonized Moroccans. While Europe is the source of all good things on the world such as high culture, money and prestige for Moroccans, Moroccan people, like all the other colonized ones, are people to be looked down on and to be avoided, according to the Europeans. As a result, in Leaving Tangier, many people suffer from an inferiority complex, in Fanon’s terms, as they see themselves, their nation, and their culture as insufficient and barbaric compared to the European lifestyle and culture. According to Fanon, the inferiority complex of the colonized leads them to have desire to be the “Other.” Fanon uses this concept in reference to adopting the cultural norms and values of the colonizer, which is a natural outcome of the inculcated inferiority complex. One of the powerful observations Fanon makes on this issue is that the black man, specially the Antillean, requires the “Other” to “corroborate him in his search for self-validation” (1967, p. 165). Therefore, the black man “seeks to be like the superior race” (Fanon, 1967, p. 167), which is the white. Therefore, the colonized chooses to adopt the values of the colonizer, devaluing his own. The colonizer shapes the natives worldview by controlling all means of media and the native starts to see the world from the perspective of the white as there is no black voice to be found. That is, colonization not only allows the white person to posit the black as the ‘Other’, but it also make the black believe in his or her own othering. In Leaving Tangier, too, the reader witnesses how the characters are led to strive to be one of the “Other” as a result of the inferiority complex they were experiencing. This internalized sense of inferiority and vision of the European as superior to themselves, led the Moroccans in Leaving Tangier toward a passionate desire to leave Morocco and to be the “Other”. The protagonist Azel wants to leave Morocco desperately like many other members of society, and he is ready to make any sacrifice to be able to join and be one of the “Other.” Azel is an educated man who is a graduate of a Law School in Morocco, but for him that does not mean much. According to Azel, his country is deprived of the moral values that law requires, and he thinks, if he were living in Europe, his life would be completely different. In other words, Azel believes that there is a kind of magical life in Europe which will open all the doors of happiness to him; Europe is the source of bliss, whereas Morocco is the cause of unhappiness in his life. Azel, a heterosexual man fond of women, even accepts a homosexual relationship with Miguel to be able to leave Morocco and live in Spain, which is an indication of how obsessively he wants to leave his homeland to go to Europe. When Azel begins to have a homosexual relationship, he is quite sure that every man in Morocco would do the same thing to leave Morocco, and strikingly, he seems right. In short, in Leaving Tangier, the whole story is composed of the Moroccan characters’ struggle to be like the whites and to live under the same conditions with them after his arrival in Spain. However, these immigrants can manage to be neither Moroccans nor Europeans. They cannot live in Europe like its native citizens and they cannot belong to their own countries any more. It seems quite clear that Ben Jelloun criticizes the ideal of white superiority and the colonized people’s struggles to be like the white man, disposing of their own values. For Ben Jelloun, striving for being the “Other” results in losing his/her own identity. In other words, both Ben Jelloun and Fanon conclude their works suggesting that the colonized should be rid of the negative influences of colonialism and try to authentically realize their own selfhood, their culture, their nation and then the “Other” without having any hostile intentions which would free them from “[…] te slavery that dehumanized their (my) ancestors” (Fanon,1967, p. 179).