The colonizer and the colonized lang fr portrait du colonise precede par portrait du colonisateur is a well known nonfiction book of albert memmi published in french in 1957 and first published in an english translation in 1965 the work explores and describes the psychological effects of colonialism on colonized and colonizers alike. Written in 1957 when north african independence movements were gaining momentum the colonizer and the colonized studies the enduring legacy political as much as psychological of colonisation throughout the world. He moved to france in 1956 and draws on his experience to analyze vividly how colonizer and colonized are mutually dependent and ultimately both victims of colonialismthe colonizer and the colonized is now regarded as a classic description of the inner dynamics of racism and colonialism a work that in its economic and political sophistication its sober perceptions of the interdependence of colonizer and colonized rivals franz fanons more famous but more romantic black skin . In the colonizer and the colonized albert memmis essential argument is that the collapse of colonialism is inevitable according to memmi there are only two answers for the colonized to disrupt the system of oppression the two possible solutions are assimilation and revolt