Language, Power, and Resistance: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Political Speeches in Postcolonial Societies

This study employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine the intricate relationships between language, power, and resistance in political speeches across postcolonial societies. Through qualitative analysis of speeches from Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean, we investigate how political actors reproduce colonial power structures while subaltern groups develop counter-discursive strategies. Our three-dimensional analytical framework reveals that political elites strategically deploy linguistic devices including nominalization, lexical dichotomies, and metaphorical framing to legitimize authority and maintain hegemonic control (Fairclough, 2020). Simultaneously, resistance movements utilize multilingual practices, digital platforms, and rhetorical subversion to challenge dominant narratives. Findings demonstrate that speech acts function as battlegrounds where colonial legacies confront decolonial epistemologies through complex discursive maneuvers. The research contributes to postcolonial discourse studies by illuminating how language simultaneously serves as an instrument of domination and a vehicle for emancipatory politics in contemporary postcolonial contexts, with significant implications for understanding power negotiation in democratic transitions.