I came across the term reverse colonization when I was researching the background of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, this vampire classic which is the basis for so many movies. Dracula, immigrant from Transylvania, lands in England with his ghost ship, gets a foothold, and begins to suck the blood of the English -Stephen Arata characterizes this as reverse colonization. The proud colonial power England is at the receiving end of what they themselves have inflicted on so many peoples; landing on their coasts with their war und trade ships, colonizing them, and exploiting the people not only economically but also sexually - the blood-sucking stands for both: the vampire is the exploiter; the blood he sucks makes him stronger and his victim weaker. The fangs drilling into the body of the victim of course symbolizes brutal sexual penetration. The fact that Dracula haunts England can easily be interpreted as poetic justice, as vengeance of the colonized who turn the tables and exploit the women and children of the colonial power - yes, children, too. Lucy Westenra, who Dracula turned into a vampire in order to create a parallel society of his own kind, leaves her crypt, lures English children away from their homes, gains their trust through her attention, then drills her teeth into their flesh and sucks their blood. The novel reflects feelings of guilt, unacknowledged guilt of course, and a suppressed desire for punishment which pushes its way into ones consciousness in the form of not understood nightmares.
Now about Rotherham: why did English social workers, policemen, and other representatives of the power structure let men from the former colonies go about their sexual exploitation of very young, white English children for 16 years? One can suspect the feelings of guilt and a desire for punishment may have been subconscious motives: this was supposed to be penance for the sexual exploitation of women and children in the colonies by the colonial overlords, the English police, social workers, and other mostly left but powerful men thus relieved their consciences - but at the expense of others, again through exploitation; it was not their own daughters but girls from the lower classes that were presented to the avenging juggernaut as penance.
