Final answer:
Colonizers controlled colonized peoples mentally through strategies of physical punishment, cultural denigration, and manipulation of local governance, all designed to undermine and exploit the societies they colonized.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Ngugi we Thiong'o, in order to control colonized peoples mentally, colonizers implemented a variety of strategies that went beyond physical subjugation. Firstly, they had to enslave the colonized people by force and physical punishment, often brutally repressing any forms of resistance. Furthermore, colonization involved the denigration of local cultures and the imposition of European customs and administration, undermining the social structures and economies of the colonized societies. Finally, European colonizers manipulated local political systems and governance, using or dismantling indigenous institutions to enable colonial policies, often against the interests of the people being ruled. In contrast to the idea of peaceable cultural coexistence, these methods of mental and physical domination were designed to maximize control and extract resources.