On Post-Colonialism
“Underdevelopment isn’t a stage of capitalism, but its consequence.”
Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America
Contents:
1 Introduction
2 Historical Context - Latin America
3 Economic Positions
4 Philosophical Considerations
5 International Aid as a Substitute
6 Colonial Consequences in Cultures
7 Pillaging & Postcolonial Art Curation
8 Conclusion
1 Introduction:
Consensus holds that colonialism had a devastating impact on the regions it colonized and conquered. A more difficult problem arises however, when we ask if the colonial states are morally responsible for redressing the historical injustices they imposed on other groups of people. Debates on reparations to ex-colonies have been held in colonial states including France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and so on. Nevertheless, most nations have avoided any substantial action towards reparation which extends past tokenism. For example, in 2006 U.K P.M Tony Blair did not apologize for slavery but expressed ‘deep regret’, as an apology may have legally necessitated reparations. In 2014 CARICOM, a group of 15 Caribbean nations, put forward a proposal that asked for formal apologies from European states, reparations for Caribbeans of African descent wishing to return to Africa, European investments in Caribbean health and literacy, and debt cancellation. This proposal was squarely rejected by the colonial powers, including Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. In this debate we wish to discuss two central questions:
A. Are reparations to former colonies justified?
B. If they are justified, what is the best approach for implementation, and how extensive should they be?
This debate will question the responsibility of present generations for actions and historical injustices of previous generations. We will consider the relevant philosophical, historical, and economic concerns. While history and economics may provide insight into what is the case, philosophy will help us arrive at what ought to be the case. Through this, we will derive a just strategy for post-colonial relations between nations. Similar arguments can be applied to intra-country injustices, such as slavery, as much as to inter-country injustices. Our arguments below will help further our understanding of both. We will use ex-colonies, developing nations, lower-income nations as interchangeable terms, and ex-colonial powers, developed nations, or higher income nations similarly. Once this has been achieved, we will explore the cultural and artistic consequences of colonialism, and how we may seek to combat them.
2 Historical Context - Latin America:
Forms of colonial conquest have existed throughout history, but the mass scale subjugation of entire continents, races or ethnic groups, as well as the industrialization of resource extraction from colonies arose only in the 16th century. The exploration and conquest of the Americas and Western Africa by the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies, gave way to the colonization of the entire American continent. Followed by the colonization of most of Africa, the Middle East outside of the Ottoman Empire, the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and Oceania. We will center on one region, Latin America, to depict the brutality & decimation of the colonial system and emotionally motivate this discussion. The central text to this examination is Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. Galeano wrote the text in the context of U.S. backed regime changes in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Paraguay & Brazil.
Open Veins of Latin America consists of a description of the different waves of colonialism throughout the region, beginning with Spanish & Portuguese conquest and autocratic rule in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Here, Galeano depicts the pervasive effects of the colonial extraction industry on the environment of the colonial subjects, including the destruction of Northern Brazilian agriculture due to over production of sugar, and the pollution of Bolivia’s landscape and mountains due to silver and tin extraction. The new stratification of these societies around land ownership and religious/ethnic origin institutionalized generational inequality in the region. Galeano then describes how British financial and administrative support for Latin American independence movements in the advent of Napoleon’s conquests shifted the region into the British sphere of influence. Here, British rail development, financial loans and promotion of extensive free trade throughout the region, doomed the nascent economies and promoted British economic interests.
Eventually, American economic interests overtook the British, and with the advent of the Monroe doctrine, and Kissinger's Operation Condor, the region fell squarely into American hands. Operation Condor, which formalized America’s militant foreign policy in the continent, supported or directly installed military dictatorships against democracies feared to house or housing socialist anti-American governments. The most criminal examples being Chile & Argentina’s military regimes, which collectively saw the deaths of an estimated 60,000 political dissidents, the reversal of progressive land and labour reforms, and the militarization and expansion of the army’s role in government and society. These coups and regime changes were orchestrated not only to keep away Soviet influence in the region, but crucially to further American economic interests, and were often orchestrated with the consideration of these businesses in mind, such as with Eisenhower’s orchestration of the 1954 coup on Arbenz’s democratic government in Guatemala to benefit the United Fruit Company’s economic interest. Throughout Latin America, political dissidents and labour unionizers were thrown out of helicopters, killed in mass executions in football stadiums, hunted for sport by police units, tortured and maimed, interrogated and held by U.S. intelligence agents, bombed, abducted, or executed without trial. The impacts of these dictatorships on the regions remain to this day, with higher rates of political corruption, police brutality, generational poverty and a lack of national or domestic industry. This should serve as significant emotional justification for why we ought to consider reparations.
3 Economic Positions
We will offer three economic arguments with implications on the necessity of reparations, and proceed to consider the relevant philosophy. The arguments in question are:
a. Any relation between ex-colonizer and ex-colony (including reparations) is exploitative.
b. The laissez-faire free-trading status quo is optimal, with free market capitalism making reparations obsolete.
c. The persistence of ‘extractive’ institutions and the poor development they incur imply that reparations are required to raise standards of living.
Let us consider our first position. In Accumulation of Capital, Luxemburg argues the international loan system inherently exploits the newly capitalist commodity economies. She argues it is the most effective method by which ‘the old capitalist states maintain their influences, exercise financial control and exert pressure on the customs, foreign and commercial policy of the young capitalist states’. This occurs due to the domestic surplus value which finds no profitable return in the old capitalist class. Therefore, the capitalist class has the incentive to shift their capital to poorer nations where labour is cheaper and natural resources exist in abundance. The international loan system lends this capital to developing nations to finance investment in railroads, ports and other means of increasing efficiency in production. Luxemburg, however, argues that these kinds of loans give established capitalist nations power over the recipients, with the threat of recalling loans allowing them to dictate policy. For example, they may be able to force the developing nation to purchase capital required to increase their domestic output, or to increase exploitment in their natural resource industries. This relation may also be destructive of established cultural and political traditions or forms of government, fermenting institutional corruption & instability. Finally, to support and enshrine capitalist interests, the established power may employ their military, finances or intelligence infrastructure to overthrow a developing government threatening their business interests.
Luxemburg describes this not only as a historical phenomena, but a necessary consequence of the international capitalist system. To support the over accumulation of surplus value in the established capitalist economy, the bourgeois class must utilize their capital to provide greater returns, and therefore it necessitates expansion. The best development strategy in this case would be some form of economic nationalism, protecting domestic industries in sectors with large scope for productivity growth which drive growth. This may be applied to reparations where the ex-colonizer may have the incentive to make it conditional on the ex-colony adopting policies conducive to the ex-colonizers interests.
Our second position is as follows. Standard economic theory dating back to the 18th century would argue that laissez-faire integration between developed and developing countries is the optimal policy for both countries. The idea that the most efficient distribution of labour over a set of production tasks occurs when you have the greatest endowment of labour originated with Adam Smith’s work. If labour is allowed to specialise at a single task, or a fraction of it, they may produce a greater amount than if labour had split its endowment of work hours between many tasks. This idea was formalized by David Ricardo in his On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Wherein he argues that countries are comparatively more productive in certain commodities and can thus produce them at lower costs. Hence countries ought to specialize in those commodities and trade for others. This arises due to ‘gains from trade’ whereby the domestic country fetches a higher price for the good they have comparative advantage in and can import the other good at a lower price than could be produced domestically. He then applies this reasoning to colonial policy in chapter 25 of the text titled On Colonial Trade. He writes of Smith “he has attempted to show that this freedom of commerce which undoubtedly promotes the interests of the whole ... is not less injurious to the mother countries themselves than to the colonies whose interests are sacrificed” Thus, the mercantile monopolies applied by the colonial powers of the time reduced that freedom of commerce, to the detriment of both nations. This has been put into practice by the Washington Consensus, a set of policies developed throughout the 1980s on how to bring development to post-colonial developing nations, enforced through restrictions on IMF & World Bank loans.
Our third economic position was put forth by Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, the 2024 Nobel Laureates. They contributed to economic research literature by studying endogenizing institutional dynamics, that is the process of transitioning from one political regime to another, in order to explain the persistence of inequalities in development among nations. Their model uses strategic interactions between an ‘elite’ and a ‘masses’ class where classes can revolt, establish autocratic regimes or implement stable democracy. The tax rate and amount of government payments are set by a different class depending on the current regime. If applied to recently ‘decolonized’ nations, where extractive institutions remain, income inequality is high, which reduces the probability of stable democracy being achieved in the model. Acemoglu and Robinson argue this inequality increases incentives for revolution among the masses, decreases incentives for democracy among the elite, and promotes unstable political dynamics. These consequences are costly for production, and reduce domestic investment of wealth due to the threat of expropriation or death. This reduces growth and thus development. This argument thus demands a more active role from developed nations. The developed nations, often former colonial powers, ought to acknowledge the exploitative tendencies of colonial relations, and attempt to rectify them. Thus, since past actions clearly cause modern outcomes, it argues that coloniser’s descendents have an obligation to provide reparations. This however, asks us to examine the validity of distributive and intergenerational justice.
4 Philosophical Considerations
Intergenerational justice is a sub-discipline of distributive justice, which asks how to justly distribute resources in society. Approaches include egalitarian responses, such as John Rawls’, to utilitarian approaches, which seek to maximize societal utility, to libertarian responses, which prioritize negative freedoms. Intergenerational justice specifies how our moral responsibility should be applied to future or past generations. Relevant to our discussion, is the question of whether our current generation is morally responsible for previous actions, such as providing reparations to former colonies.
If a modern African-American, who’s ancestor was brought to America by the Atlantic Slave Trade, is harmed today by the forced displacement and enslavement experienced by their ancestor, we must address the fact that the modern African-American’s existence would not have occurred without slavery. If a person would not have existed unless they incurred some harm, how can that harm be described as avoidable? This is referred to as the ‘Non-Identity Problem.’ In response, we can define a more complex form of harm, which assumes the existence of the recipient, and then asks if they nevertheless received unfair treatment relative to actions which would have also ensured their existence. For example, we compare the effect of slavery and forced displacement on the African American’s current experience, to his experience had he come to be due to the natural immigration of his descendents from Africa to the United States under legal, equal and diplomatic immigration. Therefore we can define this harm explicitly. If we can define the harm incurred explicitly, and past generations have significant responsibility over current generations, there is a clear and obvious moral harm to be repaid from the past generation to descendants of victims. In our example, since it is apparent that African Americans suffer institutional discrimination and endure significant racial wealth gaps, an explicit harm can be defined.
Once this is established, the descendants of perpetrators could be obligated to rectify the harm, particularly if they benefited from the incurring of the harm. As John Rawls describes, to act justly, ‘the members of any generation (and so all generations) would adopt [the behavior] their generation is to follow [as] they would want preceding generations to have followed (and later generations to follow), no matter how far back (or forward) in time.’ If this has not been the case, a moral obligation is established, which outlives the perpetrator generation and must be fulfilled by their descendants.
5 International Aid as a Substitute
Now that we have established varying theoretical economic positions, and the relevant philosophy which underpins them, we can examine how these positions are applied by the international community. While there exists no major international reparations program from former colonial powers to their ex-colonies, some may point to the current international aid system as a sufficient substitute for these reparations. Two large international aid organizations of note, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the British Department for International Development (DFID), collectively spent approximately $60 billion on foreign aid in 2023. This aid has combated the spread of HIV, Ebola, and other diseases; has promoted the primary education of children, advancement of women’s rights and other public services which local governments could not afford. DFID, unlike USAID, pledges to conduct unconditional aid work, making no demands from recipients. DFID has through foreign aid, helped vaccinate 76 million children, provided 50 million mosquito nets, improved the nutrition of 60 million people, ensured 5.6 million safe births among other work combating polio, furthering female education and more. This is not to say however, that the agency is without controversy, for example the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Pergau River in Malaysia caused scandal after it was discovered that the Thatcher premiership had insisted on the misguided construction of the excessively costly dam to secure an arms deal with Malaysia worth £1 billion. In 1994 the aid to Pergau was deemed unlawful by the British judiciary. The enduring question is thus, can this financial aid be a sufficient replacement to the reparations which this debate has discussed? And if so, how can we expand and reform this aid to be a more independent, effective and sufficient remedy to global suffering?
6 Colonial Consequences in Culture
Colonialism did not only devastate our world economically, but has had profound effects on the culture and art of the nations which suffered it. For example, Joseph Massad described how orientalist writers in Europe depicted the Middle East in the early modern era as degenerate, sexually promiscuous and tolerant of homosexuality. 20th century Arab writers then interpreted this supposed degeneracy as responsible for the fall of the Arab states to European dominance, eventually transforming the Middle East from a once sexually open society, with notable queer figures such as Abu Nuwas, to a fervently homophobic and discriminant society. This postcolonial interpretation has however faced criticism that it removes blame and agency from Arab leaders for the rise of homophobia in their societies.
7 Pillaging & Postcolonial Art Curation
“In the future, may it be harder for you to learn and cultivate yourself! May we wrest away the brilliant genius and tastes of your most noble sons and remove the models that can lead them to immortality, may, the most beautiful works of art that diffused the most amicable and human sentiments between the nations be henceforth subtracted from their gaze forever!”
Karl Heinrich Heydenreich, on the pillaging of art by conquering nations.
Maybe the most prominent effect of colonialism on the culture of colonized populations is the pillaging and transportation of art and artefacts. Many museums and collections in former colonial powers have thus sought to conduct reparations by returning this pillaged material to their native countries. Done with plenty of fanfare, these moments often obscure a long history of indigenous and POC activists demanding their return from Western museums. These histories are fraught with cases of museum administrators ignoring these calls, often citing the argument that their institutions have a moral obligation to preserve and maintain the artefacts. This argument can at first seem defensible: Is it not true that many ex-colonies are plagued by war & conflict which often articulates itself through cultural destruction? This suggestion however, poorly veils its neocolonial undertones and obscures the colonial power’s role in creating the unrest in the former colonies. 90 to 95% of Africa’s material heritage lies overseas and is inaccessible for Africa’s predominantly young population.
The question of inauthentic reparations can be approached psychoanalytically. Reparation can be understood as giving back what has been stolen and healing or making better an injury. [16] Thus one can give back and thereby make attempts to heal or make better the injury of the object’s absence. Yet this begs the question of guilt: If guilt is intrinsic to reparation do museums feel guilty for their role in colonialism? Is guilt necessary for reparation, or does the simple fact of material return constitute enough?
Reparations can also be carried out by making curatorial spaces postcolonial. However, are these inclusions done earnestly? We can consider the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition’s (BECC) protests in New York in the 1960’s over authentic representation of African Americans in art spaces. At an exhibit shown at the Met, white lead curator Allon Schoener attempted to recreate his previous success with immersive exhibits by portraying the predominantly African-American area of Harlem in Harlem on My Mind (1969). However African-American artists from the influential Harlem Renaissance were excluded, leading to the BECC’s protest. Schoener however denied that the exhibition structure was in any way responsible and instead cited the highest attendance by African Americans to the Met as proof that the exhibit had been successful. Another exhibit staged at the Whitney Museum of American Art which sought to represent American artists from the 1930’s equally excluded African-American artists. In response to the BECC, they concluded the selection was one on the basis of quality. Arguments based on the inferiority of African-American art are often stated by those bemoaning inclusive exhibitions, claiming that non-white art is ‘technically’ weaker.
8 Conclusion
Throughout this prompt we have explored a broad range of fields and perspectives on post-colonialism. The central questions this exploration has posed will be divided up as follows, and will be asked again at our debate.
Section 1: Economics, History & Philosophy
a. How can the colonial system and its consequences, which we examined solely in Latin America, also be found in other regions of the world, and with what critical differences?
b. Of the economic arguments we presented, which have you found most convincing, and what are the cultural or philosophical assumptions which may bring you to that position?
c. How does philosophy inform whether we can assign a moral obligation to a group of people for actions perpetuated by their ancestors?
Section 2: Culture, Art & Curation
a. How has colonial interactions perpetuated reactionary or discriminatory thought in the Middle East and other postcolonial regions?
b. Can the return of pillaged artifacts be a sufficient reparation for the loss of cultural and artistic heritage in colonized regions, and can these reparations be independent from psychological guilt?
c. How does the inclusion of minority or postcolonial individuals in the curator process make our museums and curatorial spaces more just?