The “post-colonial” era doesn’t exist

Congo and Nigeria are a few of the many examples proving that the West’s colonial extraction methods on the continent never ended

A recent viral video from climate activist Mikaela Loach showed her questioning Shell’s CEO on the oil giant’s devastation of the Niger Delta due to consistent oil spills. According to the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) there were 10,463 spill incidents in the Niger Delta, releasing a combined 507,135 barrels of oil into the environment just between 2011 and 2022. Oil was discovered in commercial quantities in 1958 and British company Shell swiftly commenced operations. Thanks to the frequency of oil spills under their watch, Al Jazeera reported in 2022 that the life expectancy in the areas surrounding the Niger Delta is 41. Not withstanding the devastation to wildlife, which also negatively impacts farmers and fisherman.

Mainstream discourse around colonialism refers to it as something from the past. Something we’ve "learned lessons” from. There is also a presumption that colonial operations are solely orchestrated by governments. Both assumptions are wrong. Corporations work in tandem with governments so that their profits can be absorbed into their respective nations. Shell’s ravaging of Nigeria’s natural landscape seems like a rogue corporation prioritising profit. The reality is that Harold Wilson’s Labour Party armed the Nigerian government during the Biafra wars to ensure secessionists did not gain power, as they would have been more difficult to do business with. It was the biggest humanitarian crisis of the 1960’s and 3 million people died.

Killing and displacement in pursuit of power over land and resources is how most of us define colonialism. This is a fate the people of Congo have long faced due to their country’s plethora of precious metals used to make things like car and phone batteries. Earlier this year 16 plaintiffs took Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Apple, DELL, Microsoft and Tesla to the U.S. federal appeals court on behalf of 5 children killed in cobalt mining operations. You will not be surprised who the court ruled in favour of. The fast fashion industry’s impact on the environment is well documented. What is perhaps less considered, is the real world material impact of dumping. In Ghana, textile waste is one of the biggest contributors of the country’s increasing water pollution. A lot of the clothes contributing to the issue come from Britain, the U.S. and China and are ironically donations from well meaning, environmentally conscious, charitable people. The issue is that our nation’s rife overproduction of clothes creates a surplus that turn poorer country’s natural landscapes into trash heaps. Deemed a necessary evil for the fashion industry to function.

The longstanding ideological justification for colonialism is the belief non-white people are too uncivilised to cultivate their own land. This has been expressed in text’s like Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden”, Boris Johnson’s claim that colonisation was not a blot on Britain’s conscience and that the problem with Africa was that Britain was not in charge anymore in The Spectator, Keir Starmer referring to Israel as “The flower that made the desert bloom” and French president Emanuel Macron claiming that Africans were held back by “civilisation problems” at the G20 summit in 2017. Idiots, one and all of them.

This is a point of consideration for fellow members of the African diaspora. This summer we are faced with a General Election, men’s Euros and the Olympic Games. What modern Britain actually stands for will be at the forefront of people's minds. British identity and nationality mean different things to different people and everyone is entitled to their own worldview, but we need to critically analyse our position within the structure. The British state routinely shows us that they deem people who look like us (and our homelands) as expendable collateral damage. You may not be Congolese, Ghanaian or Nigerian - but if there was a natural resource wherever you are from the outcomes would absolutely be the same. If your extended family tried to flee and come here they would become part of sT0p d4 bOatZ discourse. Do not be lulled into the idea that the global order has changed.

Article by Martyn Ewoma