The Postcolony: Debt26

Marx 1867

Primitive accumulation - divorcing the producer from the means of production in a violent manner. Capitalism relies on this relation between workers that only own labour time, and capitalists who own capital. Capitalism is fundamentally unequal

Nixon Shock 1971, OPEC Oil Crisis 1973, Volcker Shock 1979-1982, 8-19%

3 events + dates that mechanised the debt crisis. All US influenced. + % of interest rate increase. This crisis allowed IMF to come in with SAPs with nations left w no other choice

Harvey 2003

Accumulation by dispossession - extends prim acc to an ongoing process not historical. Spatio-temporal fix - resolve crisis of overaccumulation by geographic expansion and investment in fixed capital

Robinson 1983

Black Marxism; Racial capitalism - argues capitalism was never purely a class-based system developed historically through the racialisation of labour, production, and debt

Rodney 1972

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - yk the rest

Amin 1988

Capitalism generates structural centre-periphery polarisation as an inherent feature. Accumulation on a world scale. Expands Marx's labour theory of value to "worldwide value". Wage and productivity differentials enforced by imperial power enable core firms to extract an 'imperialist rent' via persistent surplus siphoned from peripheral labour despite comparable productivity. Economics naturalises the structure of uneven development by calling it delayed development

Nkrumah 1966

After formal independence, imperialism replaces direct rule as the mechanism of control. Neo colonialism - "collective imperialism" describes how European Common Market functions as a comprador vehicle for capital, expressly market control in open rivalry with US dominance. The "Comprador State" - its capitalist counterpart pushing against "Bandung" through SAPs - a capitalist grand state oriented for extraction not domestic development

Hart 2010

Fuses Polanyi 'double movement' with Gramsci relations of force; outcomes are never structurally determined - depend on balance between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces. Angles to theorise B/D development (the A of development = "inherently uneven crisis prone dynamic of capitalism itself, which nature and call forth various of development). Amin is more structurally determinist; Hart corrects for this. Mechanics of the debt crisis - lens - corrects for this

Bamako/Sissako 2006

A fictional IMF/WB tribunal held in Malian courtyard, while daily life continues around it. Symbolic: debt speaks inside the reproduction of everyday life, not above it. Relocates epistemic authority with those who experience the realities of debt. Man who approaches mic + says nothing + one who speaks in local dialect illustrate legal procedure cannot contain or resolve the voices of those who face its violence

Sankara 1987

OAU speech calls out neocolonialism. Argues for a united front of debt refusal in Africa - debt illegitimacy

Baillot 2021

Anti-debt movement in 90s failed by decoupled debt resistance and anti-structural adjustment resistance accepting terms of system - movement co-opted by neo-liberalism

Harney + Moten 2013

'The undercommons'. Debt carries with the narrative: you borrowed, therefore you owe and are guilty until you repay. They refuse this narrative: "we do not come to pay our debts" - accepting the creditors account of the relationship, and repaying, accepts the exploitation, dispossession and violence that legitimise the system that created the debt

Mies 2014

Housewifization - exploitation of external colonies maintains the nuclear breadwinner model of the core. Equally, both women + periphery workers' labour rendered invisible

Escobar 1995

Post development - critique of 'development' discourse

Roy 1995

Post development - critique of 'development' discourse

Sullivan + Hickel 2023

SAPs in Africa caused a 14 year recession of GDP per capita and mass removal of resource wealth

Arafeh + Turner 2025

Gaza reconstruction

Engels 2024

Kenya finance bill protests

Mejias + Couldry 2024

AI colonialism - appropriation of human data - new form of primitive accumulation