DEVS 240: Coloniality, Racial Logic & Development (week 7)

TOPIC 1: Coloniality, Racial Logic & Development (Key concepts)

• Coloniality of Power (Quijano)

• Coloniality of Knowledge / Being

• Eurocentrism

• Whiteness as authority / benevolence

• Humanitarianism critique (Daley)

Core Idea (Coloniality, Racial Logic & Development)

Colonialism didn’t end — it reorganized into global systems of power shaping race, knowledge, and development.

Coloniality of Power

• Colonialism didn’t just end politically—it created lasting power structures.

• These structures continue to organize:

  • Economy (capitalism)

  • Social hierarchy (race)

  • Knowledge (Eurocentrism)

• → This ongoing system is what Quijano calls “coloniality”

👉 Key idea:
Even after colonies became independent, the logic of domination remained.

Decoloniality

• project of delinking from Western dominance and recovering other ways of knowing

🌍 Real World Example

NGOs portraying African countries as helpless → reinforces racial hierarchy (Daley)

⚖ Tension / Critique

• Development = “help” but actually reproduces inequality

• Who gets to speak as “expert”?

Rescuing African Bodies Core Argument

Daley argues that celebrity humanitarianism turns aid into a market activity, where consumption replaces political action, reinforcing global inequalities and weakening African agency.

 Why is Humanitarianism Becoming a Market (Commodified) (rescuing African bodies)

• Humanitarian aid is no longer just about helping people—it’s now:

  • Corporate

  • Branded

  • Profit-linked

• Celebrities play a key role in this shift

👉 Key idea:
Humanitarianism is being commodified—turned into something you can buy into.

What is meant by “Celebrities as Neoliberal Actors” (rescuing African bodies)

• Celebrities are:

  • Not just people, but brands

  • Part of consumer capitalism

• They influence:

  • Public opinion

  • What causes people care about

👉 Key idea:
Celebrities act as middlemen between capitalism and compassion.

“Ethical Consumption” (Buying = Helping) (rescuing african bodies)

• Campaigns like:

  • Product RED

  • 50 Cent’s SK drink

• Tell people:

  • Buying products = saving lives

👉 Key idea:
Helping becomes an act of consumption, not political change.

✔ Example:

• Buying a product → money goes to aid

• BUT corporations still profit

What is the link to “Accumulation by Dispossession” (rescuing african bodies)

• Borrowing from Marxist theory:

  • Capitalism expands by exploiting poorer regions

• Celebrities:

  • Help mask this exploitation

  • Make capitalism seem “ethical”

👉 Key idea:
Humanitarian campaigns can hide the systems that cause inequality in the first place.

How is africa framed in problematic ways ? (resuing african bodies)

• Celebrities often portray Africa as:

  • Helpless

  • Backward

  • In need of saving

• This reinforces:

  • Colonial stereotypes

  • “White savior” narratives

👉 Key idea:
Africa is turned into a stage for Western moral action, not a place with its own agency.

How are crises decontextualized (politics removed) (saving african bodies)

• Complex issues (war, poverty, inequality) are:

  • Simplified

  • Removed from history and politics

Example:

• Darfur framed as “good vs evil” instead of political conflict

👉 Key idea:
Problems are presented as moral emergencies, not structural issues.

Celebrities as “experts” (saving African bodies)

• Celebrities gain authority by:

  • Visiting crisis areas

  • Working with NGOs or experts

• But:

  • They often lack deep understanding

  • Still dominate global narratives

👉 Key idea:
Celebrity voices can override local voices.

Clicktivism” / Performative Activism (rescuing African bodies)

• Social media campaigns (e.g. Kony 2012):

  • Encourage liking, sharing, donating

• But:

  • Require little real engagement

  • Don’t challenge power structures

👉 Key idea:
Activism becomes easy, emotional, and shallow.

Impact on african Agency (rescuing afrcian bodies)

• African voices and movements are:

  • Ignored or sidelined

• Western actors:

  • Control narratives and solutions

👉 Key idea:
Celebrity humanitarianism can undermine real local resistance and change.

Big Picture (What Daley is Critiquing)

Daley is criticizing a system where:

• Capitalism + celebrities + aid industries combine to:

  • Sell products

  • Shape global politics

  • Maintain inequality

👉 Key idea:
This is part of neoliberal imperialism—a softer, market-based form of domination.

Quijano reading core argument

Quijano argues that modern global capitalism is built on “coloniality of power”—a system where race, labor, and knowledge are organized hierarchically, with Europe at the center, and this structure still shapes the world today.

 Race as a Tool of Power

• The idea of race was invented during colonization of the Americas.

• It was used to:

  • Justify domination

  • Rank people as superior (Europeans) vs inferior (non-Europeans)

• Created new identities:

  • “White,” “Black,” “Indian,” “Mestizo”

👉 Key idea:
Race is not biological—it is a social classification system tied to power.

Capitalism + Racial Division of Labor

• A global economic system emerged combining:

  • Slavery

  • Serfdom

  • Wage labor

• These forms were racially assigned:

  • Europeans → wage labor, power positions

  • Indigenous & Black people → unpaid or exploited labor

👉 Key idea:
Capitalism and racism developed together, not separately.

Europe Becomes the Center of the World

• Europe gained dominance by:

  • Controlling resources (gold, silver, labor)

  • Controlling global trade

• This created a “center vs periphery” system:

  • Europe = center (wealth, power)

  • Colonized regions = periphery (exploitation)

👉 Key idea:
Global inequality is rooted in this historical structure, not natural differences.

Eurocentrism (Control of Knowledge)

• Europe imposed its way of thinking as universal truth

• It:

  • Suppressed Indigenous knowledge

  • Reframed non-Europeans as “primitive” or “past”

• Created binaries like:

  • Modern vs traditional

  • Rational vs irrational

  • West vs non-West

👉 Key idea:
Europe didn’t just dominate economically—it controlled how people think and understand the world.

The Myth of Modernity

• europe presents itself as:

  • The most advanced stage of human history

• Quijano challenges this:

  • Other civilizations had science, technology, and complexity too

• Modernity is not purely European—it’s tied to colonial power

👉 Key idea:
Modernity is not neutral progress—it’s linked to domination.

A Global System (Still Ongoing)

Quijano says today’s world is shaped by three interconnected forces:

1. Coloniality of power

2. Capitalism

3. Eurocentrism

These structure:

• Work

• Knowledge

• Identity

• Global inequality

👉 Key idea:
We still live in a colonial global system, even without formal empires.

 Coloniality of Knowledge

• Western knowledge = seen as objective + universal

• Non-Western knowledge = ignored or inferior

👉 This is why development “solutions” come from the West

Coloniality of Being

• Some people seen as fully human, others as less than

• Justifies inequality and intervention

Whiteness in Development

• Whiteness = authority, expertise, savior

• Non-Western people = passive recipients