ABSTRACT
This chapter uses theories of colonialism and post-colonialism to analyze the relationship between development and the environment. It argues that colonialism has entrenched matrices of power for its permanencies through the state as the primary institution of governance. The state is not only central to contemporary global capitalism but it also facilitates the development-environment nexus through which coloniality is realized and perpetuated. The chapter concludes that the colonial matrices of power account for the elusiveness of post-colonialism as both an aspiration and a lived experience in the former colonies.
