ABSTRACT
This chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth (2025) argues that even if revisionist projects currently seek to present chattel slavery and colonialism as unfortunate events that ultimately helped civilise Africa, the facts tell a different story. The European presence in Africa has been characterised from the beginning by deceit, unconscionable brutality, epistemic violence and especially necrocapitalism – the wholesale reinvention of Africans and their environment as expendable beasts of burden on plantation conveyor belts generating endless wealth for Europe and the Global North. Since a widely celebrated decolonisation, the genocidal exploitation of Africa and its environment has continued. As the emerging field of degrowth grows in importance, some argue that the Global South should not necessarily busy itself with this topic. However, in a context of deep globalisation and necrocapitalism, it is more urgent than ever for Africa to have an assertive voice in how degrowth, and indeed other post-growth theories develop. Africa and the Global South must argue that, given the global capitalist polycrisis and international target to cap warming at 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, the degrowth movement must focus efforts on ecological reparations, debt moratoriums, fairer trade relations, climate justice and engage in a pluriversity of post-growth postcapitalisms.
