Living in the COVID World... and Beyond #70: Exploitation and Debt Webinar - Part I

On September 28, 2025, I co-led a webinar Entitled: Exploitation and Debt -- Implications for Climate and Human Services in Africa.    Below is my opening talk.

I’m a white man from the United States, and I’m honored to be partnering on this webinar. 

I grew up largely ignorant and misinformed about Africa.   As an adult, and especially since becoming involved with Sustaining All Life and United to End Racism, I have gone to Africa 4 times, led workshops there, listened to many African people about their experience (especially in relationship to money and economics), led workshops and classes for Africans virtually, read books by African authors, and listened to podcasts by Africans and about Africa.  I still have a lot to learn.  And I have been asked today to talk about the history of colonialism in Africa and its impact from the perspective of a white ally.

We know that the whole continent of Africa has been dominated by Europeans for centuries.  Westerners often think about Africans as if they were one people with one history, ignoring the continent’s thousands of cultures, languages, and heritages.  There are 55 countries in Africa and over 3000 languages spoken today. 

Many great civilizations and peoples emerged from Africa.

For many years, prior to The Age of Discovery and colonization, the primary relationship between coastal African kingdoms and European countries was trade. 

In 1493, the Pope issued the Doctrine of Discovery which stated that non-Christian lands should be taken and ruled by Christian nations, and indigenous people living on these lands should be converted to Christianity.  A papal bull followed that same year that legitimated slavery of African people and Native Americans.   About that same time, the concepts of race categorization or taxonomy were being created and then popularized in Europe which evolved into theories of white racial superiority. 

In 1870, 10% of Africa, mostly coastal areas, was under European control.  By 1914, after the Scramble for Africa, this figure was almost 90%, divided amongst 7 European countries.  Colonial borders were drawn unilaterally by the Europeans.   Greed, the desire for wealth, motivated the Europeans.   Europeans took control of the African continent for their own imperialist purposes – trade, exploitation of people and resources, and settlement.   And its impact has been devastating to African people.

The process of decolonization started with Libya in 1951, and continued through the 1970’s.   This meant that the European countries no longer directly ruled in Africa … but instead neo-colonialism was prevalent – “the deliberate and continued survival of the colonial system in independent African states by turning these states into victims of political, mental, economic, social, military, and technical forms of domination carried out through indirect and subtle means….” 

Africa is not and has never been poor.   Africa is rich in people and natural resources which have been stolen for centuries and continues today. 

Over 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic as slaves, and millions more died in the process. 

Millions more Africans were enslaved within Africa to provide labor to extract the continent’s natural resources.   For example, an estimated 10 million Africans in the Congo Free State were killed between 1885 to 1908.  

The continent possesses vast natural resources that were plundered, including ivory, rubber, timber, and minerals.

60% of the gold in Europe came from West Africa, valued in the trillions of dollars.

Unequal trade relationships, where African nations often export raw materials at low prices while importing finished goods at higher costs, perpetuate the wealth drain. 

And this list could go on. 

What is the impact on debt, climate, and the African people?

African countries owe US$685 billion to external creditors as of 2023.

Africa’s debt has more than doubled in the past decade.


African countries will pay over US$88 billion in external debt service in 2025.

External debt owed by African countries is equivalent to 24.5% of their combined GDP in 2023  


Climate change has had a devastating impact on Africa, a continent that contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions but suffers disproportionately from its effects.  

Rising temperatures and droughts have devastated agriculture.

In 2024 alone, flooding affected 7.5 million people across 18 African countries creating the largest number of internally displaced people in the world. 

The imposition of monoculture farming systems for cash crops disrupted sustainable indigenous agricultural practices.

 Promises of climate finance to help African countries adapt and mitigate climate effects have largely gone unmet or are delivered as loans, not grants, perpetuating debt cycles.   

Africa’s marginalization in global climate negotiations reveals structural racism in international policymaking. 

In addition to the debt and climate impact of imperialism and colonialism, we, in the west, have grown up with pervasive messages that black Africans are primitive and less intelligent.  As a result of white people’s oppressive attitudes, black African people have internalized racism, colonialism, and genocide. 

 We have work to do – both to root out our oppressive attitudes, to support African people in their liberation, and to advocate for policies to correct for racism and the historical colonialism, imperialism and present-day neo-colonialist practices.

We then asked people to do listening exchanges in triads with the prompt: What are your thoughts and feelings listening to the history of the colonization of Africa?

Later, my co-leader spoke about the impact of colonization, imperialism and racism in Ghana and the implications for climate and human services.  

I concluded with thoughts about what we, in the Global North, can do to address the historical injustices done to Africa.   See my next blog, Exploitation and Debt Part II, to read my final comments at the webinar.