Toxic coloniality and the legacies of resource extraction in Africa

Abstract

This review essay examines the colonial roots of toxicity caused by resource extraction across Africa, thereby foregrounding the persistent necropolitics of oil spills and mining waste dumps. Zooming in on examples of mining and oil drilling localities, with a particular focus on Johannesburg, the Central African Copperbelt and the Niger Delta, it sheds light on what coloniality entails. This article traces the long-term temporalities of extraction, capitalism and waste to show the toxic aftermaths of colonial mines and oil wells. In doing so, the article probes the possibilities and impossibilities for decolonial forms of environment making. By bringing global environmental humanities literature on resource extraction into conversation with the specific histories of African localities, the nature of the planetary regime of extraction and its toxic effects are highlighted. More closely studying these histories of coloniality and toxicity is crucial in responding to the climate crisis.