Skip to main content

Racializing the Analysis of Capitalism: Towards a Decolonial Political Ecology – Mining Neoliberalism and Environmental Degradation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Marx and Europe

Abstract

Studying the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo using a grounded approach, Anuarite Bashizi, Cécile Giraud and Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka adopt a Marxian and ecopolitical analytical framework in order to consider the interconnexions between ecological deterioration and primary resources, post-colonial politics and international financial institutions, class struggle and the international division of labour. In emphasizing the systematic race relations that structure the exploitation of the racialized work force as well as the access to natural resources, and underlining the heritage of colonialism in the form of “global coloniality”, the authors argue that a decolonial approach to political ecology and to Marxist capitalist analysis is necessary in order to apprehend the realities of exploitation in Africa.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Since 2018, Banro Resource Corporation has been restructured and is now owned by two shareholders: the Chinese Baiyin Nonferrous Limiter Group and the American Gramancy Company. Today it is Banro Corporation LtD, a subsidiary of Newco, a company based in the Cayman Islands. This information is available at https://www.thierryregards.eu/2019/06/banro-mine-extraction-or-gold-kivu/ (accessed February 28, 2020).

  2. 2.

    In addition to the Luhwindja mining concession, Banro holds three other concessions in the DRC. In total, it holds a mining permit covering 2790 km2. Its Luhwindja mining concession, known as Twangiza Mining, covers 180 km2 of the 183 km2 Luhwindja chiefdom.

Bibliography

  • Amegbey, N.A., and A.A. Adimado. 2003. Incidents of Cyanide Spillage in Ghana. Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy 112 (2): 126–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnauld de Sartre, Xavier, Johan Oszwald, Monica Castro, and Simon Dufour, eds. 2014. Political ecology des services écosystémiques. Brussels: PIE Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashizi, Anuarite. 2020a. Conflits environnementaux et reterritorialisation: vers une political ecology de la modernisation minière en RDC. PhD Thesis. Louvain-la-Neuve: UCLouvain.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2020b. Néo-libéralisation minière et conflits environnementaux en RDC: political ecology et gouvernementalité territorial. In Néolibéralisme et subjectivités. Michel Foucault à l’épreuve de la globalisation, ed. Cécile Giraud and Aymar Bisoka Nyenyezi, 119–137. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashizi, Anuarite, and Sara Geenen. 2015. Les limites d’une ‘gouvernance par le bas’: les logiques des coopératives minières Kalimbi/Sud-Kivu. In Conjonctures congolaises 2014. Politiques, territoires et ressources naturelles: changements et continuités, ed. S. Marysse and J. Omasombo. Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashizi, A., M. Ntububa, B.A. Nyenyezi, and S. Geenen. 2016. Exploitation minière en RDC: oubli de l’environnement? Vers une political ecology. In Conjonctures Congolaise 2015. Entre incertitudes politiques et transformation économique. Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashizi, Anuarite, E. Kadetwa, and A. Ansoms. 2018. Des effets socio-écologiques de l’accaparement de l’eau à la déterritorialisation: le cas de Luhwinja/RDC. Conjoncture de l’Afrique centrale 92: 153–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bréda, Charlotte, Marie Deridder, and Pierre-Joseph Laurent, eds. 2013. La modernité insécurisée. Anthropologie des conséquences de la mondialisation. Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia-L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cottard F., and J.L. Marroncle. 2001. Évaluation environnementale du site de l’ancienne mine d’or de La Messette (Aude). Concession de Malabau. BRGM/RP-50675-FR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darcis, D. 2022. Pour une écologie libertaire. Penser sans la nature, réinventer des mondes. Paris: Eterotopia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Bois, W.E.B. 1998. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Les âmes du peuple noir. Translated by Magali Bessone. Paris: La Découverte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gautier, Denis, and Tor A. Benjaminsen. 2012. Environnement, discours et pouvoir. L’approche Political ecology. Versailles: Éditions Quæ.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Geenen, Sara, and K. Claessens. 2013. Disputed Access to the Gold Sites in Luhwindja, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Journal of Modern African Studies 51: 85–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, Jeffrey. 1987. Power and Marxist Theory: A Realist View. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, C.L.R. 1963. The Black Jacobins. Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilosho, B.J., M. Mushagalusa, and A. Bashizi. 2021. Territoire et déterritorialisation des communautés locales: perceptions des communautés de Luhwindja au Sud-Kivu face à l’exploitation industrielle de l’or. Afrique et développement XLVI (3): 181–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Libaude, J., et al. 1992. Haldes aurifères de l’ancienne mine du Châtelet (Creuse). Caractérisation et évaluation des risques liés au dépôt. Rapport BRGM R35105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazalto, M. 2008. La réforme du secteur minier en République démocratique du Congo: enjeux de gouvernance et perspectives de reconstruction. Afrique contemporaine 227: 53–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melamed, Jodi. 2015. Racial Capitalism. Critical Ethnic Studies 1: 76–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo. 2013. Pan-Africanism and the International System. In Handbook of Africa’s International Relations, ed. T. Murithi, 21–29. London and New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. Global coloniality and the challenges of creating African futures. The Strategic Review for Southern Africa 36: 181–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peemans, Jean-Philippe. 2002. Le développement des peuples face à la modernisation du monde. Les théories du développement et les histoires du “développement réel” dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robbins, Paul. 2004. Political Ecology. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012. Qu’est-ce que la political ecology. In Environnement, discours et pouvoir. L’approche Political ecology 21–36. Versailles: Éditions Quæ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, Cedric. 2000 [1983]. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2023. Marxisme noir. La Genèse de la tradition radicale noire. Genève/Paris: Entremonde.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roediger, David R. 1994. Towards the Abolition of Whiteness: Essays on Race, Class and Politics. London and New York: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • San Juan, E. 1989. Problems in the Marxist Project of Theorizing Race. Rethinking Marxism 2 (2): 58–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J.C. 1976. The Moral Economy of the Peasants: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, Michael. 1983. Silent Violence: Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Eric Eustace. 1994. Capitalism & Slavery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bashizi, A., Giraud, C., Bisoka, A.N. (2024). Racializing the Analysis of Capitalism: Towards a Decolonial Political Ecology – Mining Neoliberalism and Environmental Degradation. In: de Nanteuil, M., Fjeld, A. (eds) Marx and Europe. Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53736-3_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics