Globalization of extrativist capitalism, natural resources and neocolonialism in Africa: challenges and perspectives for Mozambique

Abstract

This text analyzes the process of expansion of extrativist capital in Africa and the contradictions of this process. He argues that the race for land in Africa and for natural resources is causing the concentration of land in the hands of global corporate capital. As result of this process, there is the expropriation and expulsion of native peoples from their lands. Behind the developmental and productivist discourse used by corporate capital in the context of its territorialization in Africa, corporate capital hides its colonial roots. It criticizes the passivity of African elites in the face of the violence that their peoples have suffered in their own territories in the name of progress. Notes that the current wave of recolonization of Africa by global capitalism, in part, is a product of the actions of African elites and the governance processes triggered by them. The disparities in the dates referring to the periods of proclamation of African independence did not mean the breaking of colonial ties. It did not mean, for one or for another African country, the definitive break with colonial practices. African peoples continue to suffer oppression in their territories and most of the time their lands are concessioned and handed over to corporate capital without their self-determination. Even in the face of adverse situations to their social reproduction, united by the cause of freedom and autonomy, African peoples have contested the wave of plundering of land and natural resources and such a scenario is notorious in Mozambique.

Keywords

• neocolonialismo. apropriação da terra e da natureza. conflitos socioambientais. áfrica. moçambique.