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Land, race, and (slow) violence: Indigenous resistance to racial capitalism and the coloniality of development in the Caribbean.

Authors :
Penados, Filiberto
Gahman, Levi
Smith, Shelda-Jane
Source :
Geoforum; Oct2023, Vol. 145, pN.PAG-N.PAG, 1p
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

This article, which has been informed by sustained engagement with an autonomous social movement and long-term participatory action research, offers a critical structural analysis of the Maya land struggle in Toledo District, Belize. We contend that state-sanctioned violations of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) reveal both the coloniality and misanthropic skepticism inherent in conventional 'development' agendas and the Westminster-modelled liberal state. More specifically, by drawing from revolutionary theories of race and decolonisation and placing the concepts of racial capitalism and slow violence into an integrated anticolonial frame, we explain how economic development projects and government sponsored FPIC violations are aiding and abetting land dispossession, ecosystem damage, heritage destruction, the criminalisation of environmental defenders, and disavowals of Indigenous governance. Ultimately, the piece illustrates how extractivist-driven refusals of good faith consultation with Indigenous communities in the Caribbean exacerbate environmental degradation, undermine Indigenous self-determination, and constitute contemporary manifestations of colonial power, racial-capitalist exploitation, and structural (slow) violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00167185
Volume :
145
Database :
Supplemental Index
Journal :
Geoforum
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
172025349
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.07.004