Since REDD has been denounced as carbon colonialism or even carbon imperialism, it is useful to situate resistance to REDD in the rich history of resistance to and critique of colonialism and imperialism in Africa. In How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney says: “The phenomenon of neo-colonialism cries out for extensive investigation in order to formulate the strategy and tactics of African emancipation and development.” 118 The same could be said about REDD.

The Third Scramble for Africa?

The First Scramble for Africa was, of course, the colonial carving up of the continent. The first phase of the Second Scramble was what Kwame Nkrumah called neo-colonialism and Julius Nyerere defined as ‘Africans fighting Africans’. Are we now entering a Third Scramble for Africa with the “Green Economy” and REDD?

Perhaps Kwame Nkrumah was too optimistic when in 1965 he dubbed neo- colonialism the last phase of imperialism in his book Neo-Colonialism, the last Stage of Imperialism,119 or perhaps REDD is just the newest chapter in that last phase.

The neo-colonialism of today represents imperialism in its final and perhaps its most dangerous stage. The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside…

The Mechanisms of Neo-Colonialism:

…Faced with the militant peoples of the ex-colonial territories in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, imperialism simply switches tactics. Without a qualm it dispenses with its flags, and even with certain of its more hated expatriate of officials. This means, so it claims, that it is ‘giving’ independence to its former subjects, to be followed by ‘aid’ for their development. Under cover of such phrases, however, it devises innumerable ways to accomplish objectives formerly achieved by naked colonialism. It is this sum total of these modern attempts to perpetuate colonialism while at the same time talking about ‘freedom’, which has come to be known as neo- colonialism. The submission of most African governments to the political climate agenda of Northern industrialized countries also tends to reflect “the mechanics of neo-colonialism.”120

The economic stranglehold of the US and Europe and increasingly China and BRICS on African countries plays out vividly in the UN climate negotiations and in REDD discussions in particular. Even Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher of Ethiopia, who led the charge of the African Union against genetically modified crops in the Convention on Biological Diversity and so eloquently denounced GMOs as colonialist, when approached at the Copenhagen Summit about the urgent need of the African Union to reject REDD, baulked. Unfortunately, the US and Europe have been highly successful at lobbying African capitals to get them to support the hegemonic climate agenda based on carbon trading.

The historic debates among African leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere, and even among Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Samora Machel and fifty others in Dar es Salaam 1965, about whether the priority for Africa was independence or defeating capitalism, and whether African unity was necessary for achieving either of these aspirations, are questions that endure. One may wonder whether these leaders ever imagined a form of colonialism like REDD and how they might have responded. In contrast, the current lack of any African government’s outright opposition to REDD is sobering and is indicative of how much African leadership has changed in the last 50 years.

The short note, Wielding the Power of Vision and Naming to Halt Sky-ocide and Carbon Imperialism, tried to grapple with the challenges of terminology for the struggle against REDD and the defense of the Sky. 121 “[L]anguage for describing what is happening is so sorely lacking that many are blinded by the blizzard of lies about the true extent, causes of and solutions to this unprecedented planetary catastrophe. One can’t help but wonder if carbon colonialism is a more accepted term because uttering the word imperialism is considered too incendiary, off-putting or dated. If that is the case, does using a more palatable term sacrifice accuracy and limit or derail strategic responses?”

Contextualizing and comparing REDD to past systems of domination and exploitation of Africa and Africans, and the corresponding resistance and strategies for emancipation is not a futile or abstract exercise. The hope is that it may help to assess and create possibilities for stopping REDD and the continent grab by comparing not just the phenomena, but the correlation of forces as well as the conditions, structures, economic, material and human resources, consciousness and leadership for resistance.