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For philosopher, racism and the climate crisis stem from the same colonial roots
Caribbean scholar highlights the resistance of quilombola communities across the Americas to inspire new approaches to environmental and political crises
Book recalls that in 2005, Hurricane Katrina exposed the reality of environmental racism in the southern United States – Photo: News Muse via Flickr – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
At first glance, it may seem strange to suggest that both the destruction of nature and racism share the same logic. But as we delve into the pages of the book Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World, the argument of Martinican researcher Malcom Ferdinand becomes almost obvious: modernity fractured the world between colonizers and the colonized, humanity and nature, and this dual fracture created a way of inhabiting the planet in which both human beings and the environment are transformed by the colonizers into resources to be exploited for enrichment.
There is no shortage of examples to illustrate Ferdinand’s argument. Some of them are mentioned in the book, such as the deforestation of the Caribbean islands, where, after the arrival of Christopher Columbus, within a few decades the indigenous people were decimated, and the forests were replaced by large monoculture estates, cultivated over the following centuries by the labor of enslaved Africans. A process very similar to what we know from Brazilian history. The author explains that what he calls “colonial dwelling” is “this way of inhabiting where you always plant the same crop, the same cultivation, repeatedly, sugarcane, cotton, coffee, and you enslave people to cultivate it.”
Malcom Ferdinand grew up on the Caribbean island of Martinique and graduated as an environmental engineer in the United Kingdom. He lives in France, where he completed his doctorate degree in political philosophy at the Paris Diderot University and is currently a researcher at CNRS. Between March 18th and 23rd, the researcher was in Brazil for a brief tour to promote Decolonial Ecology, which was published here in 2022 by Ubu Editora. In addition to the foreword by American activist Angela Davis, the Brazilian edition includes an original afterword by Guilherme Moura Fagundes, professor at the Department of Anthropology of the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages, and Human Sciences (FFLCH) at USP. The report division from Jornal da USP took advantage of the occasion of the visit to speak with both researchers, Ferdinand and Fagundes, to understand how the argument of the Martinican author has influenced contemporary debates on the climate crisis and environmental racism.
Malcom Ferdinand - Photo courtesy of Ubu Editora (Berrada).
Guilherme Moura Fagundes - Photo: Personal archive
“The main contribution of Malcom Ferdinand in this debate is providing us with an original approach to analyzing the intersection between the environmental and colonial dynamics of the climate crisis. He does this through a methodological tool called “the double colonial and environmental fracture of modernity,” which serves both as a diagnosis of the crisis and a means for its overcoming,” says Fagundes. “Thus, the main contribution of his book is to recognize that the logical foundation of the subjugation of the land lies in the subjugation of people, and vice versa. Indeed, the anti-racist struggle emerges as an ecological struggle, while environmental conservation becomes an act of social justice”, adds the professor from FFLCH.
The Problem of the Environmentalist Who Does Not Acknowledge Local Knowledge
In addition to exposing the legacy of colonialism, the Martinican author values the strategy of quilombamento (the formation of quilombos) by Africans in the Americas and their descendants as part of the toolbox we have to confront climate change and the political crisis. “The quilombos, or as they are called in the Caribbean, the communities that practice marronage, not only rejected the unjust social and political system of slavery, but they rejected and turned away from this colonial habitation, inventing other ways of relating to the land, other practices with more combinations, with more mixtures, with an organized production for food sovereignty, health, protection, and spiritual practices,” says Ferdinand.
These contributions from Africans and Afro-descendants are little recognized, even among scholars and environmentalists. Both Ferdinand and Fagundes emphasize that the absence of non-white people in spaces where concepts are debated and discourses on climate emergency are formulated is symptomatic of the “dual fracture of modernity,” as some people still believe that climate and racism, ecology and coloniality, are issues that should not be mixed. The prologue to A Decolonial Ecology begins with the warning that the anti-racist and ecological communities have very little dialogue with each other.
“It’s not a question of knowing or not. It’s a matter of power relations. Some people who hold power explicitly decide to exclude certain concepts, ideas, or practices. In addition, this creates a very, very interesting situation, for example, in France. You have people who have a good opinion of themselves, who think that what Trump is doing is very bad. However, what Trump is doing is removing what they call DEI, that is, diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Therefore, they want to criticize Trump, but not necessarily engage with anti-racism and anti-racist practices. So, there is a bit of contradiction,” says the philosopher.
Ferdinand says he went on to study political philosophy after a humanitarian work experience in Darfur, Sudan. “I was there as the person in charge of water and sanitation, as a water engineer. Moreover, I realized that, as an engineer, I was not trained to “define the issue.” I was trained to “answer to the issue” that was presented to me, but not to define it. So, I realized that with the tools I gained from my training in civil and environmental engineering, I could do some things. But when the problem is political, a technical solution won’t solve it,” he reflects.
Since then, he has dedicated himself to researching the interaction between colonialism and environmental issues, placing the Caribbean at the center of his analysis. His research theme has much in common with Fagundes’, despite the two working in different fields of knowledge and geographies. An environmental anthropologist and expert in techniques, the professor from FFLCH adopted as the foundation of his current research program “the proposition that restoring ecosystems and repairing societies are two sides of the same action against the colonial legacy of our environmental institutions.” The professor mentions that, over the past ten years, he has conducted research and audiovisual collaborations with quilombola communities, environmental managers, and firefighters from the Cerrado, addressing the topic of the emergency of integrated fire management policies in Brazil.
The book Decolonial Ecology presents a philosophical proposal to navigate the climate crisis with social justice - Image provided by Ubu Editora
“The way fire management has been thought of and managed by Brazilian environmental conservation is a privileged case for addressing the concept of “colonial and environmental dual fracture.” This is because, on one hand, the scientific field that has come to be called fire ecology has settled into studies based exclusively on control plots that do not take into account the technical values – that is, sociocultural – that guide the burning knowledge and practices of traditional peoples and communities. On the other hand, only very recently have organized socio-environmental movements in Brazil begun to demand and vocalize the restoration of traditional fire practices within the struggle repertoire of indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and local communities,” says Fagundes.
Overcoming the colonial way of living
Decolonial Ecology was received with great interest both in France, where it was published in 2019, and in Brazil. On one hand, the publication earned Malcom Ferdinand the prestigious award from the Fondation de l’Écologie Politique (Foundation for Political Ecology, a public interest organization founded in 2012 by the French party Les Écologistes). On the other hand, it also drew the wrath of the far right in France, who accused the author of fragmenting the unity of the republic with his racialized environmental critique.
“But the denialism regarding the relevance of race and racism, both on the left and the right of the political spectrum, is not exclusive to France. Not surprisingly, even in Brazil, the proposition of “a decolonial ecology” also generated interesting reactions. Academic sectors linked to political ecology – mostly white – even claimed that the Brazilian tradition known as “socioenvironmentalism” had already met the challenge of linking the ecological crisis with social inequalities decades ago. Although, it should be noted, this tradition has been quite shy in incorporating ethnic-racial studies and all the Afro-American contributions of Black and anti-racist thought,” says Fagundes.
Only recently have organized movements begun to reclaim traditional fire management techniques - Photo: Joédson Alves/Agência Brasil.
The professor from USP highlights that the greatest and most promising impact of the book Decolonial Ecology in Brazil has been its quick assimilation by racialized youth who have entered universities in the last decade through affirmative action policies. At the same time, the book has been adopted by graduate programs and mentioned in speeches by important activists on racial and environmental issues.
“Immediately, Malcolm’s work challenges those who insist on thinking and acting generically in favor of “nature” without including the colonial processes of racialization linked to both humans and non-humans – including the land itself. There is perhaps no better context in which to explore this issue than Brazil itself, a nation shaped by both the virtues and dilemmas of being the world’s most biodiverse region, while also serving as the primary stage for what we now recognize as the greatest genocide in human history: the Black Holocaust in the Americas”, says Fagundes.
Asked by Jornal da USP if it is possible to overcome the colonial way of living, Malcom Ferdinand replies:
"Yes, of course it is. That's the power of the quilombos. They have shown that it is possible. But even so, the power of colonial occupation in human history is relatively brief, just 500 years within the span of thousands of years of life on Earth. We shouldn’t assume that what we see today is how things have always been or how they will always be. The idea that things can be done differently is one of the most important and powerful contributions made by the quilombos."
**Intern under the supervision of Moisés Dorado
English version: Nexus Traduções
Política de uso
A reprodução de matérias e fotografias é livre mediante a citação do Jornal da USP e do autor. No caso dos arquivos de áudio, deverão constar dos créditos a Rádio USP e, em sendo explicitados, os autores. Para uso de arquivos de vídeo, esses créditos deverão mencionar a TV USP e, caso estejam explicitados, os autores. Fotos devem ser creditadas como USP Imagens e o nome do fotógrafo.
A reprodução de matérias e fotografias é livre mediante a citação do Jornal da USP e do autor. No caso dos arquivos de áudio, deverão constar dos créditos a Rádio USP e, em sendo explicitados, os autores. Para uso de arquivos de vídeo, esses créditos deverão mencionar a TV USP e, caso estejam explicitados, os autores. Fotos devem ser creditadas como USP Imagens e o nome do fotógrafo.