Debt Cancellation Is Not Enough! Repairing Economic Colonial Injustices through Radical Reform of the International Financial Architecture

The objective of this report is to examine demands for reparations in connection with the cancellation of Southern African states’ sovereign debts and the decolonization of multilateral financial institutions. 

These demands are not new but have been expressed by states and regional institutions since the 1960s. In Southern Africa, the same demands for reform have been made by governments, as a way of undoing the legacies of colonization, but without the use of the term “reparations” specifically.

This report shows these are not calls to repair the past, but rather calls to put an end to contemporary injustices, which have concrete effects on the socio-political and economic future of these societies. This research also shows that civil society organizations in Southern Africa are not unanimous on how to put an end to these colonial injustices, nor indeed on the sharing of responsibility between states and international financial institutions.

The majority of the actors interviewed consider that debt cancellation can only be considered a form of reparation for colonial injustices if the international financial architecture is overhauled. In other words, there is no point in cancelling debt without taking structural measures, as there is a risk of states falling back into the same patterns of indebtedness a few years later. Others, on the other hand, believe that debt cancellation and the reform of financial institutions, while necessary, must not ignore the responsibility of states towards their own populations, both in terms of the choices they make with regards to debt management and to racial inequalities within their populations.

    Co-authors: Kennedy Manduna, PhD and Liliane Umubyeyi, PhD

    Editors: Amah Edoh, PhD and John Kerhoe

    Design and Layout: Tejumola Bayowa 

    You can download the full report here