The image of classical imperialism is one of territorial conquest, of foreign rulers telling local workers what to do and taking what they want for the benefit of a distant metropole, which includes gold, spices, and ivory . The mid-20th century has been described as the age of decolonization, but imperialism was not eradicated, it was quietly transformed from a military regime of territory to a new form of imperialism that relied on financial and regulatory control. The current global order often portrays international financial institutions as vital to global stability and balanced growth . This essay however, suggests that alongside tech monopolies this is how colonial administration has been replaced in order to strip the Global South of its wealth, and allow policy autonomy to continue to be eroded under the guise of formal independence.
The best means by which these two entities will achieve this reinvented imperial order is by using the sovereign debt as a geopolitical weapon. Economist Dambisa Moyo, in her influential book Dead Aid, suggested that a “capital solution” which is the use of private market debt, such as Eurobonds, instead of aid represented an elegant approach to avoiding corruption at the state-level and ensuring aid is used to fund growth creating activities. But critics of this model argue that private market debt rose 322% in sub-Saharan Africa from 2010 to 2020, and that it is often used to finance corruption, which it aims to tackle, and is thus generating a new form of debt. The “silent revolution” of 1982 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which shifted its role from short-term stabilization to strict enforcement of radical Structural Adjustment Programs further reinforced this neocolonial order. These programs require the repayment of external debt before the allocation of social expenditure for the country, and thus foreign rules reign over national budgets .
These fiscal restraints and pro-cyclical penalties have a huge human price tag. A 2024 World Bank report estimates that newly emerging countries spent a record $1.4 trillion to service their foreign debt in 2023 . Taking an external debt-service-first approach to the economy, spells “slow violence” that slowly undermines the survival systems of vulnerable populations. In the world of today, over 3 billion people live in countries which spend more on the debt interest than on public education or public health. This situation leaves many countries in the Global South in a “climate-debt trap” to continue using fossil fuel exports for hard currency to pay their debts when faced with climate-related disasters. Within this context, debt is considered as a contemporary form of colonial exploitation; it is a mechanism that is transferring intellectual, natural and human resources to those in the Global North, and those in the Global South are facing the same reality as they were under British rule: an underfunded development.
The financial system was able to capture material wealth; but a new sphere of exploitation has sprung forth in the form of digital colonialism. They are frequently spoken of by corporations, such as Meta, Google, and Amazon, as a “civilizing mission”, a concept that is linked to “progress,” “development” and “connecting people”. This could be done through public-private partnerships, such as Facebook’s Free Basics, which were presented as philanthropic endeavors to make key online services available to the marginalized . This presentation, however, often hides the expansionist ideology of tech corporations embedded in the United States that aim to organize digital infrastructures to suit their economic needs around the world . As in colonial times, where raw materials were extracted and serviced with a few products and values were gained, this process here reduces human experience to data points and extracts the desired value-generating user data.
There is no accountability as is evident in the “illusion of choice” offered to users in the Global South. In 2021, WhatsApp (which is owned by Meta) released a policy that essentially required users to share their personal data with its parent company. While users in countries with strong data protection legislation had some legitimate choice to avoid having their data collected, those in many countries within the Global South had none. The inability to refuse the new terms would result in diminished usability of the app until it became unusable. Moreover, Big Tech companies have faced backlash over their contributions to online disinformation and violence, and neglect of their investments in content moderation for local “low-resource” languages. These monopolies are institutionalization of GN-created social practices that negatively impact digital self-determination of the societies they intrude on.
However, there is a growing transnational anti-hegemonic resistance strategy, and an emerging “economics of liberation” outside of those structures located in institutions . The financial world isn’t beaming with hope that this will bring the revolution, but activists have latched onto the concept of “odious debts,” which they believe are debts contracted by undemocratic regimes without the backing of the general populace . But there is also substantial work underway to recover monetary sovereignty by creating regional solutions involving the use of a local currency that is not the U.S. dollar, like the “Eco” for West Africa or the “Sur” for Latin America. In addition, leaders in the Global South suggest new arrangements to make a difference when it comes to climate change, although without increasing debt. For instance, Kenyan President William Ruto wants to establish a “global green bank” backed by global levies on financial transactions and fossil fuels, instead of conditional loans from institutions led by northern countries .
The technological sphere is no exception either, with resistance from movements for digital justice that are challenging the logic of extraction. The “Save the Internet” campaign in India made a strong case to stop the Free Basics, contending the model of “zero-rating” was unethical and was also used to extract data by an external entity, such as a foreign government . Other grassroots initiatives like Kiswahili Digital Rights Project seek to decolonize the language of technology, giving communities in East Africa the language needed to engage in discussions about digital rights themselves . Further, “digital retooling” movements seek to embed humanism and respect for individual agency and freedom of choice, rather than to be directed by the corporations that are currently monitoring them.
It’s a transformation from colonies to corporations, not a transformation of the logic of extraction. To become truly independent in the 21st century, it is not enough to have flags and anthems, but it is also necessary to have an actual change in the dynamics between the Global North and the Global South in how they use their data, currency, food and energy systems . It is a fight for the progressive development of substantive sovereignty, for a ‘fair global future’, not obtained through a symbolic sovereignty that is a smokescreen. It is a fight for progressive achievement of substantive sovereignty, not for symbolic sovereignty that is a mere shell game .
