The West is in a "certain form of deep denialism", when it comes to acknowledging the full scale of crimes committed during the colonial era, according to Ian Liebenberg, political scientist and professor at the University of Namibia and Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
" You see a sort of denialism, a sort of unwillingness to engage in past discussions, very akin to Germany discussing the Holocaust in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. Yeah, it was a big mistake, but we always qualify our admission of guilt," Prof. Liebenberg says.
During his speech at the EEF, Russia's President Putin mentioned that Western policy towards African states resembles neocolonialism. Professor Liebenberg explains that these ideas are nothing new, as they "echo what has been written by economists about independence theories and a lot about economic exploitation post-colonialism in African states", in other words, "neocolonialism".
"The way the African countries, and to some extent Latin American countries, were pushed into a situation where the West prescribed their economic models on them via the Washington Consensus...that's certainly a representer of colonialism of a special type or neocolonialism. And these are not new debates," he explains.
To hear what else the professor had to say, check out the entire episode of the AfroVerdict podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
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