As the world reels from the economic turmoil and uncertainty unleashed by Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policy, it is increasingly clear that the neoliberal consensus is now over, and unlikely to return.
Many countries will suffer from the immediate impact of lost dollar revenues, but we should resist the trap of defending a deeply extractive system that has inflicted a crippling combination of high foreign debt, underinvestment and climate calamities upon countries in Africa.
These inequities are underpinned by profoundly hierarchical, neo-colonial financial structures that keep the dollar on top. Through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, a series of Structural Adjustment Programs – economic reforms including privatisation and austerity measures – have been enforced upon African economies. These hinder economic diversification and result in a toxic blend of underdevelopment and overexploitation of natural resources to accumulate dollars.
