Africa’s Contributions to the Economy of Europe’s Two “World” Wars: De-centering the Dominant Narrative

Abstract

Histories and stories of Europe’s two “World” Wars are generally centered on narratives that privilege metropolitan empire perspectives over the perspectives of their satellite countries and their societies. As Spivak correctly observes, European and American academic writing is produced to support the economic interests of these countries. Similarly, knowledge or information is never innocent as it expresses the interests of its producers. It has invariably been in the interest of Eurocentric academic chroniclers of the Europe’s “World” Wars to write Africa’s contributions out of the dominant narratives of those wars. Just like European military regiments containing African soldiers and soldiers of African descent, who fought in Europe’s second “World” War and enabled Allied Powers’ victory over Nazi Germany and its Axis Powers allies, were “bleached” off every post-victory battle photographs of the War, the dominant narratives of the two “World” Wars are “bleached” to rid them of Africa’s economic contributions to the successful prosecution of both wars. This article represents an intervention to de -center such dominant albeit erroneous narratives on both wars. It brings focus on Africa’s economic contributions to the war efforts with the underscoring argument that but for Africa’s economic contributions, Africa’s European colonizers could not have achieved victory over Germany in both wars. The article advocates a de-centering agenda, which stems from postcolonial studies and theoretical framework as a useful tool for such corrective scholarship endeavor. The conclusive argument is that Africa’s economic contribution to the successful prosecution of Europe’s “World Wars” is primarily phenomenal rather than epiphenomenal.

Pakistan’s economy: The Role of International Institutions (2018-2022)

“…When it comes to the decisions making process especially in foreign policy arena, IMF influences the decisions because the world order has been designed to keep the dominant countries' dominancy intact (Öniş & Kutlay, 2020). For instance, when British was a super power, they colonialized the other states in order to perpetuate their dominancy by exploiting them (Arukwe, 2022). However, in modern democracy such physical colonialism has been changed to imperialism.…”

COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa, “Copy-and-Paste” Policies, and the Biomedical Hegemony of “Cure”

“…In short, non-white people can never progress economically except they accept neocolonialism by white people. The theory formulated by these hired cultural racist "scholars" would be called the "Modernization Theory" (see Amin, 1989Amin, , 2011Arukwe, 2010Arukwe, , 2022Blaut, 1987b;Blaut et al, 1992;Blaut, 1992aBlaut, , 1992bBlaut, , 1993Blaut & Bras, 1987;Bowler, 1990).…”

“…With the inauguration of the United Nations by 1945, most of the colonialists would begin to reframe their narrative on health policy in Africa in terms of “development” instead of “civilization” in a mere switching of terminologies. This substituted false narrative of development which was engendered by the Euro-American dominated international organizations and the colonial regimes in Africa sequel to the Hitlerian War (1939–45) continue to be propagated to this day (see Arukwe, 2022) and has continued to inform the policy and actions of the neocolonial regimes, populated by indigenous Africans, that in reality act in the interest of the colonizers, which are running most of the African countries today.…”

“…This theoretical formulation is what Professor James M. Blaut addressed in his work, “The Theory of Cultural Racism.” Blaut’s (1987a, 1987b, 1992a, 1992b) thesis is that starting from the 18th century till date in virtually every age Euro-American racism has found a driver for its racist argument as well as practices against Africans and the rest of the non-European world; so that while in the early 18th century it was fashionable for Europeans and Americans to use a religious basis to ground their argument, from the later 18th century to about 1950 under the influence of Darwinist thought, it became fashionable to use a biological grounding for the pseudo racist arguments of the period. Post-1950 and the so-called Second World War it has become fashionable to use a historical or cultural-historical grounding for the argument for the racist theory and practice of the Caucasoid race toward other races as European cultural usages have been elevated to the acme of humanity and the pseudo mainstream that every society in the world must aspire to and subscribe to or else face the ostracizing wrath of the Caucasians and the global institutions that they dominate and control (Arukwe, 2010, 2022).…”

“…This symbiotic relationship between knowledge production and the corporate world of economics in the Euro-American world indicates among other things that there is no innocent knowledge since knowledge expresses the ideologies and interests of those who produced it. Being just like any other commodity, the knowledge that is apparently exported from the Euro-American world more so at a disruptive period as that of a global pandemic like the COVID-19 pandemic is essential for financial and other associated forms of gains (see Arukwe, 2014, 2022; Mashrabiyya, 2012; Spivak, 1988).…”