Indicators of Neo-Colonialism

20 min

Reading a landscape

The photograph shows the Nkana copper mine at Kitwe, on Zambia's Copperbelt: an open pit of red earth and, behind it, the steel headgear that lowers miners underground. Copper made Zambia one of the richest countries in Africa at independence in 1964. Who owned the mine, who set the price of its copper, and who decided how the money was spent? Those three questions are the indicators of this lesson in miniature.

Figure 1. Zambia nationalised its mines in 1969, but when copper prices fell and debts grew, the reforms required by its lenders led to privatisation. The economy still depended on one metal.

Definition

Indicator: a sign that can be observed or measured and that shows whether a condition exists.

Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP): a package of conditions attached to IMF and World Bank loans in the 1980s and 1990s, usually including spending cuts, removal of subsidies, devaluation, privatisation and opening markets to imports.

Brain drain: the emigration of educated and skilled people to richer countries.

Monoculture economy: an economy that depends on one main crop or mineral for most of its exports.

Indicators, sorted by form

Form	Indicators to look for
Economic	Exports dominated by one or two raw materials; key sectors (mines, banks, telecoms, plantations) owned by foreign firms that send profits abroad; heavy foreign debt; a budget that depends on aid; policies written as conditions by lenders; a currency managed from abroad; local industries undercut by cheap or second-hand imports; large areas of land leased to foreign investors
Political	Rulers kept in power, or removed, with outside help; decisions announced first by foreign partners; voting with a patron in international bodies
Military	Foreign bases and troops; defence agreements that let a foreign power intervene; dependence on one supplier for arms and training
Socio-cultural	A former colonial language that most citizens do not speak used as the main language of power; school curricula and media shaped abroad; preference for imported goods and ideas; brain drain of doctors, engineers and teachers

Weighing an indicator

One indicator alone does not prove neo-colonialism. Most countries in the world, rich and poor, receive foreign investment, and many receive aid; the question a historian asks is whether the country still sets its own priorities. A strong analysis looks for several indicators together and asks, in each case, who decides?

Warning

Do not confuse cooperation with control. Using English or French, borrowing money or hosting foreign companies is not in itself neo-colonial. It becomes an indicator when it takes away a country's real choice: when the loan's conditions write policy, or the company's profits leave nothing behind.

Tip

Ask "who decides?" For any indicator, ask who decides the price, the policy, the ruler or the curriculum. If the answer is mostly outsiders, you have found neo-colonialism.

Important

Discuss. Look at the shops and markets near your home or school. What evidence can you find of local production being replaced by imports, or the reverse?

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Practice

Define an indicator and a monoculture economy.
Give three economic indicators of neo-colonialism.
What were Structural Adjustment Programmes, and what conditions did they usually include?
Using Figure 1, describe how control of Zambia's copper changed between 1964 and 2000.
Explain why brain drain can be an indicator of neo-colonialism.
"Taking aid is always a sign of neo-colonialism." Discuss.

Show answersHide answers

An indicator is an observable or measurable sign of a condition. A monoculture economy depends on one main crop or mineral for most of its exports.
Any three: dependence on one or two raw-material exports; foreign ownership of key sectors; heavy debt; aid-dependent budgets; lenders' conditions; a currency managed abroad; local industry undercut by imports; large land leases to foreign investors.
IMF and World Bank loan packages of the 1980s and 1990s, with conditions such as spending cuts, removal of subsidies, devaluation, privatisation and opening to imports.
Foreign-owned at independence (1964); the state took a 51% stake in 1969; copper prices fell and debt grew in the 1970s; reforms backed by the IMF and World Bank in the 1990s; the state company was privatised and foreign firms bought the mines around 2000.
When doctors, engineers and teachers trained at public expense emigrate, the poorer country loses skills to richer ones and stays dependent on foreign experts.
A balanced answer: aid can fund schools, health and roads chosen by the country itself; it becomes neo-colonial when conditions dictate policy or aid replaces the country's own revenue for good. Judge by who sets the priorities.

Sources and credits

Zambian copper ownership checked against Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; facts checked, no text adapted.
Photo: ZM-Nkana-headgear-Kitwe, Per Arne Wilson, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Written by Ganzaa: the timeline, the table, the analysis and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1Reading a landscape

2Indicators, sorted by form

3Weighing an indicator

Reading a landscape

Indicators, sorted by form

Weighing an indicator