EDITOR’S LETTER
TALES OF EMPIRE
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE:
AMY HALL for the New Internationalist Co-operative newint.org
Cover: Moussa Bitteye, who was 96 when this photograph was taken in Saint Louis, Senegal . He fought as a ‘ tirailleur’ – a soldier in the French Colonial army – and explains to the photographer that he is still haunted by the war and experiences night terrors. ‘We spent four or five days in the jungle picking up the wounded; I carried many of them on my shoulders, they were mainly Black , Malian and Senegalese brothers,’ he explains. ALFREDO CALIZ/PANOS PICTURES
There’s a popular proverb displayed on a sign in the Barbados Museum: ‘Unless you know the road you’ve come down, you cannot know where you are going.’ As Barbados continues on its path as a young republic, it ’s a reminder that the past is always present in the future.
The sign stands at the opening to the museum’s exhibit on Africa, where most of the island’s population have their heritage but which is half way across the world. As the museum reminds us, over a period of 500 years many Caribbean societies ‘were created by the forces of capitalism’ and these forces of capitalism had empire at their heart.
As an internationalist magazine, with a focus on the Global South, how Empire shaped our world is an essential part of any story we tell. So, as voted for by our readers, it ’s a topic we’ve been tackling head on for the past year. This Big Story rounds off our Decolonize How? series, which has been using the methods of ‘solutions journalism’ to do just that.
Keep an eye on our website for more stories until the end of September, plus ways in which you can join the discussion: online and in person. Catch up on the rest of the series at a.nin.tl /DH
This edition also includes two new sections: an extended commentary slot, in which Nanjala Nyambola takes on racist border policies, and a longer book review. Let us know what you think , and what we could tackle in these pieces in the future.
Kojo Koram is a writer and an academic, teaching at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire.
Mira Galanova is a freelance investigative journalist specializing in human rights and citizen security in Latin America. Her work has been published in The Guardian and The Washington Post among others.
Priya Lukka is an economist who works with policymakers, philanthropists and activists to improve outcomes for groups of marginalized people.
Samuel Getachew is a journalist based in Addis Ababa. He has written for The Reporter newspaper in Ethiopia as well as The New Humanitarian, the Globe & Mail and others.
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