Anticolonial Discussion Group: Decolonial Ecology, Attempts at Healing From the Double Fracture: Lessons from the DR Congo, Sudan and Palestine.

The Africa Centre and partners to be announced are excited to announce the second edition of its Anticolonial Discussion Group, happening this Winter/Spring! This series will facilitate open discussions, critical learning, and strategic conversation on decolonial ecology, discussing the role of climate justice in anti-colonial struggles for liberation.

📖 For the first event of this series, we will build on selected readings from Malcom Ferdinand’s groundbreaking book Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World (2022) to study the cases of the DR Congo, Sudan and Palestine. Hailing from Martinique, Ferdinand is an environmental engineer and academic who bridges ecology and decolonial thought. His work reveals how colonial legacies and ecological crises are deeply intertwined.

In Congo, Sudan, Palestine, and beyond, long-lasting colonial systems of exploitation powered by global capitalist extractivism have fueled war, accelerated genocide, and caused immense human suffering and loss, alongside the significant erasure of infrastructure and cultural heritage. These war machines also engender tremendous ecological destruction — ecocide characterised by the toxic contamination of air and water, irreparable damages to agricultural land, the plundering of natural resources such as so called ‘rare earth minerals’... What’s more, climate breakdown exacerbates the destructive impacts of these interlinked imperial projects, as natural disasters such as droughts or floods further harm frontline and conflict-affected communities. Yet these twin phenomena are rarely discussed together, their interlinkages remaining largely obscured in global environmental politics.

✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼 In Decolonial Ecology, Ferdinand challenges us to rethink environmentalism beyond Eurocentric frameworks. Building from the Caribbean world, he interrogates: how do we heal the “double fracture” between colonial domination and ecological destruction? 🌱 What does it mean to imagine liberation as an ecological project, and ecology as a decolonial struggle? How can we build a “world in common” rooted in justice, care, and survival for our communities and those with whom we stand in solidarity ?

Ahead of this event, we invite you to read the following chapters: ‘Prologue: A Colonial and Environmental Double Fracture,’ ‘Chapters 1: Colonial Inhabitation: An Earth without a World’ and ‘Chapter 9: A Colonial Ecology: At the Heart of the Double Fracture’.

🗓️ First session scheduled on 13 December 2025.

👥 This event is open to all. It is suitable for those who are familiar with climate justice, decolonial thought & those completely new to these subjects. We especially welcome those from gender and racial minorities and decolonial backgrounds.

🔗Free registration via Eventbrite – link in bio.

📧 Facing any barriers to purchasing a copy of the book? Don’t hesitate to email [email protected].