Between “emancipation” and domination: the global environmental narrative and the development policies of Africa

Abstract

The article aims to understand the construction of the global environmentalist narrative and the place that the African continent occupies in it. To this end, it analyzes documents produced by the United Nations and the African Union, between 1972 and 2002, and which deal with the issue of development, nature and
the environment. The results of the analysis indicate that such a narrative obliged countries to incorporate the environmental dimension in their developmental policies. Given the prevailing poverty situation in Africa, however, the continent was seen as incapable of preserving nature and because of that should be under the tutelage of countries of the global north. It was suggested that these countries, through the expansion of their economic capital and technical assistance, would be able to eliminate the poverty of Africans and, consequently, prevent them from attacking nature. This situation, however, conflicted with the African development agenda initiated in the post-independence period, which saw in the exploration of
nature the path by which the continent would achieve its economic emancipation.