Forward Ever, Backward Never: Examining the Relationship between Colonial Violence and Capitalist Development in a Caribbean Context

Abstract

This paper very briefly challenges the normative understanding of development as purely beneficial and aspirational. It argues that capitalist development, as it manifests in the Caribbean, is built on a foundation of colonial violence and exploitation. The paper takes a twofold approach to exploring this relationship, arguing (1) that colonial violence and capitalist development are mutually reinforcing and (2) that the violent legacies of the colonial encounter are replicated in modern-day development initiatives. Through an analysis of development projects in Haiti and Belize, this paper shows how development-induced displacement, environmental degradation, and the erasure of indigenous culture and customs are all examples of this ongoing replication of colonial violence. The paper incorporates scholarship that ex- plains the continued existence of this relationship and raises important questions about how to move forward. Finally, it calls for more decolonial perspectives and critical approaches to capitalist development that recognize and address the ongoing effects of colonial violence especially in Caribbean contexts.