The legacy of colonialism still lives on for the simple fact that the colonial institutions are yet mostly in place: European missionary schools, banana “republics”, colonial banks, unfair agreements between the Western powers and their ex colonies, and so forth. The local elites of the Global South play an intermediary role between the West and the Global South. They are first taught Western values and ideologies by prestigious Western institutes then sponsored and brought to power by either “international” financial institutes like the IMF and the World Bank or foreign political bureaus, in order to act in the service and interest of the West. Their entire pedagigical and political formation is brewed outside their respective nation and tailored in way that is suitable for the West to continue its hegemonic role in a more discrete manner.
And the cold war leaders you mentioned (Amin and Suharto) further prove my point, both being dictators that were propped up by the British colonial army and the United States, respectively, and both having led crackdowns against (leftist) native uprisings. (And please do not conflate historical personalities from different historical periods with their own specificities that cannot be liberally contrasted with the modern era.)
I say all of this not because of some ancient, historical hatred to the West, nor as an apologia for our corrupt, western-backed governments. This is just the reality we third world citizens are still experiencing to this day. To quote Michel-Rolph Trouillot:
Injustices made to previous generations should be redressed: they affect the descendants of the victims. But the focus on The Past often diverts us from the present injustices for which previous generations only set the foundations.
The legacy of colonialism still lives on for the simple fact that the colonial institutions are yet mostly in place: European missionary schools, banana “republics”, colonial banks, unfair agreements between the Western powers and their ex colonies, and so forth. The local elites of the Global South play an intermediary role between the West and the Global South. They are first taught Western values and ideologies by prestigious Western institutes then sponsored and brought to power by either “international” financial institutes like the IMF and the World Bank or foreign political bureaus, in order to act in the service and interest of the West. Their entire pedagigical and political formation is brewed outside their respective nation and tailored in way that is suitable for the West to continue its hegemonic role in a more discrete manner.
And the cold war leaders you mentioned (Amin and Suharto) further prove my point, both being dictators that were propped up by the British colonial army and the United States, respectively, and both having led crackdowns against (leftist) native uprisings. (And please do not conflate historical personalities from different historical periods with their own specificities that cannot be liberally contrasted with the modern era.)
I say all of this not because of some ancient, historical hatred to the West, nor as an apologia for our corrupt, western-backed governments. This is just the reality we third world citizens are still experiencing to this day. To quote Michel-Rolph Trouillot: