New report links British colonial rule to Africa’s ecological damage

A new report launched at the University of Lagos is calling for the environmental damage associated with British colonial rule in Africa to be formally documented, assessed and considered in discussions over reparations and historical justice.

Titled CO2lonialism, Ecocide and Reparations, the report examines the long-term environmental consequences of colonial economic policies, including the appropriation of land and natural resources and changes to agricultural and resource-management systems across former African colonies.

Its authors argue that these impacts should be examined alongside the human, social and economic consequences of colonialism, rather than treated as a separate or secondary issue.

Presenting the report, its lead author, Professor J. G. Nkem Onyekpe, head of the Department of History and Strategic Studies at the University of Lagos, said the environmental dimension had received comparatively little attention in reparations discussions.

Onyekpe cited a peer-reviewed 2022 estimate that valued resources transferred from the Global South through unequal exchange at more than $10 trillion in 2015 alone.

He said applying a comparable approach across the period of colonial rule and affected African countries could potentially produce estimates running into hundreds of trillions of dollars.

The report, however, does not establish such a figure as the value of Africa’s colonial-era ecological damage. Instead, it calls for further research and a consistent methodology for documenting and valuing environmental losses.

Professor Nnagugwu Oscar Uluocha, a professor of Geography at the University of Lagos, described the ecological damage associated with British colonial rule as “colossal”.

He called for geographical and scientific evidence to be used to examine changes to Nigeria’s environment and assess the effects of historical land-use, agricultural and resource-extraction policies.

The report also raises questions about the legal responsibility of present-day states for environmental damage associated with colonial rule.

Dr. Asikia Karibi-Whyte, a jurisprudence and international law expert at the University of Lagos, challenged the argument that present governments should be viewed as separate from the states and institutions that existed during colonial rule.

She pointed to the Certain Phosphate Lands in Nauru proceedings before the International Court of Justice, which involved environmental damage associated with phosphate mining during the colonial period, as a relevant precedent in considering environmental claims linked to colonial administration.

The report comes amid growing international debate over ecocide and whether large-scale destruction of ecosystems should attract greater legal accountability. It also points to the African Union’s consideration of the classification of massive environmental destruction as a crime.

The researchers are advocating an African-led approach that brings historians, environmental scientists, geographers, economists and legal experts together to establish the historical and economic dimensions of colonial ecological damage.

The report has been submitted to African Union reparations bodies for consideration. Its authors say their objective is not to predetermine a financial claim, but to provide a basis for further research into environmental losses and explore how historical evidence, ecological restoration and economic justice can inform Africa’s reparations agenda.