Symposium on Unbroken Bond: Tracing the Ties Between African and Palestinian Anti-Colonial Struggles – Race as a Tool of Oppression: Settler Colonialism in Africa and Palestine Through the Lens of Black Radical Thought

[David Arita is a student at Kabarak University]

European colonial powers used pseudo-scientific racial underpinnings to justify their conquest and the exploitation of African lands and peoples. This racial ideology served multiple purposes including providing a moral justification for colonisation, facilitating the exploitation of African labour, and underwriting the policies of segregation and unequal development. Similarly, the Zionist settler project in Palestine has gained justification from racial hegemony, manifesting through ethnic cleansing, military occupation, and systemic discrimination. This enduring legacy of settler colonialism continues to shape geopolitical landscapes and social hierarchies across the globe, with its impact particularly being pronounced in Africa and Palestine. Generally, the construction of race has been used to create hierarchies, justify land theft, control labour, and maintain systems of privilege. Racial classification has been historically created to justify economic exploitation, particularly in the context of slavery, colonialism and capitalism.

The Black Radical Tradition: A Framework for Understanding Racial Oppression

The black radical tradition offers a powerful lens through which to examine the role of race in settler colonial projects. This intellectual and political lineage, rooted in the experience of Africa diaspora people provides a critical tool for understanding and confronting systemic racism and its intersections with other forms of oppression. Angela Davis, a key figure in this tradition, has consistently emphasised the need to recognise the interconnectedness of various struggles against oppression. Davis further contends that the result is the perpetuation and intensification of racial oppression, manifesting as disproportionate violence, mass incarceration and community criminalisation in the US; and as a restricted movement, land confiscation and systemic control in Palestine. By emphasising these parallels, Davis illustrates how racial oppression functions as a global system, with tactics and ideologies circulating between different contexts.

Robin Kelley has also contributed to our understanding of how race functions as a tool of oppression. He explores how black radical thought has consistently challenged not only racism but also the broader structures of capitalism and imperialism that underpin racial hierarchies. Following from his analysis, he posits that the black radical concept envisions a world where race, gender, and class oppression do not exist. Both Kelley and Davis share a common intellectual lineage with black radical thought, extending their analyses beyond race to encompass broader systems of oppression. They underscore the convergence of various forms of domination, particularly the relationship between racial oppression and capitalist exploitation. Like Michael Dawson as well, they further argue that race, class, and gender cannot be understood in isolation but must be analysed as part of a complex, interlocking system of power.

This framework showcases that racial categories are not natural or inevitable, but rather are created and maintained to serve specific political and economic interests. Furthermore, racial categories intersect with other forms of oppression, such as class and gender to create complex systems of domination.

Settler Colonialism Emanating in the African and Palestinian Fronts

Africa

The history of settler colonialism in Africa is deeply intertwined with the construction and imposition of racial hierarchies. As aforementioned, European colonial powers utilised pseudo-scientific racial underpinnings to justify their conquest and exploitation of African lands and people. This racial ideology served multiple purposes including providing a moral justification for colonisation, facilitating the exploitation of African labour, and underwriting policies of segregation and unequal development.

In South Africa, for instance, the system of apartheid was the culmination of centuries of racial categorisation and discrimination. Apartheid in South Africa descended directly from settler colonialism, refining and codifying centuries of racial oppression into a formal system of governance. It represented the culmination of racist ideologies and practices introduced by European settlers, who established hierarchies based on race to justify land grabs and labour exploitation. Apartheid institutionalised colonial-era racial categories and discriminatory practices, transforming them into a comprehensive legal framework that entrenched white minority rule.

In Kenya, the British colonial administration used racial categorisation to justify land alienation and the creation of native reserves, using racists ideologies to rationalise these actions. Settler-colonists designated vast tracts of fertile land as “white highlands” exclusively for European settler use, forcibly displacing indigenous Kenyan communities. Simultaneously, they established overcrowded “native reserves” for African populations often on less productive lands. This racial zoning policy not only served to secure prime agricultural areas for white settlers but also created a pool of cheap, landless labour. These reserves became mechanisms of control, limiting African mobility and economic opportunities while reinforcing racial hierarchies. 

Palestine

The Zionist settler colonial project in Palestine bears striking similarities to African experiences in terms of racial ideologies validating land appropriation and population displacement.  As in Africa, the creation of the Palestinian as a racial “other” has been instrumental in advancing Israeli settler-colonialism. Edward Said argues that Orientalism – the West’s patronising representation of “the East” – served as vindication for colonialism. In the context of Palestine, this discourse portrays Palestinians as backward, uncivilised, and therefore undeserving of self-determination. The Israeli state’s policies and land confiscation, settlement construction and restriction of Palestinian movement are often justified through a discourse of security and civilisation that is deeply rooted in racial othering. 

As Davis points out, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is one of the most blatant cases of state commitment to apartheid and racism. The Zionist project in Palestine has employed Orientalist discourse and intersectional oppression in several key ways. Zionist narratives often portray Palestine as the “land without people for a people without land”, erasing Palestinian presence and culture. This Orientalist view depicted Palestinians their right to self-determination. The Israeli state has consistently framed Palestinians as security threats, using this portrayal in justifying land confiscation and settlement expansion and militarised control.

In both Africa and Palestine, settler colonialism was driven by a complex interplay of economic, political and ideological incentives. Although the most prominent reason for settler occupation boiled down to unjust land acquisition. In Africa, European powers sought to exploit vast natural resources, gain strategic control, address population pressure and fulfil a perceived “civilizing mission”. The Zionist project in Palestine was primarily motivated by the desire to establish a Jewish homeland, escape persecution in Europe, create economic opportunities for Jewish immigrants, and secure political self-determination. 

Implication of Racial Hierarchies’ Utilisation

The consequences of these racial motivated settler colonial projects in Africa have been profound and long-lasting. They have resulted in enduring economic inequalities, distorted social relations, and ongoing struggles over land and resources. A sentiment shared by Gareth Austin who avers that these colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary African societies and their relationships with former colonial powers.

This special reorganisation based on racial categories had profound and lasting impacts on Kenya’s social, economic, and political landscape, extending well beyond the formal end of colonial rule. In Palestine, women face multiple layers of oppression encompassing gender discrimination within their own society, racial discrimination from the Israeli state and the general hardships of living under occupation. This includes restricted movement, limited access to healthcare and education, and vulnerability to violence both domestic and state-sanctioned. These policies and practices reflect the intersectionality of race, gender and colonial status in the oppression of Palestinian women, as highlighted by both Davis and Kelley. 

At the heart of both African and Palestinian struggles lies the fundamental issue of dispossession which spilled over from an incentive of occupation to its consequent result. Closely tied to land dispossession is the exploitation of labour, another area where racial hierarchies play a crucial role. The attempt to erase and delegitimise indigenous culture is another shared feature of settler colonial projects in both regions.

The Way Forward

The black radical tradition provides crucial insights on how these systems of racial oppression have been resisted and challenged. From the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, African resistance movements have consistently fought against both material and ideological aspects of racial domination. These movements have often drawn inspiration from and contributed to global black radical thought, creating transnational networks of solidarity and resistance. Despite the oppressive nature of settler colonialism, both African and Palestinian communities have developed powerful traditions of resistance. 

Kelley’s concept of “freedom dream” is particularly relevant here as he connotes that oppressed communities don’t just resist, they also imagine and fight for alternative futures. This is evident in both African liberation movements and Palestinian resistance. Lila Abu-Lughod resonates with a similar in black radical thought, highlighting how seemingly small acts of cultural preservation and defiance can challenge colonial power structures. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel has drawn explicit inspiration from the anti-apartheid resistance in South Africa, demonstrating the potential of transnational solidarity grounded in shared experiences of racial oppression.

As Davis posits, recognising the interconnectedness of struggles against racial oppression can foster global solidarity movements capable of challenging settler colonial regimes and the broader structures of racial capitalism they represent. By understanding how race has been deployed as a tool of oppression in these contexts, we can better appreciate the depth of the challenge faced by indigenous people in Africa and Palestine. At the same time, we can draw hope and inspiration from their ongoing struggles for justice, self-determination and cultural resurgence.Conversely, despite the historical use of racial hierarchies as tools of oppression in colonial Africa and Palestine since the late 21^st century, genetic evidence paradoxically reveals greater diversity within African populations than between Africans and non-Africans. This finding challenges the biological basis of racial categories used to justify domination, suggesting that the very concept of distinct “races” is scientifically unfounded. The paradox opens avenues for further research into how racial categories persist socially and politically in the face of contradicting genetic evidence and how this scientific understanding could be leveraged to challenge racist ideologies and systems of oppression in both historical and contemporary contexts. As we unravel the complexities of human genetic diversity, one must wonder: could the very science once misused to warrant oppression become the key to dismantling the structure of racial hierarchy?