The Role of Colonial Capitalism in Empire-Building

This panel looks at the complexities of extractive colonial capitalism, and its aftermath, in central Africa. Far from being underdeveloped or removed from capitalism or modernity, these papers highlight the long enmeshment of central Africa, today the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, in global capital flows. In his study of the transformation of concessionary mining firms into international finance companies, Peter Vale argues that the processes of colonial independence and nationalism are crucial to understanding finance networks today, while Claire Wrigley argues that Lever Bros. (now Unilever's) attempt to practice 'commerce, civilization, and Christianity' in the then Belgian Congo demonstrate the totalizing ambitions of European imperial capitalism.