Colonial debts of the past, present and future

In 1804, Haiti achieved what had long been unimaginable: liberation from colonialism and slavery through the slave revolt. However, the end of the French colony did not yet mean liberation from the colonial state of France, as France forced Haiti into a huge mountain of debt to "compensate" France for lost profits through slavery. Haiti had to pay off these illegitimate debts to the former colonial power until the middle of the 20th century.

But colonial debts are not just a topic for history books. Colonialism continues to have an impact today. The current debt architecture is also characterised by neo-colonial structures and resources flow unlawfully from the Global South to the Global North. Among other things, we address the following questions:

• Why is a large part of the Global South critically indebted?
• Who are the foreign creditors?
• How is it decided whether a country receives debt relief?
• And how does the global debt architecture continue to reproduce colonial structures today?

In this interactive workshop, we will show you the ways in which debt can be both Consequence of as well as a Instrument for colonial and neo-colonial practices of domination.

And who is actually guilty of what? Given the immense colonial and climate debts of the Global North, shouldn't we rather say that the Global North owes the Global South something? We will demonstrate how social and anti-colonial movements are fighting for a fairer global financial architecture and show how participants can contribute to a fairer financial architecture themselves.