Reconsidering Reparations

Philosopher Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò offers a persuasive analysis that reframes reparations for colonialism and slavery as a global “worldmaking” project. In contrast to a discourse marked by cultural and historical amnesia, this worldmaking project takes a long view of the present system, focusing on its historical birth and development into a global empire of inequality. The fissures of this system are particularly visible now at the intersection of racial and climate justice.

Importantly, Táíwò conceives reparations not as a one-time act that magically settles a one-time score, but as a comprehensive transformation of our received reality. This worldmaking transformation uses a constructive approach to set about actually building the world we wish to see.

At the end of the book, Táíwò leaves the reader with reflections on how to fight the fires of what he calls Global Racial Empire, while resisting the amnesia that allows this system to continue unchecked. One such tactic that carries deeply spiritual implications is that of “acting like an ancestor.” Cultivating this attitude links us across time and space with those who have come before us and those that will come after us, to whom we now bear responsibility. 

Against accelerationism and apocalypticism, acting like an ancestor requires a “revolutionary patience” that accepts the challenge of making small changes for a just world that may reverberate long after we are gone. There are no final, immediate solutions, and the world will not be remade only upon the condition of obliteration. We can only take up the tools we have now and start building.