The Chemical Violence of Colonial Encounters in Africa: Historiographical Reflections and Theoretical Perspectives

Violence and genocide defined settler colonialism in Africa. The relationship between “settlers” as citizens and “natives” as subjects was constructed by instruments of power that dispensed brute force to subjugate, annex, extract, exploit and expropriate. Violence created and sustained the colonial state. Violence was legitimated through the depiction of the “native” as less than human. However, while forms of colonial violence such as wars, coercive labour regimes, land dispossession, political repression, and racial segregation have been subject to extensive historical attention, the chemical violence of colonial encounters is understudied. This paper argues that toxins, poisons, and chemicals constituted a significant frontier of colonial structural violence on indigenous people, landscapes, and ecosystems in Africa. It conceptualizes chemical violence within the broader historiography of African history and urges for theoretical perspectives that centre it as an analytical framework.