The bard pays homage to his two muses: his wife and his football club
Latest editorial
For the few not the many
BOB NEWLAND recommends a book that challenges many erroneously held views on conservationism
INVASIVE: Awash National Park, Ethiopia
[Nina R/CC]
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by an incoherent show that fails to question stereotypical assumptions about the Soviet Union
JOHN McINALLY welcomes a rigorous class analysis of the history and exploitation of sectarianism by the Scottish ruling elite
WILL STONE, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Souleymane’s Story, Sunlight, Good Fortune, and After The Hunt
ALEX HALL recommends an exhaustive investigation of the means by which the Starmer faction assassinated the left
DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women
The Invention of Green Colonialism
by Guillaume Blanc
Polity £15.99
MANY Morning Star readers will be familiar with the oft repeated justification that colonialists simply took over and developed land that was unoccupied. To make this a reality required the wholesale expulsion of indigenous peoples from their land in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Africa.
Like many other progressives I have always considered the National Parks and their conservation agenda to be a good thing. This book challenges that idea.
Blanc’s study concentrates primarily on Africa especially Ethiopia. He argues that National Parks are based on the colonial era idea of “Eden” — an Africa consisting of vast forests and green spaces occupied by flora and fauna.
Similar stories
Nature's self-reconstruction is both intriguing and beneficial and as such merits human protection, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
What has worked well – and what needs to change – for the convention that controls trade in endangered species? DAN CHALLENDER and MICHAEL ’T SAS-ROLFES explain
Chinese socialist planning and action over decades have created the world’s greatest reforestation programme, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ, and now its lessons in fighting desertification and climate change are taking root worldwide
A green campaigner’s new book argues that large landowners have used their self-proclaimed role as ‘stewards of the countryside’ to deflect attention from the environmental damage that their activities cause. Professor CHRISTOPHER RODGERS reports