Françoise Vergès Links Denial of Basic Needs to Colonial and Racial Histories

Basic needs as political choices

In L’Économie de la mort, political scientist and historian Françoise Vergès argues that the denial of basic vital needs—such as breathing, drinking, using the toilet, and washing—is the result of political choices rooted in "the history of slavery and colonialism." She cites examples such as women in Gaza making sanitary pads from scraps of fabric, detainees living with rats and cockroaches in French prison cells, and regular water cuts in Mayotte.

Historical roots of inequality

Vergès notes that this denial of basic needs is historically linked to the period of slavery and colonialism, during which enslaved people were legally considered "movable property." She highlights a contemporary categorization that separates "humans-humans" with associated rights from "the figure of the non-human, the human-animal," which includes groups such as Jews, Roma and Muslims in Europe, Africans, indigenous peoples of the Americas-Caribbean, the Pacific and Asia.

Genocide and dehumanization

Vergès references the case of Palestinians in Gaza, who are currently victims of a genocide carried out by Israel. Former Israeli minister Yoav Gallant referred to them as "human animals" in October 2023. The author argues that "human-animals" are deprived of the satisfaction of their basic vital needs precisely because they have a human part. She calls for making the right to breathe, and by extension the right to drink, "a revolutionary claim."

Colonial-racial division in France

Vergès discusses the "colonial-racial division between clean and dirty," pointing out how popular neighborhoods in France are neglected by the state, leading to dirt in the streets. This reinforces the racist idea that the inhabitants of these areas are ontologically dirty and therefore not deserving of consideration. She notes that the cleanliness of wealthy neighborhoods is largely due to the invisible cleaning work carried out by non-white inhabitants of poor neighborhoods.

Pollution and waste dumping

The author also highlights how the "dirty world" has become the "dumping ground" of Western states, with tons of waste sent to countries in the Global South or to poor neighborhoods in Northern countries. Extractive capitalist economies of imperialist powers impose a "dispossession" of resources while polluting these areas on a large scale, leading again to the denial of the basic needs of local populations.

Breathing as a privilege

Vergès states that "breathing has become a privilege of class and race," and that the exhaustion and suffocation are inherent to slavery, colonialism and capitalism, which have exploited and continue to exploit bodies, lands, air and waters until exhaustion. She cites several "detoxification strategies" carried out by indigenous peoples and calls for making the right to breathe "a revolutionary claim," emphasizing that this vital function is not a commodity.