- Due to the legacy of decades of colonial rule and the subsequent lack of local expertise and capital needed to meet the requirements of the World Bank’s economic incentive programs, newly independent governments drew on foreign capital during decolonization in the mid-20th to keep businesses and exports running. As a result, some of the biggest tropical commodity companies were founded during colonial times and still operate in countries once occupied by colonial powers.
- One of these is Société Financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin), a Belgian holding company that operates palm oil and rubber plantations through dozens of subsidiaries across Africa and Southeast Asia.
- For years, Socfin has been rebuked by civil society organizations for alleged human rights violations at its plantations. Several lawsuits and complaints have been submitted over alleged misconduct including irregularities in land acquisition processes, poor working and housing conditions and the absence of the sustainable inclusion of local farmers.
- Socfin, meanwhile, refutes criticism of its operations, saying its aim is to further development in Africa and ensure that local communities and their workers are the beneficiaries of their operations.
Between 1885 and 1908, Belgium’s King Leopold II exerted control over a vast area of Africa that would later become the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His rule was characterized by systematic brutality that led to the deaths of an estimated 10 million people and one of the first recorded uses of the term “crimes against humanity.”
Today, statues of King Leopold II are being defaced and torn down in Belgium as the country, like many others around the world, is reckoning with a past rooted in racist exploitation. But statues are but one vestige of colonialism that has persisted for more than a century. Several of the biggest tropical commodity companies were founded during colonial times and still operate in countries once occupied by colonial powers. One of these is Société Financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin), a Belgian holding company that operates palm oil and rubber plantations through dozens of subsidiaries across Africa and Southeast Asia, and which has been rebuked by civil society organizations for alleged human rights violations at its plantations.
Socfin is listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and partially owned (38.75%) by French multinational corporation Bolloré. For years, Socfin has been subject to harsh criticism for malpractices in the establishment and management of its tropical plantations in eight African and two Asian countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tomé et Principe, Ghana, Indonesia and Cambodia. Civil society organizations, grassroots movements in countries of operation and international NGOs have voiced concerns, including what they say are irregularities in land acquisition processes, poor working and housing conditions and the absence of the sustainable inclusion of local farmers.
Read More: How the legacy of colonialism built a palm oil empire
