Capitalist religion and the becoming black of the world

some considerations from Achille Mbembe and Giorgio Agamben

Abstract

This article proposes to establish some approximations between the formulations that Giorgio Agamben has made about capitalism and slavery and those that are linked to what Achille Mbembe has called the black becoming of the world. Drawing from Walter Benjamin, Agamben maintains that capitalism is the only religion known to our age. This religion “sans trêve et sans merci”  [without truce and without mercy] has extended to almost every dimension of life and the planet, leading in turn to the becoming black of the world. In Mbembenian terms, this means that the black condition, which was something almost exclusive to African or enslaved populations, has become the condition of a large part of humanity, which is faced with excessive losses and a profound exhaustion of its organic capacities. This preliminary articulation allowed us to return to the Agambenian theses on the concentration camp as a biopolitical paradigm, in order to elucidate, as Castor Ruiz suggests, that the senzala is the locus of the colonial exception.

Keys-words: Captalism. Becoming black. Slavery. Agamben. Mbembe.