Decolonial Sweden

Decolonial Sweden exposes the social and political relevance of European colonialism to Sweden and its place in the world. It is a book that points to why and how Sweden is to be included in global decolonial struggles.

Sweden is often displayed as an ethnoracially homogenous country without any colonial history: an open and tolerant human rights champion, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and in solidarity with the Global South. For over twenty years, authors Michael McEachrane and Louis Faye have been challenging this account, pointing to Sweden’s involvement in colonial histories and legacies, its racialized nationhood, and embedded colonial structures. This important new book reflects a decolonial turn in research, emphasizing that coloniality is far from over, and that challenging global injustices remains an unfinished and open-ended process. Chapters in the book consider the resistance of the Sámi people to Swedish colonialism, whether Sweden owes the Caribbean reparations for its colonization of Saint Barthélemy and involvement in the transatlantic trade, Sweden’s involvement in a colonial global economy, and how white European identification is embedded in Swedish politics, nation-building, and society. Engaging and insightful, Decolonial Sweden invites readers to reconsider Swedish attitudes toward race, colonialism, and international relations.

This book is an essential read for Post- and Decolonial scholars and students of Critical Race Studies, Critical Indigenous Studies, Africana Studies, International Relations, Global Development, and Political Science, as well as for anyone interested in Sweden’s place in the world.

Michael McEachrane is a 2024 Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program and a 2024-2025 Racial Justice Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center. He is also Member and Rapporteur of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, Visiting Senior Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights in Sweden and External Affiliate of the Sarah Remond Parker Centre for the Study of Racism at the University College London. His research is in the areas of Postcolonial/Decolonial Studies, Black European Studies, Critical Race Studies, Human Rights, and the Philosophy of Psychology.

Louis Faye is a cultural entrepreneur, writer and photographer. Born in Berlin and raised in Senegal and Morocco, he is the founding Director of the cultural association Diggante--which during the 1990s and 2000s helped introduce a postcolonial and diasporic consciousness to Sweden through cultural events, tours, and bringing such postcolonial luminaries to Sweden as V.Y. Mudimbe, Gayatri Spivak, Paul Gilroy, and Angela Davis.