How did Europe get richer than Global South nations? Well, according to the British weekly magazine The Economist, the secret lies in Europeans being better able to digest animal milk than their Global South counterparts. So, according to them, it’s not slavery, colonialism or neo-colonialism, all systems that led to the plunder and pillaging of Global South resources for centuries.
In its March 2015 edition, @theeconomist parroted University of California academician Justin Cook’s study that claimed Europeans had genes that enabled them to digest lactose better than Africans or Asians, thereby making Europeans less susceptible to diseases due to milk’s nutritional composition, which consequently increased the European population, leading to cities’ growth and catalysing industrialisation and economic development.
Not only is this assertion a dubious attempt to show Europeans as somehow superior, but it also tries to hide that Europe has been built on the back of resources that were stolen from Africa and other parts of the Global South.
For example, Belgium did not become wealthy because Belgians were better at digesting lactose, but because King Leopold II (1835-1909) looted the Congo’s wealth. Further, Britain built its wealth by kidnapping and enslaving Africans in the Americas and in Africa. To that list, add the wealth that France looted from its African colonies, and it becomes clear how Europe became rich. Drinking cow’s milk definitely had no bearing on it.
Since our friends at the Economist do not get it, we have helped them correct their headline.
Sources: