In this episode, I’m joined by critical development economists Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa Region Director for Research and Policy at the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs), and Farwa Sial, Asia Region Director for Research and Policy at IDEAS, to discuss the international financial system and its role in upholding empire. We explore how this system has been structurally designed to keep Global South countries trapped in a state of perpetual dependency and underdevelopment through predatory lending and unsustainable debt burdens, and discuss what a more just global financial order might look like.

Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Washington, D.C. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.

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Sources and helpful links:

• ⁠International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs) website⁠

• IDEAs — ⁠70 Years After Bandung: Challenges and Struggles on the Road to Self-Determination and South-South Solidarity conference⁠

• Ndongo Samba Sylla and Kai Koddenbrock (editors) — ⁠Delinking and Global Reparations⁠ (Transcript Publishing, 2025)

• Maha Ben Gadha, Fadhel Kaboub, Kai Koddenbrock, Ines Mahmoud and Ndongo Samba Sylla (editors) — ⁠Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Afric⁠a (Pluto Press, 2021)

• Ndongo Samba Sylla (editor) — ⁠Imperialism and the Political Economy of Global South’s Debt⁠ (Emerald Publishing, 2023)

• Dan Smith — ⁠How Capitalists Created International Financial Institutions to Rule the Planet⁠ (Jacobin, October 2022)

• Jason Hickel — ⁠Apartheid in the World Bank and the IMF⁠ (Al-Jazeera, November 2020)

• Vladimir Lenin — ⁠Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism⁠ (1917)

• Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research — ⁠How Neoliberalism Has Wielded ‘Corruption’ to Privatise Life in Africa⁠ (November 2024)

• James Baratta — ⁠Activists Are Challenging Laws That Enable Vulture Funds to Exploit Global South⁠ (Truthout, January 2022)

• Bodo Ellmers — ⁠Vulture funds: US court ruling on Argentina enrages debt justice campaigners ⁠(Eurodad, September 2013)

• Eric Toussaint — ⁠The World Bank and the Third World Debt Crisis in historical Perspective⁠ (CADTM, March 2002)

• Michael Galant —⁠ The Shackles of Debt in the Global South Weigh Down Workers Everywhere⁠ (Jacobin, June 2021)

• Larry Elliott — ⁠Developing countries face worst debt crisis in history, study shows⁠ (The Guardian, July 2024)

• UN Trade and Development — ⁠Debt crisis: Developing countries’ external debt hits record $11.4 trillion⁠ (March 2025)

• Ndongo Samba Sylla — ⁠The Conceptual Roots of the Global South’s Debt Crisis ⁠(Project Syndicate, January 2024)

• Jason Hickel — ⁠How Britain stole $45 trillion from India⁠ (Al-Jazeera, December 2018)

• Daniela Gabor and Ndongo Samba Sylla — ⁠The Global South Must Be at the Center of the Making of a Just Global Economic Order⁠ (Jacobin, February 2023)

• Ndongo Samba Sylla — ⁠Live as African: On the Relevance of Thomas Sankara‘s Agenda for Economic Liberation⁠ (University of Bayreuth, 2022)

• Thomas Sankara — ⁠A United Front Against Debt⁠ (1987)

Social links:

Return to Bandung:

• Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠

• Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠

Pranay Somayajula:

• Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠

• Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠

• Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠

• Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠

Ndongo Samba Sylla:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nssylla

Farwa Sial:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/farwasial

International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/deveconnetwork

• Website: https://www.networkideas.org/