History is written by the victors. The narrative, therefore, excludes the cruel story of how these victors achieved domination. Controlling the narrative, however, does not change history, and truth is a mystical force that always comes to the surface.
A case in point is the 2021 Home Box Office documentary series , directed and narrated by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. Peck borrows the name from a book of the same title by his friend Sven Lindqvist and a line from Joseph Conrad’s classic novel .
Much of Peck’s narrative revolves around his own life. His family left Haiti when he was young to escape a dictator and ended up living under another dictator in Congo. He also spent time in the United States and Europe. The story thus revolves largely around Africa, the Americas and Europe.
Europe achieved global domination through violence and justified its actions by developing elaborate racial theories. Many European colonial powers enriched themselves through forced labour, resource extraction and territorial conquest, often portraying their rule as benevolent. While some European individuals opposed these abuses, the systemic reality was clear: economic gain was prioritized over human rights.
A significant but often overlooked chapter of history is how Adolf Hitler found inspiration in Western colonial policies. Historians such as Timothy Snyder, in , and Dirk Moses have documented how Nazi racial policies drew from European and American precedents. Germany’s own genocidal past in Africa, particularly in Namibia between 1904 and 1908, established a model for later atrocities. The American westward expansion, marked by the displacement and mass killing of Indigenous peoples, also shaped Nazi views on Lebensraum, the idea of expanding German territory by clearing out so-called inferior populations.
While Western history books celebrate the fight against fascism, they often omit an uncomfortable truth: some of the same colonial ideologies that justified the oppression of Indigenous and African peoples influenced aspects of the Nazi regime. This does not mean the West created Nazism, but it does challenge the simplistic narrative of absolute moral righteousness in the fight against fascism.
Peck skillfully combines documentary narrative, home movies, re-enactments and speculative storytelling to force viewers to reconsider the way history is presented. The series does not aim for neutrality—it is an explicitly anti-colonial perspective, drawing heavily from a Marxist critique of history. This school of thought argues that colonialism has not truly ended but evolved into economic and geopolitical structures that continue to disadvantage former colonies. Proponents of this view highlight unfair trade agreements, Western-controlled financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, and corporate resource extraction as forms of modern-day colonialism.
Four years have passed since Exterminate All the Brutes was released, and the world has changed in significant ways. No longer is the narrative controlled solely by the powerful—former colonies and marginalized groups have unprecedented access to global platforms. Yet, the past still lingers in today’s conflicts. The ongoing war in Ukraine, the crisis in Palestine, the plundering of Congo’s minerals and the violence in Sudan all exist within a broader historical context of colonial influence. Colonialism did not cause these crises outright, but its legacy—arbitrary borders, economic dependency and political instability—continues to shape them.
I have lived in many of the places Peck featured in his series. I have observed that those who continue to defend the colonial narrative often embrace not only the myths of racial superiority but also the same methodologies of repression and violence that sustained empire-building.
If we are going to survive our current global crisis, we need to be honest. We must move beyond simplified narratives of heroes and villains and confront the uncomfortable complexities of history. Acknowledging past and present injustices is not about assigning guilt—it is about recognizing patterns that, if left unchallenged, will continue to define our world.
No individual has all the answers to the crises we face today. But by learning from those who resisted and survived the cruelties of colonialism, we may find the wisdom needed to navigate an uncertain future.
Gerry Chidiac specializes in languages and genocide studies and works with at-risk students. He received an award from the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre for excellence in teaching about the Holocaust.
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