This activity, a board game played with counters and a dice, is designed to help players understand the mechanisms of neo-colonialism and its consequences for both the global South and the global North.

“In place of colonialism, as the main instrument of imperialism, we have today neo-colonialism.”

Kwame Nkrumah

Issues addressed

• Economic relations as one contributing factor in the development of racism and xenophobia
• North-South relations and the imbalance between them
• Development models and their consequences

Aims

• To develop an understanding of the imbalance in North-South relations as a factor forcing people to seek better living conditions in other countries
• To understand the interdependence between countries and peoples
• To understand racism and xenophobia as part of a global problem

Preparation / Materials

Equipment needed for each team:

• A game board (a photocopy enlargement will be suitable); one dice
• Four round counters (made of cardboard, about 2 cm in diameter), one grey and the three others of different colours, e.g. brown, green and blue
• Photocopy and cut up the sheet of action cards. If possible, place them in a little box.
• Seventy dried beans, pieces of macaroni or something similar, to serve as tokens (to represent resources).

Instructions

1. Divide the participants into groups of between 4 and 12.
2. To share out the counters between the teams: put the counters in a hat and ask someone from each team to take one. This ensures that it is pure chance which team plays with which colour.
3. Share out the beans. Give the team playing grey seven beans and the teams playing with brown, green and blue tokens 21 beans each. (This distribution corresponds roughly to the distribution of natural resources between the countries of the North and South.)
4. Ask one member of each team in turn to throw the dice to see who starts playing first. The person who throws the highest number starts.
5. Read out the rules of the game.
6. Check that everyone knows what to do, and then let the game begin.

Debriefing and evaluation

At the end of the game ask each team to look back at the route they took, the squares they stopped on and what happened there.

If there are any squares that no team landed on, read out the action card to see what would have happened.

Follow on with a discussion about how the players felt and what they learnt:

• How did it feel to be “grey”? How did it feel to be “brown", "green" or "blue"?
• Are there any parallels between this game and reality? Do the problems and issues raised occur in reality?
• Who does the "grey counter” represent? And the other ones?
• How much did you already know about the effects of neo-colonialism before playing this game? Were the ideas on any of the cards new to you? What are the main sources of your information about the issues?
• What are the characteristics, according to this game, of the present "dominant development model"?
• In the future, would a more sustainable development model be more appropriate? Why? What might it be like?
• What are the links between the current world situation and attitudes of racism and discrimination?
• How are refugees welcomed in your country? Why do so many face discrimination and racism? Are there solutions?
• Have you heard of the Sustainable Development Goals? What is being done in your country to achieve them?

Tips for the facilitators

The targets of racism and xenophobia are often immigrants and refugees who are fleeing war and poverty, the ultimate causes of which often have their roots in historical imperialism. In the mid-20th century, the majority of colonies gained their political independence, but as Kwame Nkrumah, the first president and prime minister of Ghana, said in 1965, “In place of colonialism, as the main instrument of imperialism, we have today neo-colonialism”. By this, he meant that the imperial states maintain their power over their former colonies through the hegemony of the free-market economy and globalisation. Neo-colonialism results in a relationship of dependence, subservience and financial obligation towards the neo-colonialist nation.

This game provides many examples of how policies of countries in the global North impact negatively on those of the global South, and how the consequences of those policies can rebound on us. For instance, the people forced from their homes by floods that are a consequence of changed weather patterns due to the climate emergency become the refugees that fuel problems of racism in our societies.

It is important that people playing this game do not feel that the world is heading for disaster. We need hope! You might find it necessary to explain that this game was developed over 25 years ago and much has in fact changed since then. The western liberal model has been “softened”, particularly, first by the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and now by the Sustainable Development Goals. The reality is that there have been huge falls in poverty and infant mortality, and it is not the case that countries have been stuck where they are. The terms “North” and “South” referring to socio-economic and political divisions should not be taken to refer to geographical locations; the term as such is becoming increasingly incompatible with reality. You can find more information at www.gapminder.org.

If you have a large group, you may want to run two or more games concurrently. The game works best if there is a maximum of three people per team, i.e. 12 per group.

On square 49, the team playing grey may change the rules in any way they like. It is assumed that they will want to change the rules to their own advantage. They could make the other teams go back to the start, take all their beans, or make the other teams miss the next three goes. If they decide to change the rules to make things fairer, you should point out that politically this is a very difficult thing to do as they will have to convince the electorate. It will be a very unpopular policy and they will have to explain how they intend to implement it while avoiding great social unrest at home.

You may need to be prepared to explain the two economic models that this activity refers to. The Western Liberal Model of Development, often called the “Free market”, is based on a belief that development is best based on industrialisation, technological advancement and modernisation. An alternative model is the Sustainable Development Model that aims to secure a country’s social, economic, political and environmental development while meeting the needs of the present without in any way limiting or harming the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Suggestions for follow-up

Take action: You may like to consider the power you have as a consumer, for instance buy fairtrade goods, support small local businesses run by immigrants and boycott firms which behave unethically. You could also participate in local community projects that welcome and support refugees.

Move on to another activity: Consider just how much you really know about the issues raised in this game. Do you find that it’s hard to obtain accurate, independent information and that news reports often don’t tell the whole story? You can explore this further in ‘Media biases’.
 

Note: This activity has been developed from “En busca del desarrollo” from Equipo Claves