Colonialism has created the world as we know it, in which many former colonies are still subordinated to their former colonizers and subjected to marginalization and exploitation. I show that we have normative reasons to take the connection between present and past global injustice more seriously than has so far been the case but also that we should not think of historical injustices primarily as sources for backward looking claims towards redistributive reparations. History matters because coming to terms with our past is an essential feature of overcoming present injustice. In cases where one group has dominated another over generations overcoming injustice requires more than just redistribution or formal recognition of equality before the law. The mistrust, implicit biases and harmful collective narratives that constitute such relations must be addressed in a public deliberative process of acknowledging past wrongs. This is true, I argue, for many or most post-colonial relationships.
