The arrow of capitalism: Decolonial Ecology in The Fall of Heaven by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the concept of decolonial ecology, created and thought of by the Martinican Malcom Ferdinand, in the book of the same name. This theoretical reflection will be based on the book The Fall of the Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman by Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami shaman, one of the most important indigenous leaders in the world and one of the most powerful voices to talk about the relationship between white people and nature. In The Fall of the Sky, there is a testimony from someone who saw, throughout History (capitalized in this way), the violence and massacre of family members and other indigenous communities. In several parts of his book we find excerpts in which the Yanomami denounce the coming ecological tragedy, the violence against nature and non-humans. Therefore, discussing a decolonial ecology based on Kopenawa's testimony is important to think about the consequences of the way of inhabiting and decolonizing the land. Following Benjamin's logic for writing History, preference is given here to the voices of the "vanquished", such as the thoughts of Ailton Krenak and Werá Jecupé. To exchange Ferdinand's thought with other studies of decolonial ecology, a relationship will be made with that with Enrique Dussel, Félix Guattari and Achille Mbembe.