Why Migrant Rafts Retrace Imperial Routes

In his book The Bluff of Decolonization in Controlled Chaos, philosopher Boris Kriger argues that the historical transition to independence for many nations was a sophisticated deception that left the machinery of imperial domination intact. Using the psychiatric insights of Frantz Fanon, Kriger explains how colonial powers installed invisible chains by shaping the minds and languages of the oppressed to accept their own inferiority. He contends that while the flags and anthems changed, a «comprador» local elite simply inherited the tools of the old masters, maintaining extractive economies that serve foreign interests rather than their own people. This systemic failure has transformed human beings from exploited resources into discarded ballast, forcing desperate populations to undertake reverse voyages across the Mediterranean to escape the wreckage of their homelands. Ultimately, the text describes a transition from the structured cruelty of traditional conquest to a more monstrous era of controlled chaos and global indifference.