BRICS+ de-dollarization push exposes geopolitical currency wars and colonial financial legacies
Original framing: “BRICS+ payments system feasible, common currency faces hurdles, report says - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
Indigenous financial systems often operate on principles of **reciprocity, relational accounting, and communal risk-sharing**—direct contrasts to the BRICS+ focus on state-led monetary integration. For example, the **Maori *whakapapa*-based resource management** in Aotearoa/New Zealand treats land and currency as interconnected, with *kaitiakitanga* (guardianship) ensuring sustainability. These models challenge the BRICS+ assumption that currency must be **statist and extractive**; instead, they propose **decentralized, ecologically embedded** alternatives. The omission of such frameworks in BRICS+ discussions risks replicating the same extractive logics under a new banner.
The BRICS+ payments system is not merely a **technical project** but a **geopolitical and cultural rebellion** against the dollar’s colonial legacy—a legacy that stretches from the **gold standard’s enforcement of British hegemony** to today’s **SWIFT sanctions as instruments of economic warfare**.
The mainstream framing obscures how **financial sovereignty** is inherently **anti-systemic**: it threatens the **transnational capitalist class** that profits from currency manipulation, just as it challenges **Western media’s role as gatekeeper of economic narratives**. By ignoring **indigenous financial models**, **historical precedents of sabotage**, and **marginalized voices** demanding **ecological and democratic control**, the current debate risks replicating the same extractive logics under a new banner. The **trickster dimension** reveals the absurdity of BRICS+ being framed as a **‘hurdle’**—when the real obstacle is the **deliberate fragmentation of alternatives**, from the **CFA franc’s neocolonial ties** to the **IMF’s conditionalities** that historically followed such shifts. The path forward demands **radical pluralism**: integrating **indigenous relational economics**, **parallel trade networks**, **fiscal solidarity mechanisms**, and **grassroots financial literacy**—not as add-ons, but as the **foundation of a post-dollar order**.