John Saul - search results

In a major contribution to the on-going debate on imperialism, Patrick Bond argues that an explanation of imperialist political-economy and geopolitics must incorporate subimperialisms. John Smith’s old-fashioned binary of North/South prevents him from fully engaging with David Harvey’s overall concern about uneven geographical development.

At a ROAPE organised workshop at the ASAUK in September on 'African capitalist society' speakers reflected on the state of scholarship on capitalism in Africa and the dynamic and development of capitalism on the continent. Kate Meagher (LSE), Stefan Ouma (Frankfurt) and Jesse Ovadia (Windsor) were speakers, and Jörg Wiegratz (Leeds) and Peter Lawrence (Keele) chairs.

ROAPE’s Leo Zeilig talks to Lara Pawson about Angola, the left, writing about Africa from Europe, and the long process of uncovering what happened across newly independent Angola after the vinte-sete de maio (27 May) in 1977.

Peter Lawrence reflects on the early days of the Review of African Political Economy, the role Ruth First played in the Review's first issues and an important argument about Cuba's involvement in Angola that divided the editorial group.

Femi Aborisade asks what is the root cause of the pervasive poverty across Africa. In this blog he argues that we have a duty to continue to explain that there is a relationship between poverty and politics. Framing these questions within a radical political economy analysis remains vital. With a focus on Nigeria the blog looks at the sort of political agenda that needs to be adopted to reverse the continents underdevelopment.

In an excoriating attack on Liberia’s political and economic class, George Gerake Kamara argues that fate of the masses cannot lie in the hands of the frontline political parties who seek only to advance the interests of big bosses and international financial institutions. What is needed Kamara argues is a force that will mobilize the people around transformative ideals against the existing system.

Fifty years ago, on May 11, 1973, young Senegalese revolutionary philosopher Omar Blondin Diop died in detention under suspicious circumstances in Dakar. Our understanding of liberation movements in Africa tends to focus on struggles in colonial settings, yet Florian Bobin argues that over sixty years after Senegal’s independence, Diop’s life, work, and legacy reveal what revolutionary politics looks like in a neo-colonial context.

Europe’s assault on the rest of us, who were exterminated and expropriated, millions who were enslaved and died resisting European occupation, continues today – recently, and graphically, re-stated by the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell. Eyob Gebremariam exposes the language and practice of coloniality, which sustains inequalities at the global level and has done for nearly 500 years of European empire-building.

Marxism, we are told, is Eurocentric and has lost much of its appeal in the eyes of many scholars and activists. Some have even denounced Marxism as a racist theory, irrelevant to the study of Africa. Joe Pateman argues Lenin placed Africa at the centre of his analysis of imperialism and contemporary capitalism. Here, the author reflects on the key aspects of his analysis. Following this, Pateman's full article in the ROAPE journal can be accessed for free.  

In her final blog in the series Lee Wengraf celebrates the life and work of Walter Rodney, the scholar, working class militant and revolutionary from Guyana who was murdered 37 years ago. His book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa remains a classic that must be carefully studied by activists and scholars today.