| | A central concern of this Journal is to bridge the area between radical scholarship and practical politics. But one area where a long span is needed at the moment is in the discussion of imperialism. Indeed, the word has virtually dropped out of intellectual discourse in the attempt to develop a 'proper' Marxist framework to replace the mechanistic 'crudities' of dependency theory. The term has certainly not dropped out of popular discussion of the present state of Africa, however. Rather, there one of the 'crudities' to be overcome is to avoid explanations of the present predicament that so entirely attribute it to outside forces, thus fuelling a kind of ultra-left fatalism, that nothing could be done. Our return to the theme of imperialism is a call to bridge this gap and to update where Africa fits into global patterns. But our position is that for imperialism to maintain its grip on the neocolonies the role of the indigenous governing classes has also to be brought into the equation. |
