Life after Capitalism: Participatory Socialism

Abstract

and blame the oppressed for their own situation stymies efforts to repair the damage that the continent has suffered. Repairing the damage could involve cancelation of the debt that so many African countries found imposed upon them by countries and institutions rooted in the Global North: a crackdown on illicit financial flows out of Africa, largely to North America and Europe; a withdrawal of military institutions and bases occupied by the Global North; a refusal to recognize dictatorships and coup regimes imposed upon African people; and directed development assistance based upon the actual needs of the countries themselves rather than by governments and institutions rooted in the Global North. None of this is about generosity, to be clear. None of this would be the result of abstract moralism. Rather, it is the result of conclusions derived from the sort of historical analysis offered by Walter Rodney in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, and analyses that have been deepened by scholars ever since. While some of the facts of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa may be dated, the analysis remains timely. It also remains every bit as much of a call to action that it was in 1972 when so many U.S. African-American activists, followed by other social justice activists, found themselves glued to and inspired by its framework.