Search results

This article is interested in shedding light on why a phenomenon such as Boko Haram came into existence and why it poses a threat to the very existence of the Nigerian state. The Boko Haram phenomenon, I argue, can only be understood as a reaction to more than a half century of corruption, venality, poverty, and abuse by the state predator class. My argument is that Boko Haram is the entirely logical consequence of more than five decades of the post-colonial Nigerian state ruled by a parasitic predator class that is itself a by-product of the colonial state.

Frantz Fanon was a major intellectual influence on Third-World revolutionaries and New-Left radicals during the sixties. Fanon's thought is characterized by three aspects: 1) he proposes a radical anti-imperialist theory, which emphasizes the central significance of 'race' in the context of colonial oppression; 2) he stresses the significance of the revolutionary act as also a psychological and intellectual transformation, which must accompany material transformation, or the socialist reorganization of production; and 3) he argues for individual freedom as an essential component of a socialist synthesis that should guarantee democratic participation in the construction of socialism. Adapted from the source document.

Analyzes Frantz Fanon's indirect critique of Soviet orthodoxy & orthodox communism, & outlines his ideas on democratic socialism, in light of the current difficulties facing socialists after the collapse of the USSR. Various scholars' interpretations of Fanon's stance on classical Marxism, the role of the proletariat & the peasantry, the French Left, actual existing socialism, & the formation of the revolutionary party are described. It is shown how Fanon used the context of the Algerian revolution & other African nationalist movements to criticize the typical Leninist parties running Eastern European governments during the Cold War & provide a warning to the leftist elements among Algerian revolutionaries. It is concluded that Fanon's focus on individual rights & argument that humans have a "destiny to be free" are the bases for the continuing importance of his thought. T. Arnold

What is the precise nature of the relationship between the so-called Third World and the industrialised West? While a question of this sort was much more easily answered in the era of direct colonial control over vast non-European regions, there is much debate concerning the symmetry of economic and political relationships in the postindependence period. In fact, to a considerable number of observers, it is asymmetry which characterises the ties between the industrialised and 'underdeveloped' countries, based on a long historical process of incorporation into the western capitalist system. Political independence, these critics argue, has merely shifted a 'colonial' to a 'neo-colonial' relationship, leaving the unevenness basically intact.

Vertretung der These, daß die Beziehungen Bonns - wie der meisten Industrieländer - zu Schwarzafrika in starkem Maße neokolonialer Natur sind und primär von Wirtschaftsinteressen betimmt werden. Wirtschaftliche Verflechtungen mit Afrika. Diskussion der offiziell verfolgten Politik am Beispiel von BMZ, GTZ, KW, DEG, Hermes Exportkreditversicherung, Treuarbeit etc. Arbeitsplatzversicherung durch Exporte. Hallstein-Doktrin und Friedenspolitik. Ein Wandel in der wirtschaftlichen Ausrichtung der Entwicklungshilfepolitik ist auch in Zukunft nicht zu erwarten. (DÜI-Hlb)