Decolonization and Empire; Contesting the Rhetoric and Reality of Resubordination in Southern Africa and Beyond

Approaching the subjects of empire and colonization in a new light, this survey states that the free global market and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization are actually recolonizing Southern Africa. This polemic argues that the unalloyed working of capitalism—the manufacture and exacerbation of a hierarchy that enlarges the gap between the rich and the poor—is self-creating and self-sustaining. It is also locked into place by governments and their institutions, leaving no space for an alternative structure. Those increasingly unable to defend themselves against the free global market have been recolonized into this capitalist system.

John S. Saul is Professor Emeritus of Social and Political Science at Toronto's York University.