Book Review: Africa: Neo-Colonialism
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200167 |
| Author | Lionel Tiger |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
161
another
vein,
because
boundaries
inherited from
departing
colonial
administrations
have made
little
political, geographical, ethnic,
or
cul-
tural
sense,
schemes
for
establishing
regional groupings
have
been
one
of
the
striking
features
of
African
politics. Independence
has
encouraged
their
exponents
and
provided
greater
opportunities
for
the
projection
of
such
views.
In
Politics
in
Africa
the
differing philosophies
and
ambitions
of
the
principal
advocates
of
larger
political
and
economic
units
are
well
documented
in accounts
of
the
Sanniquellie
conference,
and
the
failures
of
the
East
African
and
Mali
Federations.
At
the
Sanniquellie
meeting
Kwame
Nkrumah
and
his
dream
of
a
pan-African
union
repre-
sented
one
extreme;
the other,
based
on
a
plea
for
maintaining
existing
state
boundaries
and a
cautious
functional approach
to
regional
co-
operation,
was
projected
by
Liberia's President
Tubman.
Finally
the
policies
and
practices
of
the
white minority
in
South
Africa
in
its
attempt
to
ensure
hegemony
are
considered
in
the
account
of
Anderson
Ganyile's
arrest,
detention,
and
trial.
Naturally the
contributions
in
any
collective
work
are
bound
to
vary
considerably
in
style
and
approach.
Happily,
the
editor
has
exer-
cised
her
authority
with
discretion
and
effect,
with
the
result
that
such
differences
are
mimmized.
Complete
with
suggested
study
questions,
Politics
in
Africa
is
obviously
geared
to
the
needs
of
senior
university
students.
It
is
therefore
all
the
more surprising
that
the
book
has
no
index.
These
points
apart,
the
contributions
have
not
been
invalidated
by
the
dramatic
upheavals
in
Nigeria, Ghana
and
elsewhere.
More
in-
portant,
they
provide
accurate
information
and
afford
a
fascinating
insight
into
contemporary
African
affairs.
Royal
Roads
WILLiAm
RODNEY
NEo-CoLoN•ALsM.
The
Last
Stage
of
Imperialism.
By
Kwame
Nkrumah.
1965.
(London:
Toronto: Thomas
Nelson.
xx,
280pp.
$8.00)
This
book
establishes
Nkrumah
as
the Walter
Gordon of
his
continent.
Neo-Colonwlism
substantially
echoes
Gordon's
argument
about
the
need
for
a country
largely
to
own
its
natural
resources
and
the
means
of
exploiting
them.
But
while
Gordon's
stance
is
anti-continental
Nkrumah
holds
that
only
continent-wide
organization
of
African
economies
will
permit
Africans
a
just
and
modern
participation
in
the
world.
And
while
Gordon
is
generally
favourable
to
capitalist
enterprise,
Nkrumah
sees
it
as
an
implacably expansionist
and
yet
centralizing
system
which
benefits
chiefly
those
who
own
capital, with
only
incidental
benefits
for
those
who
work
for
it
and
the
citizens
of
territories
whose
raw
materials
must
feed
the
system.
Nkrumah's
main
bibliographic
sources
are
United
Nations
reports,
Marxist
publications,
and
the
Wall
Street
Journal.
He
traces
in
con-
siderable detail
the
international
interlocking
directorates
connected
with,
for
example,
the
Oppenheimer
interests
and
Union
Miniare,
and
seeks
to
demonstrate
how
economic
power
has
affected
political
activity,
particularly
in
the
Congo
and
Southern
Africa.
He
regards
Canada
as
a
colony
of
the
U.S.
and
a
relatively
impotent
hanger-on m
a
world-
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