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Imperialism Reading Group - How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, by Walter Rodney - Week 4 (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/theory@hexbear.net

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This is a weekly thread in which we read through books on and related to imperialism and geopolitics. Last week's thread is here.

The book we are currently reading through is How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Please comment or message me directly if you wish to be pinged for this group, or if you no longer wish to be pinged.

This week, we will be reading all of Chapter 3: Africa's Contribution to European Capitalist Development - The Pre-Colonial Period.

Next week, we will be reading the first two sections, "The European Slave Trade as a Basic Factor in African Underdevelopment" and "Technical Stagnation and Distortion of the African Economy in the Pre-Colonial Epoch" of Chapter 4: Europe and the Roots of African Underdevelopment - To 1885.

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[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Imperialism Reading Group ping!

Onto Chapter 3!

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[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"In recent times, it has become an object of concern to some liberals that the USA is capable of war crimes of the order of My Lai in Vietnam. But the fact of the matter is that the My Lais began with the enslavement of Africans and American Indians. Racism, violence, and brutality were the concomitants of the capitalist system when it extended itself abroad in the early centuries of international trade."

A very relevant sentiment today. King Leopold II would find much in common to talk about with Biden, Trump, and Netanyahu.

[–] GoodGuyWithACat@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

(being the most bitter critic of capitalism) Marx went on to point out that what was good for Europeans was obtained at the expense of untold suffering by Africans and American Indians.

Another funny from Rodney. That should be one of Marx's official epithets, "The Most Bitter Critic of Capitalism"

[–] MLRL_Commie@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

favorite part of this one

I think it highlights why it's important that China today not only raises people out of poverty by providing cheaper stuff, which would only undercut other country's abilities to produce and advance, but by allowing the easier ability to develop their own factories simultaneously to allow their advance. Sometimes China doesn't so it as well as I'd want, but they're doing astonishingly more than the west ever did for sure

[–] vegeta1@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

Way more. I've seen it with my own eyes

[–] HexaSnoot@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a survivor of SA, how do I get past the triggering forced nudity and other elements of nonconsensual nature? This seems like a good book, but I'm wondering if I can handle reading it.

[–] Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

there's sexual content in this book?

[–] HexaSnoot@hexbear.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

Idk, but it involves slavery so there's surely a lot of things of nonconsensual nature.

[–] Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net 4 points 4 weeks ago

European economists of the nineteenth century certainly had no illusions about the interconnections between their national economies and the world at large. J. S. Mill, as spokesman for British capitalism, said that as far as England was concerned, "the trade of the West Indies is hardly to be considered as external trade, but more resembles the traffic between town and country." By the phrase "trade of the West Indies," **Mill meant the commerce between Africa, England, and the West Indies, because without African labor, the West Indies were valueless. **

[–] devils_dust@hexbear.net 4 points 4 weeks ago

Call me ignorant if you want, but I did not know the Barclays bank was founded by literal slavers. Not surprising in hindsight but definitely something I'll keep in mind. Always thought finance was a sophisticated way of enslaving people (especially after reading Debt), but this makes it even more obvious.

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

The more things change, the more we can see the same processes of expropriation carried out every second of every day. Unbelievable evil with the rise of the slave trade, and we are only on the pre-colonial era. Rodney's writing is also really good at gripping you and forcing you to witness.