“A call to arms in the class struggle for racial equity”—the hugely influential work of political theory and history, now powerfully introduced by Angela Davis (Los Angeles Review of Books). This legendary classic on European colonialism in Africa stands alongside C.L.R. James’ Black Jacobins, Eric Williams’ Capitalism & Slavery, and W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.

Half a century after independence poverty and disease continues to ravage more than 70% of the inhabitants of the most resource rich continent of the world. State corruption persists as the only industry with steady growth while those that should offer employment to the majority inhabitants of the continent are on the decline. How Africa Underdevelops Africa presents an exegesis of how corruption and its numerous effects are playing out in Africa. With the myth of Asias rise here demystified, Africa has no longer just the Western world to learn from, it could and should necessarily borrow from the social capital values of the East to ensure even distribution of the wealth which at the present rests with an avaricious few who with their cronies tag themselves leaders of Africa.

Hirji makes a case that Rodney's seminal work retains its value for understanding where Africa has come from, where it is going, and charting the path towards genuine development for its people. It is a succinct, coherent defence of an intellectual giant who lived and died for humanity, an essential read for anyone interested in Africa.

Economic growth does not demand a secret formula. Good development examples now abound in East Asia and further afield in others parts of Asia, and in Central America. But why then has Africa failed to realise its potential in half a century of independence? Why Africa is Poor demonstrates that Africa is poor not because the world has denied the continent the market and financial means to compete: far from it. It has not been because of aid per se. Nor is African poverty solely a consequence of poor infrastructure or trade access, or because the necessary development and technical expertise is unavailable internationally. Why then has the continent lagged behind other developing areas when its people work hard and the continent is blessed with abundant natural resources? Stomping across the continent and the developing world in search of the answer, Greg Mills controversially shows that the main reason why Africa's people are poor is because their leaders have made this choice.

Africa is a continent of 54 countries and over a billion people. However, despite the rich diversity of the African experience, it is striking that continuations and themes seem to be reflected across the continent, particularly south of the Sahara. Questions of underdevelopment, outside exploitation, and misrule are characteristic of many - if not most-states in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this Very Short Introduction Ian Taylor explores how politics is practiced on the African continent, considering the nature of the state in Sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. Exploring the historical and contemporary factors which account for Africa's underdevelopment, he also analyses why some African countries suffer from high levels of political violence while others are spared. Unveilling the ways in which African state and society actually function beyond the formal institutional façade, Taylor discusses how external factors - both inherited and contemporary - act upon the continent. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The fact that 50% of the world's currently impoverished is African is a calculated result of European and American neocolonialism in Africa, a concept Dr. Walter Rodney could only began to analyze. What he did thoroughly recognize is that "in order to understand present economic conditions in Africa, one needs to know why it is that Africa has realized so little of its natural potential, and one also needs to know why so much of its present wealth goes to non-Africans who reside for the most part outside of the continent." I wrote this book for two reasons. One, Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is arguably the most brilliant and influential book I've personally ever read. As a social studies teacher, I can't teach a world history, economics, or global issues lesson without somehow referring to it. Same thing goes for many of the books I've written. However, with all due respect to Dr. Rodney who himself even realized that "ideally an analysis of underdevelopment should come even closer to the present than the end of the colonial period in the 1960s. The phenomenon of neo-colonialism cries out for extensive investigation in order to formulate the strategy and tactics of African emancipation and development. [How Europe Underdeveloped Africa] does not go that far," but How Europe and America Are Still Underdeveloping Africa does. Moreover, several current issues related to neocolonial underdevelopment in Africa, which are again beyond the scope of Rodney's original volume, need special emphasis, such as the tyrannical role of the International Monetary Fund and its Structural Adjustment Policies, the assassinations of several socialist African leaders like Muammar Gaddafi, water privatization, the external debt crisis, global warming, environmental racism, the scramble for African oil, genetically modified food with "Terminator" technology, land grabbing for agrofuel production and export, AFRICOM, endemic African-on-African violence, joblessness, food insecurity and imported food dependency, father hunger, endemic HIV/AIDS, toxic waste colonialism, and hazardous drug trials led by and for the principal benefit of Western pharmaceutical companies. Two, is the impact of the image of Africa accepted by African-Americans on our collective self-concept. The image of Africa internalized by African-Americans largely determines our self-concept and self-confidence, and if that image is egregiously negative, then we, especially African-Americans, should have access to the true reasons why this image exists. The situations that this negativity is based on are often blamed on corrupt, rapacious, immoral African leaders and the haplessly apathetic African masses, with little if any mention of the fact that European and American governments and multinational corporations are still intentionally underdeveloping Africa.

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

"How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America is one of those paradigm-shifting, life-changing texts that has not lost its currency or relevance—even after three decades. Its provocative treatise on the ravages of late capitalism, state violence, incarceration, and patriarchy on the life chances and struggles of black working-class men and women shaped an entire generation, directing our energies to the terrain of the prison-industrial complex, anti-racist work, labor organizing, alternatives to racial capitalism, and challenging patriarchy—personally and politically."—Robin D. G. Kelley "In this new edition of his classic text . . . Marable can challenge a new generation to find solutions to the problems that constrain the present but not our potential to seek and define a better future."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "[A] prescient analysis."—Michael Eric Dyson How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America is a classic study of the intersection of racism and class in the United States. It has become a standard text for courses in American politics and history, and has been central to the education of thousands of political activists since the 1980s. This edition is prsented with a new foreword by Leith Mullings.

Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world's poorest countries.