Editorial

Introduction

The late Samir Amin was one of Africa’s most decorated leading scholars. He was, among others, the director of the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP); the director of the Third World Forum; co-founder of the World Forum for Alternatives and founder of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). A committed Marxist who utilised scientific Marxism as a theoretical tool to critique capitalism, analyse trajectories for historical change, and he advanced socialism as an essentially political project, Amin’s intellectual life was dedicated to exploring and exposing Eurocentrism and the historical evolution of world capitalism as well as how the periphery was wrongfully bundled into the world capitalist system. He pursued incomparable resistance against oppressive systems towards building an alternative socialist future that is capable of bringing about inclusive development. He was unrivalled as a scholar-activist, with high degree of knowledge on geopolitical economy and active engagements in social movement struggles.

It is not surprising that Samir Amin was [is] described by those who knew him and admired his work as an intellectual-activist par excellence as well as a passionate advocate and defender of human emancipation. Ever an optimist, Samir Amin is mostly popular for his delinking thesis – a mechanism and strategy which advocated for the oppressed and exploited to extricate themselves from the tentacles of capitalism and imperialism.

Besides his last book that was published posthumously¹ (the book that deals with global developments in the past five decades or so and his encounters during his activist years), in his last clarion call Amin pushed forward the necessity and the diagnostic of ‘a new Internationale of workers and peoples’ to respond to the social forces and ideology of capitalist imperialism (Amin 2018a). The call emerges from his insight of the ‘political impotence’ of progressive movements vis-à-vis the hazards of the globalised capitalist system managed by the Western bourgeoisie (Amin 2018a). Amin, as discussed by Juego (2019), remarkably understood "historical processes in the context of the conflictive world structure of ‘generalized-monopoly capitalism’ dominated by the Triad which, at the same time, was the source of the precarious conditions of ‘generalized proletarianization’ of waged workers, salaried middle classes, and market-dependent peasants" (Amin 2013, Juego 2019, Amin 2014). As such, Amin worked tirelessly writing and mobilising progressive forces to overcome the subjugating socio-economic system.

Amin’s scholarship and activism defied disciplinary boundaries, and it ranged from significant contributions in the fields of development economics, political economy, politics, land and agrarian questions to decolonisation in Africa and self-reliance in the global south. Alongside other leading African scholars, Amin was among the first-generation African intellectuals and activists whose works are fundamental to the understanding of the socio-economic and political challenges that are afflicting Africa after many years of political independence. Amin’s razor-sharp analysis remains a lasting legacy. It is in this context that this special issue is dedicated to him as an effort to sustain his legacy, collectively and continuously. The contributions in this special issue attempt to reflect the breadth and depth of scholarship that characterises Amin’s intellectual orientations. The special issue focuses on Samir Amin and Africa’s development, dealing with issues such as socio-economic development in Africa, alternative development theories, politics and international affairs and decolonisation, among other critical issues.

Background

Samir Amin was a prominent Marxist philosopher who was born in Egypt and lived in many parts of Africa, having done studies in France and pursued an academic career in that country. He went beyond just being a greatest intellectual. He was an outstanding activist. Even though he had studied economics, he disagreed with the conventional wisdom of his profession. Samir Amin was a follower of the Marxist school of economic thought, despite the fact that he was highly critical of a large number of his Marxist contemporaries. Kvangraven (2020) is of the opinion that when we evaluate Samir Amin’s legacy, it is of the utmost importance that we acknowledge his activism as well as his intellectual contributions. This is because these two aspects of Amin's legacy are inextricably linked. In both the activist and academic worlds, he has accomplished more than the majority of people, but what truly differentiates him is the fact that he has succeeded in both.

Samir Amin was born in Cairo in Egypt in 1931. In his teens, he left Egypt to study in Paris in France. In Paris, he was not just a student: he was also a political activist. He returned and worked in Egypt before going back to Paris to work there. Later he returned and worked in various parts of Africa. Samir Amin made contributions to the intellectual community in a wide variety of fields, including history, politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and economics, among others. His writings covered a wide variety of subjects, including imperialism, unequal exchange, critiques of approaches to development, the relevance of Maoist thought, Islam, modernity, and agrarian change, to name a few of the topics he covered. He wrote and published extensively. Among his many works, it could be argued that the globalisation of the theory regarding the fight of the oppressed is the single most important contribution that Samir Amin has left us with, for us to take forward.

Samir Amin’s activism for the globalisation of anti-imperialist resistance and the struggle for an alternative society can be traced back to early 1970s. Among the key highlights is his PhD thesis (The Origins of Underdevelopment – Capitalist Accumulation on a World Scale) which marked the start of his theoretical study on the globalisation of Marx's capitalist theory. He spent the majority of his life writing, speaking, and mobilising for a better world. He was resolute in his opposition to the dominance of capitalism until the end of his life.

Over the course of his lengthy career, he was responsible for the publication of more than 40 books, in addition to hundreds of articles and studies that concentrated on the interaction between colonial, semi-colonial, and neo-colonial regions and imperialist powers. These works were all related to the study of the relationship between these types of regions and imperialist powers. In addition to that, he gave a number of lectures on various related subjects. Samir Amin is among the most well-known proponents of broadening the Marxist paradigm to specifically encompass the inherently exploitative nexus between the underdeveloped and developed regions.

Socio-economic development in Africa

Samir Amin challenges us to think creatively in ways that are often difficult to categorise academically due to their structural, temporal, and political dimensions. His contributions to dependency theory are particularly fruitful because he blends global viewpoints with research that is carefully contextualised within specific geographical regions, all while keeping in mind the complexity of political struggles and varied class interests. His ability to demonstrate how progress and underdevelopment are intricately connected, or ‘two sides of the same coin’, while transcending simple dichotomies, inspires many of us who are sceptical of dominant development narratives.

Samir Amin viewed himself as a creative Marxist. Beginning with Marx, as Amin did, enables one to gain an understanding of class struggle, exploitation, and the polarising tendencies of capitalism, while simultaneously delving deeper into the inequalities associated with imperialism, sexism, and racism. Samir Amin (1990a, 62) argued that underdevelopment is the observer of ‘development’ and he demonstrated in his works that ‘the development of the countries on the periphery of the world capitalist system [would] come through an essential rupture’.

According to Zhang (2013, 103–105), Sami Amin investigates what is known as the underdevelopment of countries in the Third World. He maintains that the periphery is incorporated into the global capitalist system in accordance with the requirements of the centre, in line with the structure of the centre-periphery of the global capitalist system. The capitalist development of the periphery has to be subservient to the development process of the centre. For Samir Amin, to undo the centre-periphery relationship in the global capitalist system, delinking must occur. In addition, there must be transition to socialism. As Zhang (2013, 104) explains, Samir Amin argued for the socialist development path as an alternative to the development of underdevelopment. Various papers in this special issue explain delinking and related concepts that characterised Samir Amin’s thinking and activism.

The special issue

This special issue is made up of eight papers. The next paper by Patrick Bond deals with Samir Amin’s critique of apartheid as well as post-apartheid political economy. Samir Amin was concerned with South Africa, and his writings and activism confirm that. Bond takes forward Samir Amin’s critiques of both apartheid-era and post-apartheid political economy as part of Amin's analysis of the ‘semi-peripheral’ layer of the world system. Bond reminds us that Samir Amin made his first intervention about South Africa in his 1977 article (The future of South Africa). Bond relates this to Samir Amin’s theoretical and activist work among which is his book (Maldevelopment) which gives an ‘expansive treatment’ of the pertinent critical issues and his other works. Bond reminds us that Samir Amin viewed post-apartheid South Africa as sub-imperialist ‘because of the domination of monopoly capital in the extractive circuits and the below-survival-level wages that forever have shaped the economic structure’. Bond argues that Samir Amin would have been pleased with the failure of the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa to advance de-dollarisation or other ‘delinking’ strategies as the failure confirms BRICS’ sub-imperial character. BRICS is a bloc made up, originally, by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Bond’s paper is followed by Darlington Mutanda’s paper examining sanctions on Zimbabwe by the European Union with the view of rethinking Africa’s economic and political security in the global context. The sanctions also by the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as Mutanda argues, demonstrate how postcolonialism functions in the international system given that the sanctions have damaged the Zimbabwean economy and negatively affected the lives and livelihoods. Mutanda uses purposive document analysis to move beyond ‘the common narrative of human rights abuses’ when sanctions are discussed. The paper makes use of the ideology of postcolonialism in explaining the embedded conflict between Africa and the West, drawing inspiration from Samir Amin. Mutanda makes a point that it is because the interests of the centre (i.e. the West) were threatened that there was backlash in the case with Zimbabwe. The Gukurahundi (mass political killings early years into independence) massacres in the 1980s, as Mutanda puts it, were ignored. The paper makes an argument that ‘Zimbabwe is testimony to the vulnerabilities of ‘Third World’ countries in international relations mostly dominated by the West and the United States’.

Jonathan Hoskins and Lindokuhle Mandyoli, in the third paper, apply Samir Amin’s delinking hypothesis in the analysis of Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, Patrice Motsepe of South Africa and Isabel Dos Santos of Angola as part of the comprador bourgeoisie to demonstrate that ‘internal underdevelopment is based on a capitalist logic which displays all the standard phenomena associated with Capital’. Indeed, Samir Amin’s works described how Africa is linked to world capital. The authors argue that the link between Africa and world capital results to Africa’s underdevelopment because homegrown African capital, like all Capital, accumulates for its own benefit. The fourth paper by Kendra Connock, Laura Rubidge and Jordan McLean deals with Samir Amin’s undisputed progressive internationalism. In various occasions, Samir Amin explained how the Third World should accomplish development ‘through an authentic and independent process, establishing the condition for their participation in the shaping of the world system on equal footing’. The Bandung Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement were, among others, the outcome of Samir Amin’s intellectual and activist endeavours. The authors argue that the inability to move beyond Bandung Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement caused the ‘eventual systematic dismantling and the emergence of a global disaster’. The authors analyse whether Samir Amin’s call for progressive internationalism has been heeded and how far the world is from a new wave of revival and progress.

Elias Chukwuemeka Ngwu and Vincent Chidi Onah, in the fifth paper, draw parallels between Samir Amin and Claude Ake in proposing a roadmap for Africa’s development. The authors go beyond Amin and Ake; they argue that ‘the challenge for contemporary Africa is not so much about exiting the anarchial global capitalist system as it is about striking internal balance in the context of the larger systemic perturbations’. The sixth paper by Tawanda Ray Bvirindi, Patience Chadambuka and Felix Tombindo repositions Patrice Lumumba’s decolonial thought through Samir Amin. The authors view Patrice Lumumba as one of the African decolonial giants ‘who championed the remembering of the black bodies by challenging their dismembering facilitated and sustained by the grand construction of the human by Euro-modernity’. In the seventh paper, Edlyne Anugwom examines decolonisation and decoloniality in the context of Africa’s development. Anugwom argues that ‘while both decolonisation and decoloniality sound as intellectual pursuits concerned with knowledge production, they are in essence efforts towards recasting and rebooting development in the continent [of Africa]’. Anugwom sees Samir Amin ‘as a precursor of the decolonisation struggle’. The last paper is an attempt at applying Samir Amin’s lens in the analysis of socio-economic development in Africa. As other papers in the special issue indicate, Samir Amin analysed Africa and the rest of the Third World in the context of the global capitalist system. He advanced many possible solutions, including delinking. The author makes a point that post-colonial Africa has had to contend with disruptive socio-economic and political realities instituted by European colonialism, slave trade and inappropriate integration of Africa to the so-called global economy. The paper proposes a major rethinking of development approaches with the intention to disregard imported development approaches which are not cognisant of the context and thus, do not relate to African socio-economic and political realities.

Conclusion

This special issue contributes to other publications on and about Samir Amin. So much has been written about Samir Amin, making it a difficult task to formulate a comprehensive editorial that does not sound like literature review. Samir Amin himself wrote extensively, on a wide variety of issues. He was an extraordinarily prodigious scholar, activist and institution builder. For those who read his works and those of us who were fortunate to interact with him while he was alive drew a lot of inspiration and motivation. His works and life continue to inspire many.

As argued elsewhere, the ideas of leading thinkers such as Samir Amin remain relevant for Africa’s development. Samir Amin allowed those who engaged with him to engage his ideas freely. He was open to persuasion although he was generally firm. He took time to explain issues in detail. He was accommodating. The special issue cannot cover all of his ideas, and the focus is on Africa’s development. As the papers in this special issue indicate, Samir Amin’s ideas remain relevant for Africa’s development. Better understanding his ideas, analysis and theories can greatly assist in the pursuit of inclusive development in Africa. Implementing what he recommended and taking forward his activism can bring to bear the world he imagined and worked towards achieving.

Notes

1 Amin, S. 2019. The Long Revolution of the Global South: Toward a New Anti-imperialist International. New York: Monthly Review Press.