Globalization or A New Wave of Imperialism: Africa in the Contemporary International Political Economy

Abstract

A new mantra in modern academic discourse and debate is the issue of globalization. This apparently new phenomenon has continued to elicit the interests of scholars from both the ivory towers and beyond and from the four corners of the world. Deploying aggregate data, this article seeks to interrogate the enigma that is globalization from a context that differs from the premise of mainstream liberal social science. The theoretical framework that is at play here is the Underdevelopment theory of the neo-Marxist approach and this is a descriptive work that draws heavily from secondary sources of materials. Our finding is that in spite of claims to the contrary; globalization is not exactly a new phenomenon. Indeed it is a fall-out from the contradictions of capitalism in the metropole more than five centuries ago during which time the logic of its continued survival necessitated the overflowing of the frontiers of the European nation-states in search of greener pastures in Africa as in elsewhere among the countries of Asia and Latin America. To be exact, what is mistaken as a new phenomenon is the boost that has been given to this often misunderstood issue by modern developments in transport and Information Communications Technology. This article contends that globalization may not always be in the interest of Nigeria-type societies in the third world and recommends that to vitiate its debilitating effects on the political economy of these countries, action should be taken to cage the negative nay ravaging effects of this chameleonic and or mutative metamorphosis of imperialism.

Key Words: Imperialism, Expropriation, new wave, Mutative, Chameleonic
Contemporary