Extracting Profit - by Lee Wengraf Paperback

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Review Quotes

"Lee Wengraf's Extracting Profit - Imperialism, Neoliberalism and The New Scramble for Africa is at once historical and contemporary. It unpacks ongoing resource crimes by analytically exposing its historical roots and pointing to ways by which the oppressed can cut off the bonds that lock in their subjugation." --Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation

"Lee Wengraf provides an important reminder that Africa's position within the world economy is heavily determined by its unequal insertion into the global capitalist system and ongoing manifestations of imperialism." -James Chamberlain, Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute

"Lee Wengraf's Extracting Profit provides a breathtakingly detailed account and analysis of some of the major socioeconomic ills that have been plaguing Africa for centuries. Amongst the host of issues she tackles, arguably the most consequential are mass poverty in African societies, their indefensible economic inequalities and the steady plundering of the continent's resources, starting from the slave-trade era up till the present-day." -Remi Adekoya, Review of African Political Economy

"Extracting Profit offers several narratives of grassroots organizing and protest, pointing to the potential for resistance to global capital and fundamental change, in Africa and beyond." -Developing Economics

"Evidently, this book is well-researched and it contributes to the expansion of the frontiers of Marxist scholarship on Africa's development dilemma within the global capitalist order. This book lends credence to the pioneering works of such notable radical scholars as Andre Gunder Frank, Walter Rodney, and Samir Amin among several others. It should be read by students and teachers of political economy, development studies, Marxism and philosophy." -Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

"Extracting Profit provides a great arch of scutiny from the earliest carve-up of the African continent, through colonialism, war, imperialism, to the recent neoliberal takeover. The book demonstrates the continued importance of Marxist analysis on the continent, asserting the centrality of class analysis and a project of revolutionary change. Wengraf provides us with a major contribution, that highlights contemporary developments and the role of China on the African continent that has perplexed and baffled scholars. An indispensable volume." --Leo Zeilig, author of Frantz Fanon: The Militant Philosopher of Third World Revolution

"The history of resource frontiers everywhere is always one of lethal violence, militarism, empire amidst the forcing house of capital accumulation. Lee Wengraf in Extracting Profit powerfully reveals the contours of Africa's 21^st century version of this history. The scramble for resources, markets, and investments have congealed into a frightening militarization across the continent, creating and fueling the conditions for further political instability. Wengraf documents how expanded American, but also Chinese, presence coupled with the War on Terror, point to both the enduring rivalry among global superpowers across the continent and a perfect storm of resource exploitation. Wengraf offers up a magisterial synopsis of the challenges confronting contemporary Africa." --Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley

"One of the most well-known stylized

About the Author

Lee Wengraf is a writer and activist in New York City. Her articles have appeared in International Socialist Review, Socialist Worker, Review of African Political Economy, Pambazuka News, AllAfrica, Jacobin, Truthout, Green Left Weekly and the Indypendent.