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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:(Sub)imperial South Africa? Reframing the debate
Author:Samson, MelanieISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:36
Issue:119
Pages:93-103
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
Africa
Subjects:political philosophy
foreign policy
imperialism
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240902888774
Abstract:As postapartheid South Africa manoeuvres to ensure the implementation of NEPAD (New Economic Partnership for Africa) and assume the mantle of peace broker, leader of the African Renaissance and voice of the continent, its imprint stretches as far and wide across the continent as that of South African capital. Whilst few deny the growing hegemony of South Africa on the continent, there is heated debate in academic and activist communities about how to characterize these developments. At one end of the spectrum Ishmael Lesufi (2004, 2006) sees them as evidence of South African imperialism; at the other end, Patrick Bond (2004, 2005, 2006) argues that South Africa is a subimperial agent of American imperialism. The present article argues that the ways in which Bond and Lesufi conceptualize imperialism and subimperialism lead to problematic silences and exclusions and as a result neither theorist succeeds in capturing the nuanced social processes through which South Africa's current role is constituted and contested. Ironically, neither refers to Ruy Mauro Marini's initial conceptualization of Brazilian subimperialism (1965, 1972) which provides a useful starting point for addressing the weaknesses and gaps within their frameworks. The present article therefore reintroduces Marini into the South African debate and identifies how more recent writing from South Africa, as well as other contexts, can be drawn on to begin to build a new approach to theorizing South Africa's role. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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