To the memory of Sam Moyo

Abstract

Sam Moyo understood that the deployment of contemporary imperialism simply produces the savage destruction of peasant societies in Africa and Asia. In his honour, this article elaborates various dimensions of the challenge related to the so-called ‘emergence’ of the South. Conventional patterns of economic growth in the South, associated with relocation and subcontracting industries, produce nothing but ‘lumpen development’, that is, accelerated social disintegration and, in particular, destruction of rural societies. Emergence of nations, distinct from that of markets, implies the formulation of sovereign projects standing on two feet, engaging in the consolidation of an integrated industrial production system, on the one hand, and promoting the renewal of family-based peasant agriculture, on the other. This article offers a critical assessment of the African experiences and identifies alternative strategies beyond the blind alley of neoliberal re-colonization.