Extracting Profit: Imperialism, Neoliberalism and the New Scramble for Africa

“Extracting Profit 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 analyzes the steady plundering of Africa’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

“Wengraf 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

“This book should be required reading for all those who care about Africa and its future.”

— Grieve Chelwa, Contributing Editor, Africa Is A Country

“Extracting shows how neoliberal reforms have made the rich richer, while leaving tens of millions of poor and working class people behind.”

— Anand Gopal, author, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes

“Reading Extracting Profit would be exceedingly beneficial for any change-seeking activist in the labour movement within and beyond Africa.”

— Baba Aye, editor, Socialist Worker (Nigeria)

A piercing historical explanation of poverty and inequality in African societies today and the social impact of resource-driven growth, Extracting Profit explains why Africa has undergone an economic boom. African economies have reached new heights, but, examined through the lens of case studies of the oil fields of the Niger River Delta, the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline and the East African infrastructure boom, this has not led to the creation of jobs, but has instead fueled the extraction of natural resources, profits accruing to global capital, and an increasingly wealthy African ruling class.

Yet this new scramble has not gone unchallenged. With accounts of platinum workers’ struggles in South Africa, Nigerian labour organising and pro-democracy upheavals in Uganda and Burkina Faso, 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.

And in an updated preface, the author analyses the implications of the Covid‑19 pandemic and escalating climate emergency, as both the crises and resistance to extraction accelerate across the continent.

The original edition of this title is available from Haymarket Books. This new edition is available only in East Africa from Zand Press (Kenya).

ISBN Print: 978-1-990263-19-4
Publication Date: September 2021
Page Count: 364
Binding Type: Soft cover
Trim Size: 153 x 229mm
Language: English