Essays on the Theory and Practice of Imperialism

Document Abstract / Summary Overview

These essays were written over a period of four years of my academic career in the Faculty of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, where my main assignment as a teacher was in the field of international trade and investments (legal aspects). They were written as part of the need to clarify for myself the deep issues involved in today's international relations. In teaching and learning about these relations, the preoccupation in law teaching is with the rules, institutions and policies behind the institutions as 'law'. It became clear in the course of learning about these institutions with my students that they were incomprehensible outside a theory of imperialism. It occurred to us that unless such a theory was grasped, no real understanding of the practice behind these institutions was possible, and a lawyer taught in such narrow legalistic mould was no more than a parrot at the service of the exploiters and oppressors of our peoples and countries. These essays are the result of our effort to grapple with a theory of imperialism, based on the scientific method of Marxism-Leninism, and its implications for the practice of imperialism throughout the world but in particular in its impact on the third world countries.