It is very important to understand the process of capitalist penetration of African economies. The process is easily confused with its effects. For instance, it can be confused with economic domination.
African economies were and are dominated, but the domination is the effect of the particular manner in which they have been integrated into the Western capitalist system. Much the same thing might be said of dependence. The dependence of African economies is the effect of the integration of African economies into the world capitalist system and not the essence of this process of integration. The salient feature of the process under review is that it ‘joined’ African economies to the Western capitalist economies in what was essentially an organic relationship. This process was brought about by colonialism, but that is not to say that it is a necessary effect of colonialism, it was just the effect of the particular mode of articulation of colonialism in Africa. What was this particular mode of articulation of colonialism and how did it bring about the process of integration? This question will be considered fewer than three headings: the monetization of African economies, the imperialism of colonial trade, and metropolitan investment and infrastructure development.
A non-monetized economy cannot really be integrated into a capitalist economy. The monetization of a pre-capitalist economy is necessary for its integration into a capitalist one. As has been shown earlier, the essence of the capitalist mode of production is that it penetrates and takes over the production process. To say that capital has taken over production means that production is geared to the output of commodities or, what is the same thing that production occurs for the purpose of exchange. This process, which may be called pervasive commodification, requires a universal medium of exchange – money.
The inadequacies of these pre-colonial currencies had become very serious by the nineteenth century and they began to decline rapidly, not only because of their inherent weaknesses but also because of other developments. It was now much cheaper, because of technical advances and the availability of new sources of supply, to produce and deliver them. The tendency to over-issue was reinforced by competition among European firms for the African trade. The result was a serious depreciation of the value of these currencies, and inevitably confidence in them was lost. At the same time European currencies, particularly British and French were coming increasingly into use. This greatly accelerated the decline of the pre-colonial African currencies. That the European currencies accelerated the decline was not in the least surprising because they were much more convenient.
How then did colonialism monetize African economies? First economies were monetized by annihilating the pre-colonial currencies which had represented a rudimentary monetization, but which were as limited as currencies that they would have been a serious obstacle to fundamental monetization. They were annihilated by depreciation and displacement so that the way was paved for the development of a modern monetary system. With pre-colonial currencies displaced, and the European currencies firmly installed in their place, the real task of monetization began, and this was mainly the task of making the new medium of exchange thoroughly pervasive in the economy. First, they encouraged wage labour often by force – for instance, by appropriating arable land from Africans and thus reducing them first to squatters and arable land from Africans and thus reducing them first to squatters and eventually to wage labourers on their land. The expansion of wage labour not only had the advantage of monetizing the economy but also of facilitating the control of the economy and a more reliable supply of labour. Second, African economies were monetized by imposing taxes and insisting on payment of taxes with the European currency.
THE IMPERIALISM OF TRADE
Trade between the colony and the colonizing power was a critical mechanism for the integration of African economies into the European capitalist system. How trade played this role is quite easy to understand. To begin with, trade was, in the early years of colonization, the vehicle for extending capitalism into the colony. It helped to create consumerist orientations; it stimulated the growth of a money market and capitalist financial institutions, extending the scope of the money economy. Most importantly trade stimulated primary production. To appreciate this point one has to distinguish between the impact of trade on the colonies before and after colonization. There was trade before colonization but its impact on the transformation of the economy of the overseas territory was rather limited. Trading activity centred mainly in the metro pole. The Europeans were relatively indifferent to what went on in the interior. They were content to leave the production and the delivery of whatever products they wanted to local entrepreneurs and middlemen. But with colonization, the situation changed.
THE IMPACT OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT
The pattern of foreign investment in the colonial African economies reinforced the complementarities between these economies and the Western economies, and the structural dependence of the former on the latter. But before going into the question of complementarities and dependence, it is useful to mention that foreign investment increased the integration of the African economies into the Western capitalist system by promoting the spread of the capitalist mode of production. As Western capital flowed into the colony, capitalism spread. And as capitalism and capitalist-related institutions took root, the economies of the colony became more compatible with Western economies and this aided integration. Foreign investment created linkages between the metropolitan and colonial economies. For instance, while stimulating primary production in the colonies it directed its forward linkages outwards to the metropole. The spread of capitalism in the colony was integrative in more small class of indigenous capitalists who had common interest with foreign capital.
The history of man stems from less developed kinds of society to qualitatively new and even higher types surpassing the former ones in all the major economic, social, political, cultural and moral criteria. Marxism designates these qualitative distinct types of society, which primarily differ from each other in economic structure, in the mode of material production, as socio-economic formations. Marx asserted that the socio-economic formations consist of economic structure and consequently the two main super-structures of the state, law and ideology which determine the mode of production. It should be noted that all socio-economic formation arises on a material foundation and every new formation begins with the emergence and development of a new economic basis which necessarily gives rise to corresponding politic-juridical relations and ideological forms. The fundamental basis of any socio-economic formations, its chief structural elements the mode of production is characterized by the type of property in the means of production prevailing under that formation. When the prevailing relations of production run into contradiction with the productive forces and impede their development, the given formation inevitably begins to decline and finally collapses. So the development of a socio-economic formation, its rise and falls are forces decided in the sphere of the economic basis.
The Primitive Communal Stage
At the beginning of human existence, social organization took the form of the horde or band of hunters who killed animals and fruit gatherers. Division and specialization of labour were possible along the sex lines, age, brute strength and skills.
In the slave society, the means of production are almost the same with that of communal society, the sharp differences are that human beings are now included in the forces of production, and production has risen to a level where surpluses are produced. The relation of production is private and the dominant mode of production is slavery.
The emergence of feudal stage became necessary as a result of the failure of the slave system. So during the third century, the slave holding society was faced with a lot of problems as a result of feudal relations of production emerge. In the pursuit of economic benefit, some slave owners broke up their latifundia into smaller units gave these of liberated slaves who were to remain attached to the soil and to pay cash rent. As time goes on the cash rent payment was replaced with payment through selling their labour to their masters.
The capitalist social formation is dominated by a mode of production in which the factory is the dominant means of production and in which the bulk of productive forces are privately own.
Marxism attached more value to the role of capitalism in industrial development and civilizations sue to its production facilities.
Capitalism has helped in the advancement of science and technology, more so in the way it has helped the emergence and the development of capitalism. Capitalist society, during its early stage, has helped to create great cultural values in art, literature and every other sphere of spiritual and creative endeavour. Capitalism is more important compared with slavery and feudalism in social progress not only in the economy but also in social and political sphere of life. Though, despite its inconsistencies, bourgeois democracy was undoubtedly a marked extension of individual civil rights as can be compared to feudal state system.
Contrary to what is obtained in the capitalist socio-economic formations the socialist socio-economic formations has no resemblance with the bourgeois society. The growing character under capitalism the shaping and the awakening of the consciousness of the peasant and working class, its communist vanguard and the emergence of a strong alliance between the lumen proletariat and other oppressed social sections of the capitalist society provide the most important conditions for transition to socialism. The socialist revolution the Karl Marx led the vanguard first in Russia put an end to the domination of the capitalist.
Under socialism there is social property in the means of production, thereby putting an end to exploitation of man by man. The contradictions in the capitalist mode of production with attendant crisis that characterized capitalism i.e. economic recession, inflation, economic stagnation etc., have no room in the socialist system, this is because all the means of production are under the control of the state, which affects the planned and development of all the sectors in the economy. Under socialism, planning is done in such a way that there will be no room for unemployment and the workers fear of the future which is a curse to working class under capitalism. Under this system, the values which are created by the workers are distributed among the producers based on the quality and the quantity of their labour.


For this week’s winter theme, I planned a storytime around Jim Aylesworth’s 2009 adaptation of the folktale “The Mitten”. I love that a version of this popular story was created that is suitable to read aloud to preschoolers. The children in my storytimes are always captivated by the story and art of this book.
I also included Paul Galdone’s”Three Little Kittens”, and “Who’s Been Here? A Tale in Tracks” by Fran Hodgkins. A similar, quality story about animals in the snow is “In the Snow: Who’s Been Here?” by Lindsay Barrett George. “The Mitten Tree” by Candace Christiansen is another good story about mittens.
“Who’s Been Here? A Tale in Tracks” by Fran Hodgkins
“In the Snow: Who’s Been Here?” by Lindsay Barrett George
“Three Little Kittens” by Paul Galdone
“The Mitten Tree” by Candace Christiansen
Art project: I had the children create a mitten sewing card to practice fine motor skills. Then they colored and cut out all of the story’s animals from a sheet I provided, and placed them inside their finished mitten. The kids seemed to think this was a fun way to re-enact the story. Here are examples of the materials used to assemble this project:


The Financial Times defines business acumen as the “keenness and speed in understanding and deciding on a business situation.” Managers with good business acumen are respected within their organizations because their decisions generate appropriate results and produce additional contributions to the overall company culture and performance.
To create an effective business plan that tells a story about the current state of the business and forecasts the future state with realistic expectations, leaders need to have the right business analysis tools and acumen. This front line leader course identifies a number of business analysis tools and techniques used by different organizations that leaders can use to dissect, comprehend and make decisions about a business situation. Learn how to use frameworks to assess the current state of the business, evaluate the risks impacting the business, consider options, and determine the course of actions or solutions that can be implemented to address business needs.
By completion of this course, successful students will be able to:
- Identify business analysis tools and techniques used by different organizations.
- Explore frameworks to assess options, define a course of action and/or create solutions that can be implemented to address business needs.
- Examine strategies to communicate the current state and justify the business decision to key stakeholders within the organization.
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ISIS has an air force, and it's made up of consumer drones. Video from AlMawsleya TV in Mosul shows an ISIS drone that Iraqi Security Services downed. ISIS has used drones since 2014. Initially, they were for surveillance and making propaganda videos. They were also used to direct mortar or rocket attacks.
Eventually, ISIS started using drones as a sort of do-it-yourself air force. They became especially prominent in Mosul, Iraq, as ISIS lost more and more of the city. When they weren't dropping homemade explosives from the drones, they used them to direct suicide bombers to targets in the urban terrain.
Damien Spleeters, head of regional operations in Iraq and Syria for Conflict Armament Research, says his organization has seen mostly rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.
"For tactical reasons, because it's easier, you don't have to account for inertia too much for this kind of platform when you drop an ordinance," he says. "But also because it's commercial and off the shelf, so it's easier to obtain. You know, ISIS had a program in place since 2015. From those documents, you could see that there were different purposes for drones, like bombing, spying, training — things like this, so, they used them in forms to their advantage."
Drones are only one part of a larger set of homebrew ISIS weaponry. Among other things, the group makes its own rocket launchers, rifle grenades, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. While making explosives is nothing new for terror groups, the scale that ISIS does it, is.
"It really resembled to me, an industrial revolution of terrorism so to speak, you know?" Spleeters says. "For us, there are two factors that are really at the basis for why the Islamic State group is having a very strong military production program. The first reason is they like to develop their own brand. They are a state, and they are self-sufficient. ... It's their politics, it's their ideology. And the second reason is to supplement their current arsenal with things that they might be lacking."
Despite that ISIS continues to lose territory, including some of it's largest urban areas, Spleeters says ISIS is still alive and kicking in terms of innovation. And that it may even spread outside of Iraq and Syria.
"As long as their chain of supply remains in place, it will survive," he says. "If not, it will stay dormant until there is material to use."
Conflict Armament Research has written a host of reports on ISIS weapons in Iraq and Syria. Damien Spleeters and his team have conducted more than 30 missions in the region over more than 500 days and have documented more than 40,000 items. See CAR's work here.
More useful information on ISIS weapon innovation, specifically on drones, can be found in this report from West Point's Combating Terrorism Center. Bellingcat, an open-source journalism collective, gathered visual evidence of more than 100 drone attacks in Iraq and Syria and analyzed them by munition type and target here.