English

Abstract

One of the attendant effects of globalisation and the hegemonising forces unleashed thereof has been the rise of comprador intellectualism. This is a genre of intellectual analysis which by its failure to elaborate on the class character of globalisation tends to uphold, consciously or unconsciously, the dominant liberal doctrine underpinning globalisation. The tragedy associated with this intellectual capitulation is that it has rendered futile, any efforts to expose the ills of globalisation on the intellectual frontier. The relegation of Marxism and the propagation of an intellectual genre bereft of class analysis has pre-empted the revolutionary movements of the workers, students and other revolutionary forces in the third world economies. The posting of Marxism as unhappy spirit begging to be laid to rest have thus provided an opportune moment for fragmentation of social thought. Far from the fact that comprador intellectualism arose out of the collapse of the Socialist project, it is a critical component of globalism as it reflects the all-powerful trend-setting tendencies of the global hegemonism which is so pervasive as to impose conformity and what can be believed to be acceptable intellectual currents. The posting of knowledge as power via the structuring but indeterminate discourses that are thereby produced, and the corresponding possibility of deconstructing empowered discourses, becomes itself extremely powerful as an orientation to analysis and understanding in research and intellectual discourse.    Key words: Hegemonism, globalisation, Marxism, Democracy, fragmentation, Africa.