Tribute written by Ben Turok, South African Member of Parliament

published in New Agenda (SA Journal of Social and Economic Policy.)

Giovanni Arrighi, one of the world’s most distinguished progressive economists, passed away on 18 June 2009 in the United States. Born in Italy, he spent many years teaching in Africa, and was part of a group of international scholars who set Dar es Salaam University alight in the late 1960s. It was the heyday of Ujamaa, when President Julius Nyerere sought to revolutionise Tanzania with his vision of African socialism. In the process, this tiny university became the centre of gravity for scholars like Arrighi, Walter Rodney, John Saul, Dan Nabudere, Issa Shivji, Samir Amin, Lionel Cliffe and many others.

The campus became a lively debating chamber as staff and students explored theories of imperialism, colonialism, Marxism, Maoism and numerous other areas of political economy.   Notice boards were littered with information about seminars and lectures, and the students were inspired to read widely and deeply.

I was working in government, but was deeply involved in these activities and spent many an interesting evening with these friends in an intellectual feast of the left. Of course there were many heated arguments and various theoretical strands, often at loggerheads, but it was a period of prolific writing as well, and some of these scholars produced their best work then. I have never known university life to be as exciting as Dar es Salaam.

But, inevitably, a reaction set in. Nyerere became a bit anxious at the heady atmosphere at the university; as students became too enthusiastic about the revolutionary ideas, they were obliged to calm down.  In 1969, Arrighi returned to Italy. In 1971, he and others formed the Gruppo Gramsci and produced a large leftist newspaper extolling the ideas of Antonio Gramsci, but highly critical of the Italian Communist Party.

In 1979, Arrighi joined world systems theorist Immanuel Wallerstein at SUNY Binghamton, where he used his economics expertise to develop further theoretical work on the global political economy. During this period, Arrighi delivered lectures in many countries. He was particularly fascinated by China and wrote many articles about the transition there.

He retained his interest in Africa and I was privileged to host him and his wife Beverly Silver over several days in Cape Town, in what turned out to be a relentless seminar on political and economic developments in South Africa. He was concerned about some issues but remained wholly supportive of the ANC. In 2007, he published a monumental work, Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century, which will surely stand as a classic. Giovanni will be sorely missed by his many friends around the world.

Ben Turok

July 2009