It appears that in order to be a respectable Africanist, by which I mean simply a scholar whose interest, regardless of discipline, is focused on Africa, one must be a Marxist. Let me quickly add that I am, at least in the abstract, not opposed to this, particularly since I like to consider myself in some way part of that intellectual and political tradition. But the growth of the Marxism industry has not been without, to use the jargon, its contradictions.