Abstract
Political life in Africa is conducted through a complex web of social forces, institutional settings, and interpersonal relationships. If government structures furnish the context for official interactions in the public domain, social groups constitute the fundamental building blocks of political action and interchange. In Chapter 2, we demonstrated that it is difficult to understand the state in Africa, and consequently to assess its capacity to formulate and implement policy, without probing its social underpinnings. Most studies of contemporary Africa, cast either in the modernization, dependency, or statist molds, have emphasized the importance of class and ethnicity in determining the social roots of public institutions. African social and material life, however, revolves, in the first instance, around a medley of more compact organizations, networks, groupings, associations, and movements that have evolved over the centuries in response to changing circumstances. Although they frequently serve disparate interests, vary widely in composition, operate in many different ways, and have altered substantially over time, these groups have consistently formed a broad tapestry of social, political, and economic communication. The political interaction approach suggests that it is vital to begin with a closer look at these arenas of social exchange.
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Notes
Jean-François Bayart, “La revanche des societes africaines,” Politique Africaine 11 (1983): 95–127.
Also see Margaret Peil, Consensus and Conflict in African Society: An Introduction to Sociology (London: Longman, 1977).
Jane I. Guyer, “Comparative Epilogue,” in Jane I. Guyer, ed., Feeding Africa’s Cities (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989), pp. 242–243.
Peter C.W. Gutkind and Peter Waterman, eds., African Social Studies: A Radical Reader (London: Heinemann, 1977).
Also see Sara Berry, Fathers Work for Their Sons: Accumulation, Mobility and Class Formation in an Extended Yoruba Community (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), p. 7 and elsewhere.
For a good overview, see Chris Allen and Gavin Williams, eds., Sociology of “Developing Societies”: Sub-Saharan Africa (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1982).
Immanuel Wallerstein, “Voluntary Associations,” in James Coleman and Carl Rosberg, eds., Political Parties and National Integration in Tropical Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), pp. 318–339;
Kenneth Little, West African Urbanization: A Study of Voluntary Associations in Social Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967);
John M. Hamer, “Preconditions and Limits in the Formation of Associations: The Self-Help and Cooperative Movement in Sub-Saharan Africa,” African Studies Review 24, no. 1 (1981): 113–128.
In contrast, Sandra T. Barnes and Margaret Peil, “Voluntary Association Membership in Five West African Cities,” Urban Anthropology 6, no. 1 (1977): 83–106, do not see voluntary associations as necessarily integrative.
Roger Tangri, Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa (London: James Currey, 1985), p. 127.
For an excellent case study see Yaw Twumasi, “Prelude to the Rise of Nationalism in Ghana, 1920–1949: Nationalists and Voluntary Associations.” Ghana Social Science Journal 3, no. 1 (1976): 35–46.
Margaret Peil, Nigerian Politics: The People’s View (London: Cassel, 1976), p. 162;
John Hanna, ed., Students and Politics in Africa (New York: Africana Publishing Co., 1975).
For an overview, see Naomi Chazan, “The New Politics of Participation in Tropical Africa,” Comparative Politics 14, no. 2 (1982): 169–189;
and Michael Bratton, “Beyond the State: Civil Society and Associational Life in Africa,” World Politics 41, no. 3 (1989): 407–430.
Otwin Marenin, “Essence and Empiricism in African Politics,” in Yolamu Barongo, ed., Political Science in Africa (London: Zed Press, 1985), p. 230 and passim.
M. K. Schutz, “Observations on the Functions of Voluntary Associations; with Special Reference to West African Cities,” Human Relations 30, no. 9 (1977): 803–816.
This definition goes beyond that of Richard Hodder-Williams, An Introduction to the Politics of Tropical Africa (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1984), p. 164.
Barnes and Peil, “Voluntary Association Membership,” p. 91. Also see Crawford Young, The Politics of Cultural Pluralism (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976).
Maxwell Owusu, “Policy Studies, Development and Political Anthropology,” Journal of Modern African Studies 13, no. 3 (1975): 367–382.
Margaret Peil, “The Common Man’s Reaction to Nigerian Urban Government,” African Affairs 74, no. 296 (1975): 300.
For an excellent typology, see Paula Brown, Patterns of Authority in West Africa, in Irving Leonard Markovitz, ed., Politics and Society in Africa (New York: Free Press, 1970).
René Lemarchand, ed., African Kingships in Perspective (London: Frank Cass, 1977);
Roger Tangri, “Paramount Chiefs and Central Governments in Sierra Leone,” African Studies Review 3, no. 2 (1980): 183–196;
Harry Silver, “Going for Brokers: Political Innovations and Structural Integration in a Changing Ashanti Community,” Comparative Political Studies 14, no. 2 (1981): 233–263;
and Maxwell Owusu, “Chieftancy and Constitutionalism in Ghana: The Case of the Third Republic,” Studies in Third World Societies 24 (1983): 29–53.
For a case study, see Naomi Chazan, “Ethnicity and Politics in Ghana,” Political Science Quarterly 47, no. 3 (1982): 461–485.
Peter Ekeh, “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 17, no. 1 (1975): 91–112.
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Road to Independence: Ghana and the Ivory Coast (The Hague: Mouton, 1964).
For one case study, see Naomi Chazan and Victor Le Vine, “Politics in a ‘Non-Political’ System: The March 30, 1978 Referendum in Ghana,” African Studies Review 22, no. 1 (1979): 177–208.
The literature is somewhat divided on this point. See, for an excellent discussion of the nomenclature, Richard L. Sklar, “The Nature of Class Domination in Africa,” Journal of Modern African Studies 17, no. 4 (1979): 544–547.
Abner Cohen, The Politics of Elite Culture: Exploration in the Dramaturgy of Power in a Modern African Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), p. 9.
Paul Bennell, “Industrial Class Formation in Ghana: Some Empirical Observations,” Development and Change 15 (1985): 593–612;
Richard Rathbone, “Businessmen in Politics: Party Struggle in Ghana, 1949–1957,” Journal of Development Studies 9, no. 3 (1973): 391–402;
Sayre P. Schatz, “Government Lending to African Businessmen: Inept Incentives,” Journal of Modern African Studies 6, no. 4 (1968): 519–529;
Paul Kennedy, “Capitalism in Ghana,” Review of African Political Economy 8 (1977): 21–38.
See P. C. Lloyd, ed., The New Elites of Tropical Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1966).
Philip Foster, “Education and Social Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Journal of Modern African Studies 18, no. 2 (1980): 201–236;
Remi Clignet, “Education and Elite Formation,” in John Paden and Edward Soja, eds., The African Experience, vol. 1 (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1970), pp. 304–330.
Ali A. Mazrui, Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa (London: Heinemann, 1978).
Yves Person, “Les syndicats en Afrique noire,” Le mois en Afrique 172/173 (1980): 22–46;
Richard Sandbrook and Robin Cohen, eds., The Development of an African Working Class: Studies in Class Formation and Action (London: Longman, 1975).
Lawrence P. Frank, “Ideological Competition in Nigeria: Urban Populism Versus Elite Nationalism,” Journal of Modern African Studies 17, no. 3 (1979): 433–452; Bernard Magubane and Nzongola Ntalaja, “Proletarianization and Class Struggle in Africa,” Contemporary Marxism, no. 6 (1983).
Richard Jeffries, Class, Power and Ideology in Africa: The Railwaymen of Sekondi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).
Also see Peter C. W. Gutkind, “Change and Consciousness in Urban Africa: African Workers in Transition,” Cahiers d’études Africaines, 81–83 (1981): 299–346.
Robin Cohen, “Resistance and Hidden Forms of Consciousness Amongst African Workers,” Review of African Political Economy 19 (1980): 822.
Gracia Clark, “Pools, Clients and Markets” (Paper presented at the Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Los Angeles, October 1984), p. 7. Also see her edited volume, Traders and the State in Africa (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1989).
Claire Robertson, “The Death of Makola and Other Tragedies,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 17, no. 3 (1983): 477.
For background, see Martin A. Klein, ed., Peasants in Africa: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1980);
John C. Saul and Roger Woods, “African Peasantries,” in Dennis L. Cohen and John Daniel, eds., Political Economy of Africa (London: Longman, 1981), pp. 112–118;
and Claude E. Welch, “Peasants as a Focus in African Studies,” African Studies Review 20, no. 3 (1977): 2–5.
M. Catherine Newbury, “Ubureetwa and Thangata: Catalysts to Peasant Political Consciousness in Rwanda and Malawi,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 14, no. 1 (1980): 97–111;
Szymon Chodak, “Birth of an African Peasantry,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 12, no. 3 (1971): 327–349.
Rhoda Howard, Colonialism and Underdevelopment in Ghana (London: Croom Helm, 1978).
Also see Sharon Stichter, Migrant Laborers (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
Contrast with Goran Hyden, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: Underdevelopment and an Uncaptured Peasantry (London: Heinemann, 1980).
Also see Joshua B. Forrest, “Defining African Peasants,” Peasant Studies 9, no. 4 (1982): 242–249.
Keith Hart, The Political Economy of West African Agriculture (London: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 105.
Jonathan Barker, “Political Space and the Quality of Participation in Rural Africa: A Case from Senegal” (University of Toronto, Development Studies Programme, Working Paper no. C4, July 1984), and his, “Can the Poor in Africa Fight Poverty?” Journal of African Studies 7, no. 3 (1980): 161–166.
See Michael Watts, Silent Violence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983).
Kathleen Staudt, “Women’s Politics and Capitalist Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Women in Development Working Paper 54 (1984), p. 2.
Achola O. Pala, “La femme africaine dans le developpement rurale,” Cahiers économiques et sociaux 16, no. 3 (1978): 306–333; Review of African Political Economy 27/28 (1983), Special Issue on Women in Africa.
Margaret Snyder, “The African Woman in Economic Development: A Regional Perspective,” in The African Women in Economic Development Conference Proceedings (Washington, D.C.: African American Scholars Council, 1975), p. 11.
Ibid., p. 57. For more details, see Jane Parpart and Kathleen Staudt, eds., Women and the State in Africa (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1989).
Staudt, “Women’s Politics,” p. 21; Jette Bukh, The Village Woman in Ghana (Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1979).
Naomi Chazan, “The Manipulation of Youth Politics in Ghana and the Ivory Coast,” Geneva-Africa 15, no. 2 (1976): 38–63.
“Student Power: The Credit and Debit Side,” New African 154 (1980): 11–18; Nono Lutula Piame-Ololo, “La jeunesse et la politique en Afrique noire,” Le mois en Afrique 215/216 (1983–1984): 11–17.
William John Hanna, University Students and African Politics (New York: Africana Publishing Co., 1975).
For one case study, see Claude Meillassoux, Urbanization of an African Community: Voluntary Associations in Bamako (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968).
Sandra T. Barnes, “Voluntary Associations in a Metropolis: The Case of Lagos, Nigeria,” African Studies Review 18, no. 2 (1975): 75–88.
O.K. Finagnon, “Notes sur les forces religieuses dans les états africains,” Le mois en Afrique 213/214 (1983): 110–114;
Kofi Asare Opoku, West African Traditional Religion (Accra: University of Ghana Press, 1978).
D. C. O’Brien, “La filiére musulmane: Confréries soufies et politique en Afrique noire,” Politique africaine 1, no. 4 (1981): 7–30.
D. C. O’Brien, “A Veritable Charisma: The Mouride Brotherhood 1967–1975,” Archives européenes de sociologie 18 (1977): 84–106.
Johannes Fabian, “Religion and Change,” in Paden and Soja, The African Experience, vol. 1, p. 383. Also see Raymond F. Hopkins, “Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Social Forces 44, no. 4 (1966): 555–562.
Terence O. Ranger, “Religious Movements and Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Paper presented at the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, New Orleans, November 1985), p. 39.
Paul Lubeck, “Conscience de classe et nationalisme islamique à Kano,” Politique africaine 4 (1981): 40.
Also see Martial Sinda, “L’état africain post-colonial: Les forces sociales et les communautés religieuses dans l’état post-colonial en Afrique,” Presence africaine 127/128 (1983): 240–260.
Mar Fall, “L’état sénégalais et le renouveau récent de l’islam: Une introduction,” Le mois en Afrique 219/220 (1984): 154–159.
Also see John N. Paden, Religion and Political Culture in Kano (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).
Christian Coulon, “Le réseau islamique,” Politique africaine 9 (1983): 68–83.
Also see Guy Nicholas, “Islam et ‘constructions nationales’ au sud du Sahara,” Revue francaise d’études politiques africaines 165/166 (1979): 86–107. Politique africaine, no. 4 (1981), features a spccial issue on Islam in Africa.
Guy Nicholas, “Societes africaines, monde arabe et culture islamique,” Le mois en Afrique, no. 173/174 (1980): 47–64; Babiatu Amman, “New Light on Muslim Statistics for Africa,” Bulletin on Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa 2, no. 1 (1984): 11–20.
This term is taken from Thomas M. Callaghy, The State-Society Struggle: Zaire in Comparative Perspective (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).
Berry, Fathers Work for Their Sons, pp. 16–17, 194; Szymon Chodak, “Social Stratification in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 7, no. 3 (1973): 401–417.
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Chazan, N., Mortimer, R., Ravenhill, J., Rothchild, D. (1992). Social Groupings. In: Politics and Society in Contemporary Africa. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12976-8_4
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