Abstract
The generating factors of political forces are naturally many and varied. But what is essential, in our view, is the type of production relationships existing in a given society, that is to say, in our own day, the social class system. It is true that the usefulness of the (marxist) concept of social classes for studying African societies is contested by most African leaders as well as by bourgeois sociologists and political scientists. The reason they put forward is that these societies are still classless societies, or in any case societies in which classes play only a marginal role. This standpoint requires us to show not only the existence of classes, but also their political significance, in short that they constitute the deep-seated sources of political forces.
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Notes
On the system of social classes in Africa, see I.L. Markowitz: Power and class in Africa, Englewood Cliffs, 1977.
See the ideas of Marx and Engels on Algeria in Marxisme et Algérie, textes de Marx et Engels, introduced and translated by Galissot and Badia, U.G.E., 1976. See also the study by A. Djeyhloul: ‘La formation sociale algérienne à la veille de la colonisation’, La Pensée, 1976, No. 2; and the CERM study of pre-capitalist societies, Ed. Soc, 1970.
Hence the emphasis placed by certain authors on lineage and the head of the family. See R.P. Rey: Colonialisme, néo-colonialisme et transition au capitalisme, Maspero, 1971.
M. Godelier: ‘La notion de mode de production asiatique’, in the CERM study: Sur le mode de production asiatique. Ed. Soc., 1969, pp. 49–50. The author’s emphasis.
See S. Amin: Impérialisme et sous-développement en Afrique, Anthropos, 1976. In this collection of studies, the author exaggerates the specificity of Black Africa by comparison with Asia and America.
An example of this situation is to be found in the study of Nigeria by Ikenna Nzimiro in: Multinational Firms in Africa, Almqvist & Wilksell, Stockholm, 1976, pp. 210 et seq.
On the subject of social classes in Black Africa, see the studies by S. Urfer: ‘Classes et stratification sociale en Afrique’, Zaire-Afrique, March 1972;
C. Rivière: ‘Classes et stratification sociale en Afrique Noire’, Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie, July-December 1975, pp. 285–314.
Regarding the special case of South Africa, see the study by S. Mhlongo in Les temps modernes, November 1975, pp. 686–728.
For the Congo, see H. Bertrand: Le Congo, Maspero, 1975.
See the author’s: Droit du travail des Territoires d’Outre-Mer, LGDJ, 1958, pp. 210 et seq.
See D.B. Cruise O’Brien, The Mourides of Senegal, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971, and the article by L. Markowitz in J.M.A.S. 1970, No. 1, pp. 73–96.
See L.V. Thomas in: La croissance urbaine en Afrique Noire et à Madagascar, C.N.R.S., 1972, vol. 2, pp. 1015 et seq.
See S. Sandbrook and R. Cohen: The Development of an African Working Class, Longmans, London, 1975.
Also see V. Solodovnikov and M. Braguinski: ‘La classe ouvrière dans la structure sociale des pays africains’, La vie internationale, October 1976.
Pruneau de Pommegorge: Description de la négritie, 1789, p. 210.
Nkrumah: Class Struggle in Africa, p. 37. Cf. F. Fanon: ‘Racisme et culture’, communication delivered at the First Congress of Black Artists and Writers, 1956.
Histoire de l’Afrique Noire, Hatier, Paris, 1972.
See also the doctoral thesis of Shaick A.T. Cissé: ‘Contribution à l’étude des institutions politiques du Mali’, University of Paris, Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1976.
ORSTOM: Essai sur la reproduction des formation sociales dominées 1977. (Deals with Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Senegal and Malagasy Republic.)
Cf. V. Solodovnikov: Le développement non capitaliste en Asie et en Afrique à l’étape actuelle, Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 1974;
and P.I. Polchikov: Un continent en mouvement. Problèmes actuels du développement économique de l’Afrique, Ed. Naouka, Moscow, 1976 (in Russian).
See Guy Landry Hazoumé: ‘Idéologies tribalistes et Nation en Afrique’, Présence Africaine 1972;
and Lancine Sylla: Tribalisme et parti unique en Afrique Noire; FNSP, 1977.
A. Mafeje: ‘The ideology of tribalism’, JMAS, 1972, No. 2.
On the national question, see the author’s L’Etat Africain (2nd edn in preparation) and the study by E. Sicard in the work already cited: Spécificité et théorie sociale, pp. 82–122.
See I.N. Kimanbo and A.J. Temu: A History of Tanzania, 1969.
D. Ronen: ‘Alternative patterns of integration in African States’, JMAS, 1976, No. 4, 9. 581.
H. Safa and B.M. Duthoit: Migration and Development. Implications for Ethnic Identity and Political Conflict, Mouton, The Hague, 1975.
UNESCO, op.cit., pp. 98 and 129–130.
Regarding Zaire, see the political science thesis by J.C. Biebe Ekalobo: ‘Conscience politique et intégration nationale au Zaïre’, Université de Paris I, 1977.
See. E. Troitski: ‘Le facteur national dans les pays d’orientation socialiste’, La vie internationale, 1977, No. 4, pp. 36–45.
See F.A. Salomone: ‘Ethnicity and the Nigerian Civil War’, L’Afrique et l’Asie modernes, 1976, 4th quarter, pp. 4–12.
See for example, in the work already cited, p. 7, note 2, the study by P. Neers: Tanzania’s Policies on Private Foreign Investment, p. 184
‘Education and ethnic politics in Nigeria’, Africa Development, 1976, No. 3.
See: Modern Migrations in Western Africa, OUP, 1974;
and H. Safa and B.M. Duthoit: Migration and Development. Implications for Ethnic Identity and Political Conflict, Mouton, The Hague, 1975.
See the paper by A. Oganova at the 3rd Session of the International Conference of Africanists, Addis Ababa, 1973: ‘Tribalism in the life of contemporary towns of tropical Africa’, p. 25.
J.S. Coleman ed.: Education and Political Development, Princeton University Press, 1965, p.3.
See: ‘Sacralité, droit et pouvoir en Afrique’, Symposium organized by the University of Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), January 1980 (in press).
E. Kange: ‘Le politique dans le système religieux catholique romain en Afrique (1815/1960)’, thesis, Strasbourg University of Human Sciences, 1975;
J.M. Cucq: Les Musulmans en Afrique, Editions Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 1975;
consult the bibliography cited in the Annuaire du Tiers Monde (since 1974/1975) under the heading ‘Religions’; and B. Lewis: The World of Islam, Faith. People, Culture, Brill — Leiden, 1976.
A. Hastings: A History of African Christianity 1950–1975, Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Histoire de l’Afrique Noire, p. 439.
In Nigeria in 1942, missions controlled 99% of the schools and accounted for 97% of pupils attending schools (Nigeria Ten Year Education Plan 1944). Regarding Cameroon, see the Political Science thesis by L. Ngondo, cited in Part II, Chapter I, note 36, below.
L’Algérie politique. Histoire et société, A. Colin, 1974, p. 147; see also R. Ageron: Les Algériens musulmans et la France, 2 volumes, Paris PUF, 1968; and Bruno Etienne: L’Algérie, Cultures et révolution, Seuil, 1977, pp. 118 et seq.
See. W. Morris-Jones: The Making of Politicians (Africa and Asia), The Athlone Press, London, 1976; see the biographies published by EDIAFRIC and periodically by Afrique contemporaine.
The work by Père Pichon: Le drame Rhodésien, Edition L’Harmattan, Paris, 1975, contains much on the role of the Christian churches (pp. 67. et seq., 112 et seq. and 150 et seq.).
See M. Robinson: Marxisme et monde musulman, Seuil, 1972;
100 et seq.,
177 et seq.,
248 et seq.
and 380 et seq.
See the thesis by M. Camacho: ‘Le sacré au service de l’ordre social’, Université de Paris V, 1976.
See the thesis by Moncef Kaddar: ‘Langage et réalité politique en Tunisie’, Université de Paris I, 1977.
Cf. A. Malraux: Hôtes de passage, Gallimard, 1975, pp. 49–50. L.S. Senghor told Malraux: ‘Those who must build the Third World belong to at least two cultures….Even my colleagues who continue to cultivate their greegrees in secret: and do not forget that they all have greegrees….’
S. Urfer: Socialisme et Eglise en Tanzanie, Edition L’Harmattan, 1975.
In the case of Guinea, see the study by C. Rivière in Cultures et développement, 1976, No. 2.
The perpetuation of this system in Mali is dealt with in the study by M. Fellous: ‘The socialisation of the child in a Bambara village’, Africa Development, 1976, No. 3.
In the case of Algeria, for example, see C.R. Ageron: ‘Le mouvement Jeune Algérien de 1900 à 1923’, in Etudes Maghrébines, P.U.F., 1964, pp. 217–243. For Rhodesia, R. Pichon (op. cit., pp. 95–96) notes that: ‘The nationalist movement in the years between 1950 and 1960 was essentially urban. The leaders of the A.N.C. and subsequently the N.D.P. were “intellectuals”; the mass of members consisted of Africans integrated in the modern economy… over-confident in their strength, and doubtless over-concerned with “seizing the power which seemed to be within their grasp”, the leaders neglected the weight of the peasant masses and the still considerable influence of traditional chiefs on the latter…. Overlooking their rural brothers was the great mistake of the nationalist leaders.’
See D. Bari: ‘Les moyens audio-visuels et la tradition orale dans la boucle du Niger’, Thesis, Université de Paris 2, 1975.
See for example the 3rd cycle thesis of Guillaneuf on the press in the Ivory Coast (1906-1952), Université de Paris I, 1975, 2 vols. In the case of Dahomey, see the thesis by CI. Lokossou, Université de Paris I, 1975. In the case of Cameroon, see the thesis by L.I. Sah, Université de Paris 2, 1975.
In the case of Ghana, see the article by W.A. Hachten: ‘Ghana press under the N.R.C.: an authoritarian model for Africa’. Journalism quarterly, Autumn 1975, pp. 458 et seq.
The Charter of the Association of Press Agencies of the Third World was published in Communicator (April-July 1976, pp. 17–19). On these questions, see the communications presented at the Mexico City seminar in May 1976 on the role of information in the new international order; and documents presented at the Tunis symposium (March 1976), at the San José de Costa Rica conference (1976) and the Florence conference (1977). See also the studies published in the ‘Annuaire du Tiers Monde’, 1979.
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Gonidec, P.F. (1981). The Bases of Political Forces. In: African Politics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8902-3_2
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