Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T22:04:03.729Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Peasantization’ and Rural Political Movements in Western Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Ken Post
Get access

Extract

Even a cursory survey of the relevant literature reveals a marked uncertainty on the part of scholars concerning the application of the term ‘peasant’ to therural population of Africa, either historically or in terms of contemporary analysis. Most writers either evade the issue, display analytical uncertainty, or forthrightly reject the term (i). These variations seem to indicate that at present we lack a theoretical basis adequate for the analysis of rural Africa. The formulation of such a theory is therefore a prime duty of africanists. We have to ask ourselves whether the phenomenon of apeasantry appeared in parts of Western Africa before the colonial conquest, and if so under what conditions. Further, we have to decide whether this phenomenon has been extended since those conquests and, again, in what circumstances. In short, this essay is concerned with a process of societal evolution (i.e., combining economic, social and political changes) which has included as one of its main features what is called here—purely for want of a better term—‘peasantization’, the process of becoming a peasant. The present discussion has a second focus, the relation between peasantization and various political forms which have emerged in rural Africa in the colonial and post-colonial periods. Like other social scientists, students of politics seem rarely tohave considered the implications of the use. of the word ‘peasant’ in discussing African phenomena (2). Just as the first part of this paper will deal with various theoretical questions related to peasantization, so the second part will concern itself with some of those implications.

Type
“A Sack of Potatoes”?
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , November 1972 , pp. 222 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

(1) Thus Allan, W., The African Husbandman (Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1965)Google Scholar, speaks of ‘husbandmen’, but does not explain why; Fallers, Lloydchanged from a qualified affirmative answer in his Are African Cultivators to be called ‘Peasants’ ? Current Anthropology, II (1961), 108–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar, to using the term ‘protopeasant’ in Equality, Modernity and Democracy in the New States, in Geebtz, Clifford (ed.), Old Societies and New States (New York, The Free Press, 1963)Google Scholar; Hill, Polly, Studies in Rural Capitalism in West Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1970)Google Scholar, prefers the term ‘rural capitalists’.

(2) For example, Marcum, John, The Angolan Revolution, Vol. I; The Anatomy of an Explosion (1950–62) (Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press, 1969)Google Scholar, uses the term without any discussion.

(3) Simon, and Ottenberg, Phoebe, Afikpo Markets: 1900–1960, in Bohannan, Paul and Dalton, George (eds), Markets in Africa (Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1962), p. 118Google Scholar.

(4) Fitchin, Janet, Peasantry as a Social Type, in Garfield, Viola E. (ed.), Symposium: Patterns of Land Utilization and Other Papers (Seattle, American Ethnologandical Society, 1961), pp. 117–118Google Scholar.

(5) Redfield, Robert, Peasant Society and Culture (Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1956), p. 46Google Scholar.

(6) Ibid. pp. 56–57.

(7) In an earlier work, The Folk Culture of Yucatan (Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1941)Google Scholar, Redfield had employed an “urban-folk” dichotomy.

(8) Redfield, , Peasant Society and Culture, op. cit. p. 70Google Scholar.

(9) Fallers, , op. cit.p. 108Google Scholar.

(10) Ibid. p. 110.

(11) Wolf, Eric, Peasants (Englewcod Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1966), pp. 3–4Google Scholar.

(12) Ibid. p. 10.

(13) Ibid. pp. 10–11.

(14) I have already discussed (in a preliminary fashion) some of the problems related to the dimension of kinship in a entitled The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: Engels (and Others) in African Perspective [mimeo-graphed, unpublished] (1969)Google Scholar.

(15) Fitchin, , op. cit. p. 115Google Scholar.

(16) On the former see Marx, Karl, Capital, Vol. III (New York, International Publishers, 1967), pp. 804–813Google Scholar.

(17) Letter reprinted in Marx, Karl, Pre-capitalist Economic Formations, edited by Hobsbawm, Eric (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1964), p. 143Google Scholar.

(18) See, for example, the contributions in Biebuyck, Daniel (ed.), African Agrarian Systems (London, Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1963)Google Scholar.

(19) Quoted in Engels, Friedrich, Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State, in Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, Selected Works in Two Volumes (Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951), Vol. II, pp. 175–176.Google Scholar.

(20) Bohannan, and Dalton, , Markets in Africa, op. cit. p. 1Google Scholar.

(21) See Childe, V. Gordon, The Birth of Civilization, Past and Present, II (1932), pp. 1–10Google Scholar.

(22) Pearson, Harry W., The Economy has no Surplus: Critique of a Theory of Development, in Polanyi, Karl, Arensberg, Conrad M. and Pearson, Harry W. (eds), Trade and Market in the Early Empires (Glencoe, The Free Press, 1957), p. 334Google Scholar.

(23) See discussions in Pearson, , op. cit. pp. 322–327Google Scholar, and Harris, Marvin, The Economy Has No Surplus? American Anthropologist, LXI (1959), pp. 188–191Google Scholar.

(24) Hill, , op. cit. pp. 153–154Google Scholar.

(25) Suket-Canale, Jean, Afrique noire, ecddentale et centrale : géographie, civlisations, histoires (Paris, Editions sociales, 1968)Google Scholar, is a useful beginning.

(26) Waterman, Peter, The Western Sudan in its classical period—a review of Marxist research and analysis [mimeo-graphed, unpublished] (1969), pp. 3–4Google Scholar.

(27) Anderson, Perry, Portugal and the End of Ultra-Colonialism, New Left Review, XV–LVIII (1962), 83–102Google Scholar, 88–123, 85–114

(28) It may be suggested tentatively that France, Belgium and Portugal fall into the first category and Britain into the second: this would be an interesting topic for furtherresearch, involving the question of the use of a concept of ‘peasant’ in the metropolitan country itself. It seems prob- able that the reluctance of many Anglo-Saxon scholars to use the term analytically in African studies stems from the same source.

(29) An important discussion of this phenomenon in another context is Laclau, Ernesto, Imperialism in Latin America, New Left Review, LXVII (1971), especially pp. 30–38Google Scholar.

(30) Stavenhagen, Rodolfo, Les classes sociales dans les sociétés agraires (Paris, Éditions Anthropos, 1969), p. 153Google Scholar.

(31) Ibid. pp. 180–181. All translations in this essay are by Ken Post.

(32) Stavenhagen, , op. cit. p. 180Google Scholar.

(33) Douglas, Mary, Is Matriliny Doomed in Africa?, in Douglas, Mary and Kaberby, Phyllis M. (eds), Man in Africa (London, Tavistock Publications, 1969), p. 131Google Scholar.

(34) See Hill, P., The Myth of the Amorphous Peasantry: a Northern Nigerian case study, Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies, no 2 (1968), 239–260Google Scholar.

(35) See Ibid, table on p. 249, and Studies in Rural Capitalism; op. cit. pp. 147–148.

(36) On the Akan see Hill, P., Migrant Cocoa-Farmers of Southern Ghana (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1963)Google Scholar, and Studies in Rural Capitalism; for the Murids, see Pélissier, Paul, Les Paysans du Sénégal (Saint-Yrieix Imprimerie Fabré- gue, 1966)Google Scholar, Chap. VI, and O'Brien, D. B. Cruise, The Mourides of Senegal (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971)Google Scholar, especially Ckap. VIII and ix.

(37) Bohannan, and Dalton, , op. cit. p. 10Google Scholar.

(38) Redfield, , op. cit (1956), pp. 133–134Google Scholar.

(39) Ibid. p. 140.

(40) Fox, Renée C., de Chaemer, Willy and Jean-Marie, Ribeaucourt, , The Second Independence: a case study of the Kwilu rebellion in the Congo, Comparative Studies in Society and History, VIII (1965), p. 96Google Scholar.

(41) The last hypothesis is my own, and is not suggested in the original article. See, however, Weiss, Herbert, Political Protest in the Congo (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1967), p. 190Google Scholar.

(42) Fox, , Craemer, and Ribeaucourt, , op cit. p. 97Google Scholar, quoting Meert, Jacques, Unesemaine dans les villages Laba. Le mouve-ment Savoir-Vivre: expérience de developement communautaire rural, pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

(43) Foster, George M., Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good, American Anthropologist, LXVII (1965), p. 296Google Scholar, emphasis in the original. See also his Reply to Kaplan, , Saler, , and Bennett, , Ameri-can Anthropologist, LXVIII (1966), pp. 210–214Google Scholar.

(44) Kennedy, John G., ‘Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good’: a critique, American Anthropologist, LXVIII (1966), p. 1213Google Scholar.

(45) Bennett, John W., Further Remarks on Foster's ‘Image of Limited Good’, American Anthropologist, LXVIII (1966), pp. 1215–1217Google Scholar and 1220–1221.

(46) Kaplan, David and Saler, Benson, Foster's ‘Image of Limited Good’: an example of anthropological explanation, American Anthropologist, LXVII (1966), p. 204Google Scholar.

(47) Foster, loc. cit. (emphasis in the original).

(48) See Huizeb, Gerrit, “Resistance to Change” and Radical Peasant Mobilization: Foster and Erasmus Reconsidered, Human Organization, XXIX (1970), especially pp. 303–305Google Scholar, and Foster's reply in the same issue.

(49) Wolf, , op. cit. p. 106Google Scholar.

(50) See Hogben, S. J. and Kirke-Greene, A. H. M., The Emirates of Northern Nigeria (London, Oxford U. P., 1966), p. 411Google Scholar.

(51) The Peasantry as a Political Factor, The Sociological Review, XIV [New Series] (1966), p. 20Google Scholar.

(52) Kilson, Martin, Political Change in a West African State (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard U. P., 1966), pp. 113–117CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

(53) Marcum, , op. cit. pp. 124–125Google Scholar.

(54) Kilson, , op. cit. p. 60Google Scholar; see also pp. 186–189.

(55) Shanin, , op. cit. p. 19Google Scholar.

(56) Cabral, Amilcar, Revolution in Guinea (London, Stage I, 1969), p. 50Google Scholar.

(57) See Womack, John, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (London, Thames and Hudson, 1969)Google Scholar, passim. Shanin, however, cites Zapata as a case of his further type of “independent [peasant] class action” (op. cit. p. 19).

(58) Weiss, , op. cit, p. 297Google Scholar.

(59) On this see Fanon, Frantz, The Wretched of the Earth (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1967), pp. 87–118Google Scholar.

(60) Alavi, Hamza, Peasants and Revolu-tion, in Miliband, Ralph and Saville, John(eds), The Socialist Register 1965 (London, Merlin Press, 1965)Google Scholar.

(61) Weiss, , op. cit. pp. 187–189Google Scholar, and Young, Crawford, Politics in the Congo (Princeton, Princeton U. P., 1965), pp. 209–210CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

(62) Young, loc. cit.

(63) Fox, , Craemer, and Ribeaucourt, , op. cit. pp. 82–83Google Scholar.

(64) Ibid. p. 88.

(65) Ibid. p. 97.

(66) Weiss, Herbert and Verhaegen, Benoît (eds), Parti Solidaire Africain (P.S.A.): Documents 1959–1960 (Bruxelles, C.R.I.S.P., 1963), p. 17Google Scholar.

(67) Verhaegen, Benît, Rèbellions au Congo, I (Bruxelles, C.R.I.S.P., n.d.), p. 334Google Scholar.

(68) Gèrard-Libois, J., The New Class and Rebellion in the Congo, in Miliband, Ralph and Saville, John (eds), The Socialist Register 1966 (London, Merlin Press, 1966), p. 277Google Scholar.

(69) For a detailed discussion of this process see Chap. II of Post, Ken and Vickebs, Michael, Structure and Conflict in an Inde-pendent African State, to be published by Heinemann in 1972Google Scholar.

(70) Saul, John, Africa, Ionescu, Ghita and Gellner, Ernest (eds), Populism (London, Weideneld and Nicolson, 1969), p. 126Google Scholar.

(71) Worsley, Peter, The Third World (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964)Google Scholar, Chap, iv; see also Saul'S, critique, op. cit. pp. 141–143Google Scholar.

(72) See Hennessy, Alistair, America, Latin, in Ionescu, and Gellner, , op. cit. pp. 28–29Google Scholar.

(73) Stewart, Angus, The Social Roots, Ionescu, and Gellner, , op. cit. p. 181Google Scholar.

(74) P. Worsley, The Concept of Populism, in Ibid. p. 241.

(75) See Fitch, Bob and Oppen–Heimer, MaryGhana: end of an illusion, Monthly Review, XVIII (1966), 42–52Google Scholar, and Austin, Dennis, Politics in Ghana, 1946–1960 (London, Oxford U.P., 1964), 253–257Google Scholar and note on pp. 341–342.

(76) Verhaegen, , Rèbellions an Congo, op. cit. I pp. 273–275Google Scholar.

(77) Ibid. pp. 323–327.

(78) Fox, , Craemer, and Ribeaucourt, , op. cit. pp. 101–103Google Scholar.

(79) Op. cit. p. 40.

(80) Hill, , The Gold Coast Cocoa Farmer (London, Oxford U.P., 1956), pp. 80 and 75Google Scholar.

(81) Id., Migrant Cocoa Farmers, op. cit. p. 186.

(82) Tella, Torcuato Di, Populism and Reform in Latin America, in Vbliz, Claudio (ed.), Obstacles to Change in Latin America (London, Oxford U.P., 1965)Google Scholar, for example, or Stewart, op. cit.

(83) Austin, , op. cit. p. 344Google Scholar.

(84) Stewart, , op. cit. p. 180Google Scholar.

(85) Worsley, , The Concept of Populism, op. cit. p. 245Google Scholar.

(86) This distinction is similar to Saul's, ‘communalistic’ and ‘individualistic’ (see his 1969 essay, especially p.135)Google Scholar.

(87) Verhaegen, , Rébellions au Congo, op. cit. p. 336Google Scholar.

(88) Ibid. p. 134.

(89) Worsley, , The Concept of Populism, op. cit. p. 239Google Scholar.

* I would like to thank the members of the study group which met in Oxford in September 1970 and of the Workshop on Transformation and Participation of the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, along with Professors Kurt Martin and Gerrit Huizer, for comments on earlier drafts of this work.