In ‘Peasant Organisations in Africa: A Potential Dialogue between Economists and Sociologists – Some Theoretical/Methodological Observations’ Archie Mafeje argues that the socio-historical category of peasants in Africa was not as self-evident as is often assumed, and that given the history of sub-Saharan Africa one cannot use the category without some qualification. The ongoing agricultural crisis in Africa, and the acknowledged role of small producers in agricultural development and poverty eradication in rural areas, necessitates that African scholars be clear about who they are referring to when they speak of small producers and whether they can be defined as peasants. This raises theoretical and empirical questions that have implications for social mobilisation and strategies for future development. Mafeje contends that in order for one to speak meaningfully about peasants there are methodological conditions that should be met – one has to theorise the concept in relation to the state and to history. To speak of the role of peasants in social development, Mafeje says, one has to systematise ‘the dividing principles between different spheres of activity in which peasants feature as such or as members of given solidarity groups in different agrarian social settings’ and one ought also to review the few specific studies on the subject from different parts of the continent.

Writing in the early 1990s, Mafeje noted that in the last 15 to 20 years a fair number of studies had been conducted on the African peasantry, particularly in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda, but he immediately added that sub-Saharan Africa had no recognisable tradition of peasant studies. The Ethiopian sociologist Dessalegn Rahmato agrees: ‘I agree with Mafeje that the tradition of peasant studies in Africa is woefully underdeveloped, but that, it seems to me, is mainly because of the failings of African social scientists.’ Sam Moyo argues that not only has there been a paucity of peasant studies, but also that dominant urban-biased research perspectives tend to minimise the role of the peasantry.

As a start, Mafeje states that a distinction ought to be made between ‘peasant organisation’ or ‘organisation of peasant societies’ and ‘peasant organisations’.