Reading Class Struggle in Africa Essay Example

been the suggestion that the class structures which exist in other parts of the world do not exist in Africa Therefore, scholars have denied the existence of class struggle in Africa. Nkrumah sees one chief reason to this state of affairs. He says: “class divisions in modern African society became blurred to some extent during the pre-independence period, when it seemed there was national unity and all classes joined forces to eject the colonial power. (Class 10) As a result, researchers concluded that traditional African communalism and egalitarianism cancelled out any concept of class struggle. But Nkrumah is quick to point out that the post-independence era favored the resurgence of class cleavages that had been set aside in the interest of national sovereignty. In his opinion the reversal can best be explained by the fact that the individuals who benefited from the post self-determination movement also called neocolonialism belong to the same class who prospered during colonialism, namely the African bourgeoisie.

Nkrumah explains: Its (the African bourgeoisie) basic interest lies in preserving capitalist social and economic structures. It is therefore, in alliance with international monopoly finance capital and neocolonialism, and in direct conflict with the African masses, whose aspirations can only be fulfilled through scientific socialism. Nkrumah concludes his introduction by offering a summary from which the reader can extract the table of content of the book.

The document reads as follows: Although the African bourgeoisie is small numerically, and lacks the financial and political strength of its counterparts in the highly industrialized countries, it gives the illusion of being economically strong because of its close tie-up with foreign finance capital and business interest. Many members of

the African bourgeoisie are employed by foreign firms and have, therefore, a direct financial stake in the continuance of the foreign economic exploitation of Africa.

Others, notably in the civil service, trading and mining firms, the armed forces, the police and in the professions, are committed to capitalism because of their background, their western education, and their shared experience and enjoyment of positions of privilege. They are mesmerized by capitalist institutions and organizations. They ape the way of life of their old colonial masters, and are determined to preserve the status and power inherited from them.

Africa has in fact in its midst a hard core of bourgeoisie who are analogous to colonists and settlers in that they live in positions of a privilege-a small, selfish, money-minded reactionary minority among vast masses of exploited and oppressed people. . . Their survival depends on foreign support (Class 12) The following chart obtains from what precedes [Slides 4-6]. Now we will turn our attention to the most salient postulations in Nkrumah’s book which are the:

1. the origins of class in Africa;
2. class concept;
3. class oncept and ideologies;
4. class and race;
5. elitism;
6. intelligentsia and intellectuals;
7. bourgeoisie and proletariat.

To help the reader better apprehend the African reality as it pertains to class Nkrumah provides us with some eye-opening geopolitical data. They relate to the actual size of the continent and its value in terms of natural resources. [Slide 7] If that information was not astounding enough, Nkrumah tackles one of the most persisting falsehoods relating to Africa. He boldly asserts that African history predates colonialism.

Better yet, the writer claims that the continent was socially, politically and economically structured prior to the

advent of the Europeans. For example communalism was a system of choice that prevailed in the land. Under the said traditional arrangement all land and means of production belonged to the community. There was people’s ownership. Everybody worked. Says Nkrumah: “When a certain piece of land was allocated to an individual for his personal use, he was not free to do as he liked with it since it sill belonged to the community. Chiefs were strictly controlled by counselors and were removable. (Class 13) Communalism is one among five different classifications. [Slide 9] Nkrumah exclaims that generally speaking the introduction of private property relationships combined with the disappearance of communalism in favor of slavery and feudalism signaled the beginning of the class struggle. In the African context, communalist socio-economic patterns declined as imperialism and colonialism relied heavily on export cash crops such as cocoa and coffee. The writer comments: The economies of the colonies became interconnected with world capitalist markets. Capitalism, individualism, and tendencies to private ownership grew.

Gradually, primitive communalism disintegrated and the collective spirit declined. There was an expansion of private farming and the method of small commodity production (14) [Slide 10] The illegal seizure of land by the white settlers dealt a severe blow to communal ownership. The rightful proprietors were turned into tenants or lease-holders but only on land considered not fertile by the Europeans while the arable land became the property of the empire. Ultimately communal ownership of land was abolished altogether and ownership imposed by law along with property taxes.

To maintain the tax system in place the colonials change completely the tradition system and replaced it with a corrupt and

coercive chieftaincy where rulers were used by the administration. “The seizure of the land and its natural resources in other words the means of production” says Nkrumah “created two sectors of the economy, the European exploiter and the exploited African. ” Subsistence agriculture which had up until then been the model was destroyed forcing Africans to sell their labor force to the colonialists, who turned their profits into capital.

We are reminded here of Du Bois’ statement in Worlds of Color [Slide 12] Such a context favored the emergence of the race-class struggle which is amalgamated with the class conflict. As explained in the documentary The Magnificent African Cake, the European colonialists decided arbitrary on the crop to be grown and exported for its manufacturing into finished products sold to the African. Purposely, the single crop economies rendered the Africans dependent on foreign assets. Nkrumah states: The colony became a sphere for investment and exploitation.

Capitalism developed with colonialism. At the same time, the spread of private enterprise, together with the needs of the colonial administrative apparatus, resulted in the emergence of first a petty bourgeois class and then an urban bourgeois class of bureaucrats, reactionary intellectuals, traders, and other, who became increasingly part and parcel of the colonial economic and social structure Economic Reasons for Colonialism Economic historians of Africa point to a number of economic related reasons why European countries colonized Africa. 1. Demand for Raw Materials.

As you know from your study of Europe, in the 19th century, Europe experienced the industrial revolution. Industrial production, like all modes of production, requires human resources, capital resources, and natural resources. There was no shortage of labor in

Europe. Two centuries of trade with Asia, the Americas, and Africa (including the Atlantic Slave Trade) had brought great profits to European traders. These profits provided the capital necessary to finance the industrial revolution. However, most of Europe was resource poor. Consequently, European industries were dependent on raw materials from Asia, the Americas, and Africa.

For example, one of the earliest industries in Europe was the cotton textile industry, which helped stimulate the industrial revolution. This industry was completely dependent on imported cotton. As industrialization grew and spread throughout Europe, competition for raw materials increased. Consequently, some European industrialists encouraged their governments to colonize African countries as a method of guaranteeing sources of raw materials. 2. Need for Markets. By the late 19th century, the industries in Europe were producing more industrial goods than Europeans could consume.

Consequently, industrialists sought markets for there goods around the world. As competition between industries for markets grew, industrialists encouraged their governments to undertake colonization of Africa in order to protect markets for their industrial goods. 3. Commerce, Christianity, Civilization. Some historians argue that one of the most important economic reasons for colonization was the belief by some Europeans, particularly missionaries, that the development of trade and commerce in Africa was an essential component to the restitution of "civilization" in Africa.

Today, historians reject this ethnocentric conception of civilization, but many Europeans of the period felt that Africa was not "civilized". They believed that trade and commerce, along with introduction of Christianity, were key to development in Africa. Christian mission societies and other advocates of this position pushed European governments to colonize Africa and thereby provide a supportive environment for the expansion

of commerce. [Slide 13]

Colonial Economic Connection Between Europe and Africa

The Scramble for Africa took place between 1886 and 1914. During this time, European countries colonized all of Africa, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia. As is shown the following map, Britain, France, and Portugal were the main colonial powers in Africa, but Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Spain also had colonies. Establishing political control, or sovereignty, over their colonies was the primary objective of the colonial powers in the early years of colonialism. The colonial powers used a combination of warfare, threat of force, and treaty making with African rulers in their efforts to gain political control of African colonies.

Once political control was realized and institutions of governance were in place, economics became the main concern of the colonial governments. Europe experienced an economic depression at the end of the 19th century; consequently, the colonial powers felt that they had no money to spend on political administration, social programs, or economic development in their colonies. They were adamant that the colonies should pay for themselves. The colonial administration in each colony was charged with raising the revenue necessary to pay for all expenses, including the colonial army and police force. Slide 14] Given the great geographic diversity of Africa in terms of natural resources, climate, vegetation, topography, and precipitation, there was no uniform model that the colonial powers used to raise revenue throughout Africa. Just as economic activity in the early 20th century varied throughout Europe and in the United States, so too, economic activity in Africa was diverse. Within this diversity, economic historians of Africa have identified five modes of economic activity and revenue

generation in colonial Africa

1. Mineral exploitation. Africa is a continent rich in mineral resources. In colonies where there were large deposits of minerals, colonial governments encouraged the exploitation of the minerals. Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and the Belgian Congo (Congo) are examples of colonies whose economies were dominated by copper production. In these colonies, colonial governments initiated policies that forced some African farmers to leave their homes to become mine workers.
2. Large scale agricultural production. In colonies in East and Southern Africa that had climates attractive to European settlers, the primary colonial economic activity and revenue generation was large scale farms owned by Europeans. Examples include Angola (coffee), Kenya (coffee, tea), and Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe (tobacco, beef). In this system, European settler farmers needed land and labor. To meet these needs, the colonial governments instituted unpopular policies that removed good farm land from the local population and forced some men to work as laborers on European controlled farms.
3. Small scale agricultural production. Most African colonies had neither large deposits of minerals, nor the environment to encourage European settlement. In these colonies, the colonial governments actively encouraged farmers to grow pecial cash crops that would be exported to raise revenues. Cash crops included food crops such as groundnuts/peanuts (Senegal, Nigeria), coffee (Tanganyika, Rwanda, Uganda), cocoa (Ghana, Togo, Cote D'Ivoire) and non-food crops, such as cotton (Mali, Niger, Sudan) and tobacco (Malawi)
4. Supply of Labor. Parts of some African colonies were poor in natural resources. In these situations, the colonial regimes instituted policies that strongly encouraged able bodied men to leave their homes and migrate either to distant areas within the same colony or to neighboring colonies where they
   

worked in mines or on large farms. Mine owners and commercial farmers paid a recruitment fee to the colonial government of the worker's home country. For example, in Southern Africa the colonies of Bechuanaland (Botswana), Basotholand (Lesotho), Swaziland, and parts of Mozambique and Malawi became labor reservoirs for the mines and large farms of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, and South Africa.

Capitalist methods opf production, and capitalist social relationships were introduced. Some economic developments such as road and railway construction as well as the building of ports were not planned for the benefit of Africans but in the interest of capitalism. Social changes took place. Nkrumah indicates: “Feudal and semi-feudal relationships were undermined with the emergence fo an industrial and agricultural proletariat. At the same time there developed a national bourgeoisie and an intelligentsia. In such a context says Nkrumah African workers considered the colonialists, foreign companies and foreign planters as the exploiters. Their class struggle was first

anti-imperialist because they didn’t give any consideration to their true enemies who were the members of the local bourgeoisie. The writer gives us a snapshot of the situation at the end of the colonial period: There was in most African states a hihgly developed state machine and a veneer of Parliementary democracy concealing a coercive state run by an elite of bureaucrats with practically unlimited power.

There was an intelligentsia, completely indoctrinated with western values; a virtually non-existent labour movement; a professional army and a police force with an officer corps largeley trained in western military academies, and a chieftancy used to admnistering at lthe local level on behalf of the colonial government. This picture was counterbalanced by the presence of a genuine grass roots political leadership during the independence period. It enjoyed the support of the peasants and workers and was putting forth real change. If it associated with the bourgeoisie it was still enterily separate from it.