THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN AFRICA
Class Struggle in Africa. Kwame Nkrumah. New York: International Publishers Co., Inc., 1970.
Written in 1970 after Nkrumah was forcibly removed from his position of president of Ghana, Class Struggle in Africa seeks to provide a historical analysis of the development socioeconomic classes in Africa. Often Africa is left out of the discussion of world historical development—a separate entity to which the social, economic and political patterns of the world do not apply. Nkrumah rectifies this distortion with the assertion that a fierce class struggle is raging in Africa.[1] While there are various political, social and economic climates in Africa, every part of Africa has been touched by exploitation and oppression of some form. According to Nkrumah, this makes all Africans participants of what he calls the African Revolution.
The author of a number of books, some of the most notable ones being “Neocolonialism” and “Africa Must Unite”, Nkrumah was the founder of modern Ghana and one of the leaders of the African Revolution. He was a leading advocate of Pan Africanism. His premise is that a class structure has always been present in Africa, even prior to colonialism, however these cleavages often disappear when fighting colonialism and reappear after. Nkrumah begins this book by looking at the origins of class in Africa. According to Nkrumah, there have been five major types of relationships known to man –communalism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism.[2] With the onset of colonialism, people in Africa moved away from communalism to feudalism and slavery. This movement away from communalism is said to be the cause of the class in Africa. Imperialism and colonialism further devastated the economic and social structure of traditional Africa. Furthermore, capitalism developed with colonialism. At the same time, the spread of private enterprise, led to the emergence of first a petty bourgeois class of bureaucrats, reactionary intellectuals, traders, and others, who became increasingly part and parcel of the colonial economic and social structure.[3] As a result a struggle between classes was bound to occur.
Class struggle has been a recurrent theme in history. Nkrumah defines the concept of class as nothing more than the sum total of individuals bound together by certain interests, which as a class they try to preserve and protect.[4] It is only in a socialist state that the workers and peasants are represented. In other words most states express the domination of one class over another and most states have a ruling class or classes. During the colonial era, the struggle between classes was determined by the relationship between the colonial power and the colony. This also ushered in a society with more apparent class cleavages, emphasizing proletariat and bourgeoisie classes. Nkrumah delves further by dissecting the characteristics of class and ideologies. For example, the bourgeoisie often subscribe to ideologies such as laissez-faire and capitalism-racism.
Nkrumah then proceeds to break down the ideologies of race and elitism as well as participants in the class struggle such as Intellectuals, the Peasantry and the Proletariat. Two of his chapters, entitled “Reactionary Cliques among Armed Forces and Police” and “Coups D’état” are factors that have stunted the African Revolution. He espouses how the armed forces are usually aligned with the ruling class because their outlooks and interest are similar. They are dependent on the class system to maintain their position in society. Coups D’états, the overthrow of governments, usually occur for reasons outlined above, to ensure the maintenance of the status quo. Both seem to have betrayed the working and peasant classes along with the African Revolution. The African Revolution, according to Nkrumah links class struggle of African workers and world socialist revolution. It merged during the national liberation struggle and matures as Africans fight for complete liberation. Furthermore it is a product if the African personality and based on principles of scientific socialism. [5] It is part of the larger world revolution, which can only be achieved when worker-peasant solidarity is organized. In conclusion, the total liberation and the unification of Africa under an All-African socialist government must be the primary objective of all Black revolutionaries throughout the world.[6]
Structurally, Nkrumah begins his book with a historical analysis of class in Africa and the larger concepts before dissecting each aspect specifically. While Nkrumah gives examples of class cleavages existing in African society during colonialism, such as Rhodesia and South Africa, he doesn’t fully discussion pre-colonial African society. He asserts that in this period communalism dominated African society. However he doesn’t define communalism and we are left to make assumptions about what communalism actually is. This can lead to a romanticized view of pre-colonial African society. In addition, it is obvious that Class Struggle in Africa is one Nkrumah’s later books. He mentions the African personality multiple times throughout the work but only alludes to a conceptual meaning. No where is it clearly explained here however from researching the author, one finds that he dedicate an entire work to the idea of the African Personality, conveying its importance to the ideology which he ascribes to and is prescribing.
In conclusion, besides lacking clear explanations for the above concepts, Class Struggle in Africa is concisely written. Lending to further clarity, Nkrumah writes in descending order, beginning first with the larger concepts and then delving into the specifics. The book, which is dedicated to the workers and peasants of Africa, seeks to warn them initially of the attempts to conceal the class issues that exist in Africa. It then exposes, for those who don’t believe, the class struggle. In effect, Nkrumah is naming the hidden internal enemy, essentially those who are responsible for stalling the African Revolution. He also makes mention of the external enemies who are lying in the fringes, pulling the strings from outside of Africa.
Bibliography
Nkrumah, Kwame.1970. Class Struggle in Africa. New York: International Publishers Co., Inc., 1970.
[1] Kwame Nkrumah, Class Struggle in Africa, (New York: International Publishers, 1970), 10[2] Nkrumah, 13
[3] Nkrumah, 15
[4] Nkrumah, 17
[5] Nkrumah, 19
[6] Nkrumah, 88
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