‘Peasantization’ and Rural Political Movements in Western Africa

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Abstract
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.

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