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African Traditional Socialism — a Semantic Analysis of Political Ideology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

Almost every student of the ideologies of the developing nations is familiar with the thesis regarding African socialism. It is held that village society was traditionally communal, and that consequently the introduction of socialist régimes in the newly established African states might not be expected to pose major difficulties. For many years it has become almost commonplace to comment on this hypothesis in a casual manner, to argue for and against it on the basis of one's own normative commitments, or simply to describe it as a political fact. Rarely has any systematic attempt been made to examine it analytically.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

Page 629 note 1 Kopytoff, Igor, ‘Socialism and Traditional African Societies’, in Friedland, W. H. and Rosberg, C. G. Jr (eds.), African Socialism (Stanford, 1964), pp. 5362.Google Scholar

Page 630 note 1 Cf. Steeves, Edna L., ‘Négritude and the Noble Savage’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XI, 1, 03 1973, pp. 91104.Google Scholar

Page 630 note 2 Easton, David, The Political System (New York, 1953), p. 53.Google Scholar

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Page 631 note 2 Merton, Robert K., Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, 1968 edn.), pp. 126–36.Google Scholar

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Page 631 note 4 Senghor, Léopold Sédar, African Socialism, translated and with an introduction by Cook, Mercer (New York, 1959), p. 49.Google Scholar

Page 632 note 1 Martin Seliger makes an explicit distinction between the factual and the normative dimensions of the ideological knowledge that is to be found in my (i) and (ii), above. He also distinguishes between what he calls the ‘fundamental’ and ‘operative’ dimensions of ideology, which is somewhat repeated in my (i) and (iii). See his ‘Fundamental and Operative Ideology: the two principal dimensions of political argumentation’, in Policy Sciences (New York), I, 3, Fall 1970, pp. 325–6.Google Scholar Inasmuch as my operational definition can claim any originality, except by its application, it is because I have tried to make a synthesis between the approach of Geertz, who would look at ‘socialism’ as a key symbol, and that of Seliger, who would regard it as an ultimate value of fundamental order.

Page 633 note 1 Nyerere, Julius K., Freedom and Unity: a selection from writings and speeches, 1952–65 (Dar es Salaam, 1966), pp. 1011.Google Scholar Cf. Rodney, Walter, ‘Tanzanian Ujamaa and Scientific Socialism’, in The African Review (Dar es Salaam), I, 4, 04 1972.Google Scholar

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Page 633 note 3 Senghor, op. cit. p. 77.

Page 633 note 4 Nyerere, op. cit. p. 103. For references to the ‘few feudalistic communities’ which existed in Tanzania, see his Freedom and Socialism: a selection from writings and speeches, 1965–1967 (Dar es Salaam, 1968), pp. 16 and 305.Google Scholar

Page 633 note 5 Nkrumah, Kwame, I Speak for Freedom: a statement of African ideology (London, 1961), p. 113.Google Scholar See also his Class Struggle in Africa (New York, 1970), p. 22.Google Scholar

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Page 635 note 1 Nyerere, , Freedom and Unity, p. 10.Google Scholar See also Freedom and Socialism, p. 8.

Page 635 note 2 Friedland and Rosbcrg, op. cit. p. 5.

Page 635 note 3 E.g. C. F. Andrain, ‘Democracy and Socialism: ideologies of African leaders’, in Apter, op. cit. pp. 172–83.

Page 636 note 1 Nyerere, , Freedom and Unity, p. 12.Google Scholar

Page 636 note 2 Ibid. p. 9.

Page 637 note 1 Quoted by Andrain, loc. cit. p. 115.

Page 637 note 2 Nkrumah, Kwame, Consciencism: philosophy and ideology for decolonization and development with particular reference to the African revolution (London, 1964), p. 69.Google Scholar Cf. his Class Struggle in Africa, p. 23.

Page 638 note 1 Nyerere, , Freedom and Unity, pp. 8, 162, and 170.Google Scholar

Page 638 note 2 Senghor, op. cit. p. 59.

Page 638 note 3 Ibid. pp. 93–4.

Page 639 note 1 Horton, Robin, ‘African Traditional Thought and Western Science’, in Africa (London), XXXVII, 01 and 04 1967.Google Scholar

Page 640 note 1 Cf. Strauss, C. Levi, The Savage Mind (Chicago, 1967), ch. I.Google Scholar

Page 640 note 2 Evans-Pritchard, E. E., Theories of Primitive Religion (Oxford, 1965), p. 55.Google Scholar

Page 640 note 3 Horton, loc. cit. p. 163.

Page 641 note 1 Kaunda, Kenneth D., A Humanist in Africa (London, 1966), p. 29.Google Scholar

Page 641 note 2 Senghor, op. cit. pp. 72–4.

Page 642 note 1 For a classical analysis of the communal basis of the structure of thinking, see Durkheim, Emile and Mauss, Marcel, ‘Social Structure and the Structure of Thought’, in Parsons, Talcott (ed.), Theories of Society (Glencoe, 1962), II, pp. 1065–68.Google Scholar

Page 643 note 1 Avineri, S. (ed), Karl Marx on Colonialism and Modernization (London, 1968), p. 94.Google Scholar

Page 643 note 2 Ibid. pp. 13–14.

Page 645 note 1 Cf. Neuberger, Benjamin, ‘Classless Society and One Party State Ideology in Africa’, in African Studies Review (East Lansing), XIV, 2, 09 1971, pp. 287–93.Google Scholar

Page 645 note 2 Geertz, loc. cit. p. 71.

Page 645 note 3 Ibid.

Page 646 note 1 Lasswell, Harold D., Politics – Who gets What, When, How (New York, 1936), p. 20.Google Scholar

Page 647 note 1 Popper, Karl R., The Open Society and its Enemies (Princeton, 1950), p. 195.Google Scholar