| | Comment on Winter's earlier analysis 'The Post-Colonial State and the Forces and Relations of Production' (see link below). Isobel Winter's analysis of the forces and relations of production in post-colonial Swaziland (Review No.9) offers a rather different and more penetrating examination of the current political and economic scene than has been attempted previously (cf Potholm, 1972). Equally important, however, is the mechanism whereby the local Swazi elite ('middle class' and rulers) systematically adapted and subjugated various elements of the inherited system of government to serve its own interests rather than those of the foreign and settler bourgeoisies. Of particular relevance to scholars of African development in the former British territories is the way in which urban local government has been adapted to become an agent of centralized authority with the consequent loss of autonomy and ability to control development. |
