| | Class analysis of contemporary Africa has had a shaky history. Before the Second World War, most scholars who wrote about Africa scarcely took Africa seriously enough to use so European a concept as class. A small group of orthodox communists transposed class categories mechanically and were soon discredited because of their failure to identify the specific characteristics of proletarianisation in Africa. The growth of liberal modernisation theory in the 1950s led to an emphasis on national integration and the social scientific community of North America declared the concept of class as irrelevant. For the successful nationalist politicians who followed in the wake of decolonisation, class was a dangerous and divisive concept that threatened their delicate political project. |
