The Birth of an African Peasantry

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2139244
AutoresSzymon Chodak (Professor of Sociology, Sir Georges Williams University., autor de correspondencia)
Año1971
Volumen5
Número3
Páginas327-347
Fecha de publicación1971-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0008-3968 • E-ISSN: 1923-3051
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00083968.1971.10803647
OpenAlexW1821702362
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas8

The history of human societies, at least as it appears in books discussing this topic, is focussed as a rule on activities of heroes. Kings, rulers and conquerors were most often the heroes of historical analyses. Karl Marx, and later his followers, rejected such an approach. To them, the history of all hitherto existing societies was a history of class struggle and transformation of lower modes of production into higher ones. The Marxists proclaimed that the true heroes of the history are the masses, and the most dynamic and revolutionary hero among all is the worker. He is predestined to overthrow the capitalist order of exploitation and to establish a socialist society instead. Max Weber and Joseph A. Schumpeter paid tributes to the entrepreneur. From their perspective he was the inventor and organizer of modern productivity generating abundance, hence the true maker of history. Other writers viewed the literary men, the artists whose works became great monuments of human culture or the scientists whose discoveries have changed our understanding of nature, as the heroes of history. The only people which until recently were never accorded the status of heroes of history by anyone were the peasants. They were described as stubborn, conservative, backward oriented, parochial, without great imagination and initiative, unable to develop a common solidarity on their own. True, it was said that they too have produced their own folk-culture. This, however, was rather a culture of a lower quality in comparison with the culture engendered in urban centres and at the courts of the aristocracy. Some writers discovered a great beauty in the purity, naivety and virginity of the folk-culture; but even they wrote that peasant culture lacks the refinement and sophistication of urban culture. There were no peasants among great modern inventors, explorers, law-makers. It was said that even the peasant rebellions were spontaneous, unorganized, often purposeless and more frequently caused by religious motivations than by real

Aesthetics · Art · HERO · Literature · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Productivity · Sociology · Solidarity · African history and culture studies · History · Law · Philosophy