Peasants as a Focus in African Studies

Bibliographic Data

ID2594513
AuthorsClaude E Welch (corresponding author)
Year1977
Volume20
Issue3
Pages1
Publication date1977-12-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/523750
OpenAlexW1995643551
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited16

Are there peasants in Africa? This question is not academic, though academics have contributed extensively to the discussion. Once seen as a transitional stage, peasants and peasant societies have emerged as a focus for research that, to an increasing extent, cuts across disciplines, continents, and historical periods. This developing academic interest is conveying new insights into the relationships between rural dwellers and their political and social systems. Africa is a continent without peasants, so the conventional wisdom has stated. The syllogistic reasoning runs as follows: cultivable land is relatively abundant, at least in most parts of tropical Africa, resulting in a relative absence of population pressures. Patterns of communal land tenure remain the norm in rural areas. Hence, given the absence of both pressure on the land and individual land title, Africa lacks peasants-since there are neither landlords to collect nor rents to be collected. Tribal feelings of solidarity, it is further asserted, preclude the emergence of the peasantry as a class cutting across diverse groups. Finally, the absence in many parts of tropical Africa of cities and structured states meant that cultivators rather than peasants were common. Let us look briefly at these arguments. Available statistics indicate that land is indeed available. Most African states rank relatively high in terms of total area of agricultural land. The World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators lists 130 states in ascending order of agricultural area: Egypt places 9, Mauritius 13, Gabon 27, and Nigeria 37-but African states also account for 21 of the last 34 states in the table (Taylor and Hudson, 1973: 303-5.) Population density data similarly suggest relatively limited pressures. Of 136 countries listed by the same source, only 3 African countries appear in the first 59 (Rwanda and Burundi show the most extreme pressure, ranking 28 and 29); 38 of the last 69 are African countries (Taylor and Hudson, 1973: 299-302). Thus, leaving aside such crowded areas as the Nile Valley, the interlacustrine Bantu-speaking area, and parts of coastal West Africa from Ghana through Cameroon, the picture of low population densities appears generally accurate. Land abundance, however, says little, if anything, about soil fertility and productivity. The relatively low population densities indicated by United Nations figures may be due to inadequate natural resources and historical factors. In blunt terms, it may not be possible to support significant rural populations in Africa. Hopkins (1973: 15), in his Economic History of West Africa, points to such causes as inadequate soils, lack of water and salt, mortality from disease, and conflict as explanations of the relatively low densities. The long term demographic consequences of the slave trade have often been noted. Whatever the causes may be

Development economics · Economics · Focus (optics · Geography · Political science · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · World Systems and Global Transformations

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