Sex, Ethnic, and Class Consciousness in Western Kenya

In Kenya, the growth of a centralized state and commercialization of the agricultural economy have marginalized significant proportions of the rural populace, presumably creating conditions under which class consciousness flourishes. Though Kenya is largely a peasant society, elites are nevertheless able to extract resources in an indirect and impersonal fashion, thus silencing the expression of class interests at the national level.' Kenya is also a culturally plural society. Studies of peasant societies suggest that still lingering cultural and economic autonomy, meshed with rich social networks, provide peasant communities with potentially strategic assets in the future development of political consciousness. Yet economic differentiation is reproduced within peasant communities as well.2 The growth of a centralized state and commercialization of agricultural economies also marginalize significant proportions of women. Like other African women, Kenyan women have been marginalized to a larger extent than men by the commercialization of land and labor. Male preference in the government distributive process reinforces and consolidates this marginalization process. Moreover, women are virtually excluded from the formal ruling political and administrative elite.4 Clearly, women (and men) have common objective interests that result from the work they do, resource disparities between the sexes, sex-linked opportunities, and roles in reproduction.5 Although subjective and objective interests do not always mesh, women's consciousness is expressed in rich networks and organizations throughout much of Africa.6 As Marx and many others thereafter have noted, a class of people in itself does not always work for itself. Emerging in contexts of unequal resources and power, consciousness occurs when groups, such as women or peasants, become aware of their shared situation and are able and willing to act on common interests. If successful, this action implies a certain amount of redistribution to redress the inequitable patterns that prevail.' Consciousness, a subjective

Class (philosophy · Class consciousness · Consciousness · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Philosophy · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology

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