Socialist Aspirations and Inspirations

Many socialists feel dismayed to see Africa regarded as simply a place of war, disease and hunger, a sick entity deserving pity and sustenance and all help possible. On the surface the continent may seem so but a socialists looks deeper beyond outwardly appearances. Socialists are frustrated by having Africa viewed as squalid and inept, a basket case for which rock music celebrities feel compelled to raise funds. The flourishing inhabitants of the continent are more attuned to contemporary norms and more advanced and sophisticated than has been presented.

Ralph Ibbott wrote “Ujamaa: The Hidden Story of Tanzania’s Socialist Villages”. 

Julius Nyerere, the leader of Tanzania’s independence movement had seen how a welfare state could protect people from some of the effects of capitalism. He told Tanzanians that they had to reject exploitation of the many by the few. He proposed ujamaa: African socialism. In the village, all worked and all benefited. Decisions were made by consensus. He had “grown up in tribal socialism”. Although traditional society was generally presumed to be backward, Nyerere saw its social and economic possibilities for overcoming backwardness. Rural people, 96% of the population, could adapt the communalism they already knew to modern needs and aspirations. It was socialism without money, rooted in the native soil; a strategy for a poor country determined to pull itself out of poverty and remain sovereign. People working communally ­ without bureaucratic interference, would themselves develop while solving problems.

In Litowa, the first ujamaa village they ­created, organising production, distribution, housing, health and education. Others came to join and were encouraged to form new villages. The Ruvuma Development Association was formed, with its Social and Economic Revolutionary Army, to help new villages to establish themselves. By 1969, the association had 17 villages. Several times a week the villagers had communal meals at which they made decisions. The women were encouraged to speak – a slow process – and their interests were considered. Housework and childcare counted as part of the village workday. Piped water ended fetching and carrying by women and children. Spare cash from the sale of surplus crops was divided equally among all, including to elderly and disabled people, who contributed by scaring wild animals from “sharing” food crops, or working in childcare facilities. Child mortality plummeted. Pupils at the self-governing Litowa school came from all the villages, boarding at Litowa during the terms. They were trained to develop their exciting, caring rural society. Domestic violence almost disappeared and women’s status was rising.

Ujamaa was about to mushroom into a mass movement. By 1963 about a 1000 socialist villages had been set up with very little government support. Many failed but in Ruvuma in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania 17 such settlements, making up about 500 households,  prospered and became an enormous success. It was, to quote Ralph Ibbott:

“ an organisation completely built up by the people who were in it, who always made all decisions and controlled development”

They formed the Ruvuma Development Association (RDA) the organisation through which they could co-ordinate their labour, educate their children, sell their produce and develop their small scale industries. The RDA grew slowly by supporting existing villages and new settlements. Before a village was accepted it was made clear that the villagers should not expect to get rich overnight and membership would be deferred or refused if it there was uncertainty about a community`s commitment to co-operation. Villages belonging to the RDA became self-sufficient in food, improved the health of their residents, built a school, provided water supplies and set up village industries. They also created an outreach service called the Social and Economic Army (SERA), made up of experts in various fields who could provide support for member villages.

What went wrong? It is important to stress that it did not fail despite the many practical difficulties and challenges that the people involved faced. It was killed off. The Ruvuma Development Association was destroyed by the greedy and ambitious new ruling elite. They hated the creativity of the people. Where was the power for them? Regional Commissioners and most government officials could not accept a situation where the villagers were deciding the details of their own development. They could not sit down with and discuss with these village people as equals. In September 1969, it was announced that TANU – the ruling party – would run all Ujamaa villages and the RDA was declared a prohibited organisation. Their equipment was confiscated, the expatriate staff working with them left and the school was closed. Only one village managed to continue its communal activities and survives to this day.

Thus a great grass-roots development that might have changed the history of Tanzania and beyond tragically ended. Selma James of Women`s Global Strike at the King`s Cross Women`s Centre has  presented it as an example of how it is possible for people to not only survive and dream of a better world when faced with the most challenging of circumstances but also manage to successfully create a thriving self-reliant community organisation, one that is even more relevant today as a model of development when we examine what our options are for the future in the face of unemployment, cuts in welfare and the looming threat of climate change.

However, Ralph Ibbott, a RDA technical adviser, continued the struggle in his own way.  Ibbott, went to the United Kingdom and applied ujamaa principles as a community development worker in Greenock, one of Scotland’s most deprived areas. The tenants’ association and youth club persuaded the council to build a sports centre, which the youth ran. Much was accomplished by young people previously dismissed as troublemakers. Such communal effort can succeed anywhere if it is able to bypass or defeat those greedy for power and control.

Adapted from here

[We may question the use of socialist...perhaps to be more accurate, the term socialistic should have been applied. - Socialist Banner]

an injury to one, is an injury to all

Many apologists for Mugabe's dictatorship in Zimbabwe describe it as a "socialist" regime and while Socialist Banner have our reservations about the claims of the International "Socialist" Organisation being socialist, too, we feel the issue of democratic free expression is important enough to post extracts from their appeal for solidarity against their harassment.

"Six Zimbabwe socialists, including myself, remain charged with “inciting public violence”, following the dismissal by the magistrate of our application for a discharge in Harare last week. We were arrested on February 19 2011, while meeting to watch video footage of democracy protests in Egypt and Tunisia. Forty-five comrades were originally charged with treason for attending the International Socialist Organisation film screening, and one, David Mpatsi, died following a rapid deterioration in his health while he was imprisoned and denied medical treatment. Although the treason charges were eventually dropped, inciting public violence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Our lawyer had applied for the discharge at the close of the state’s case, on the basis that it had failed to produce sufficient evidence to require us putting our defence. But the magistrate ruled, without giving any explanation, that the state had established a prima facie case, so the trial is set to continue on February 27. Hopefully we will finish giving our evidence on March 2, but we are now aware of the state’s deliberately frustrating delaying tactics.

It is clear that the state aims to continue with its harassment of any opposition voice despite what transpired during the trial with its ‘star witness’. He called himself Jonathan Shoko and said he was a police officer attached to the Criminal Investigation Unit, but was exposed to be from the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (secret police) and his real name was Rodwell Chitiyo. He took an oath under a false name.

The main purpose of this witness, who had attended the ISO meeting, was to incriminate innocent people. But his evidence, upon which the state is relying, lacked any credibility. He not only lied about his identity, but also about what happened, and it is interesting to note that even the state-sponsored Herald newspaper pointed to the loopholes. The same magistrate could be seen laughing during the time ‘Shoko’ was giving his hilarious, made-up and rehearsed evidence. Any magistrate in an open and democratic society would surely have dismissed the case immediately. When he was handing down the ruling, he avoided looking at us - an indication that it had been decided by someone other than himself.

The trial is just one example of the harassment of any opposition. On February 14 the police violently broke up the march on parliament organised by the radical Women of Zimbabwe Arise, and a week earlier dozens of armed riot police prevented an academic lecture on ‘The global financial crisis and implication for the third world: the case for Zimbabwe’ from taking place. It was to be addressed by professor Patrick Bond from South Africa at a city hotel, but the police turned away anybody they thought might be participants.

All this sends a strong message of intimidation by Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, as we move towards the proposed constitutional referendum and, possibly, elections this year. The intimidation is meant to silence any opposing voice, as the Zimbabwean political crisis nears its climax.

We were saddened by the court ruling not only for our own sake, but for the sake of all Zimbabweans who are willing to fight against the system. Though we had hoped to celebrate the first anniversary of our arrest as free people on February 19, we remain optimistic that we will come through - especially with the support that we continue to receive from our families, friends, comrades in Zimbabwe and throughout the world.

We are stepping up our campaign to put the government under pressure to drop the charges against us and we appeal to comrades outside the country to help us in doing this. The ruling showed that the state thinks it can do anything and, if pressure is not put on them, we will find ourselves sent back to Chikurubi prison."

Tafadzwa Choto
Harare

Democracy in Ghana

Dear Comrades,
Reflecting in this letter on a chance acquaintance with Ghana which is now "independent" as members of the British Labour Party would describe it.

The Scandinavian Express speeded towards France. Seated next to me in the compartment was a Swedish psychoanalyst who had decided to exchange "Socialism" for an Italian monastery. A tourist pamphlet was sticking out of his pocket and began: "When the plane lands you are standing on the threshold of a great adventure—Great Britain."
The boat shrugged lazily out of Marseilles harbour into the Mediterranean towards West Africa. For every one African on the boat there were two nuns all crossing themselves at the same time. My berth companion was a young French missionary (sent out to soften up the natives) who was later to read me pieces from the Old Testament and tell me that because I was an African my soul needed saving.

My seat at the dining table was next to an American woman tourist of 65 years, dressed and behaving like a girl of sixteen. Facing her sat a coloured Ghanaian woman married to a wealthy Swiss business man. She told us that because everyone in Switzerland were "equal" she had left her child there to be educated in one of the "best" schools. It was much nicer to have it grow up with ex-Kings and retired millionaires rather than just Africans.

A young Ghanaian girl journalist sat on my left who had been imprisoned with her "idol" Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, when capitalism was being run by the Labour Party. It was, however, interesting to see that she was beginning to understand that Africans were just as capable to administer capitalism as the white man. The poisonous black capitalist boiling pot of intrigue had disappointed one more. Yet she still insisted that the white Africans were interlopers and should be removed, which seemed like race prejudice in reverse.

The journalist had invited me to stay with her friend on reaching Takoradi. The next morning the boat arrived at Takoradi harbour. The police stood around looking like mixtures of male nurses and museum attendants.

After a confiscated passport and the refusal to accept the invitation of accommodation, together with a fantastic questioning. I was quickly deported to Nigeria, which was my destination. This ended my brief visit to the "model democracy".

Speaking on "democracy" in Ghana, Mr. Gaitskell, that great "socialist," said: "It is not possible for us in Britain to determine how you will develop your democracy. It is your affair, but I think in every new country emerging into nationhood certain principles must be observed. They are national unity, a high degree of personal leadership, and thirdly, and the most important, the preservation of individual liberty at all costs."

How easy these words slip off the tongue of a leader committed to try and reform capitalism. The detentions, deportations and imprisonments by Mr. Nkrumah's government are politely called developing "democracy," supported by the Communists and the shifty Liberal, not to mention the Conservatives, who might have made the same speech themselves. One wonders just how much "individual liberty" the British worker enjoys under his "democracy." What a garnish to hide the stench of British capitalism!

But there is still hope whilst Pacifist Fenner Brockway looks to God and black nationalism to "liberate" the African workers:

"God speed to the new leaders of Africa in the vast arena of constructive tasks which spreads before them! " Yes, constructive tasks of maintaining the capitalist system in Africa.
Fraternally yours,
OBAJTMI.
Stockholm, Sweden

(Socialist Standard, March 1960)

A call to socialist action

Comrades and supporters, next year we are embarking on our long time planned goal of formation of Socialist Parties in Africa and particularly in our case Uganda.

We would like to have moral, material and financial support from anybody who thinks this a noble cause. The socialist fraternity here feels, given the 12 years' experience of socialist activities since we first came in contact with the Socialist Party of Great Britain, that we are now able to utilize our past achievements and mistakes to make a Socialist Party in Uganda. This is the best way we can carry our propaganda nationwide legally and make our case better heard and understood

Fraternal greetings.

Tribes or Nations ??

From The London Times

" Siphiwe Hlophe, founder of Swaziland for Positive Living (Swapol) led a 1,000-strong demonstration in the capital Mbabane to protest that eight of his 13 wives, plus their children and an entourage of bodyguards, maids and hangers-on, had chartered a plane to Dubai for a shopping spree. English public-school-educated King Mswati III, whose personal take of the national budget is half the health budget, is estimated to have spent £2.2m on the trip and is planning a huge 40th birthday party.

Swaziland has the worst HIV infection rate in the world; 31% for women.
It is also pathetically poor, with nearly 70% of its people living on less than 50 US cents (about 27p) a day.

In Swaziland the king and the ruling elite refer to the Swazi nation but pretend that Swazis are a traditional tribe, utterly obedient to the king and his chiefs. The king misuses tradition to appropriate the country’s meagre resources, prevent development and keep the people subservient.

What is the difference between a tribe and a nation anyway? Tribalism describes a frame of mind all human beings suffer from: a pig-headed “my group, right or wrong” attitude. In Africa people are always referred to as members of tribes, but how can 25 million Yoruba or 33 million Hausa people be called tribes? If they are, then surely the English, Welsh and Scots must be British tribes. Does the media refer to former Yugoslavia as tribal or the Israel-Palestine conflict as a land dispute between two semitic tribes. That’s how it would be described if they lived in Africa.

Africa’s problem is not tribalism as such, but the utterly incoherent nation states cohabited by different ethnic groups bequeathed to Africans half a century ago. Africans had no part in the creation of their nation states. At the end of the 19th century, Europeans drew lines on maps of places they had never been to. Fifty years ago the filled-in spaces became Ghana, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, countries that had never existed before. Suddenly pitched into independence, they had no sense of common nationhood. By contrast the ruling Europeans had always emphasised ethnic differences and suppressed any sense of nationalism.

Beneath the surface of Africa’s weak nation states lie old cultures, old communities, very different societies with their own laws and languages. Nigeria contains some 400 different ethnic groups. Uganda has more than 40. They lack what we take for granted: a common conception of nationhood and national citizenship. The unification of Africa remains a distant dream, and separatism is frowned on because it could lead to bloody disintegration..."

We also read that a meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers has bestowed the title "king of kings" on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The rulers, wearing gold crowns, sequined capes and colourful robes met in the Libyan town of Benghazi. Sheikh Abdilmajid from Tanzania told the BBC that the traditional rulers could play an important role. "The people believe in the chiefs and kings more than they believe in their governments,"
While Col Gaddafi told the assembled dignitaries "We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa,"

Socialist Banner declares that only through democratic de-centralised world socialism can the African peoples become united but also Africa will be unified with the rest of the world and enjoy common ownership of the worlds treasury.

From the Archives - Blast from the Past

A reprint of Socialist Standard article

UPSET IN ACCRA

Dr. Nkrumah Disappoints his Friends

COLONEL PEWTER is a cartoon-strip Edwardian pukka-sahib who daily amuses readers of the News Chronicle. In his latest adventure he uses an Injun stick, which magically compels its victims to tell the truth in order to upset the party propaganda in a by-election. The whole joke, of course, is that nobody ever expects a politician to describe himself as other than a selfless, devoted slave to the voters' interests.

Perhaps that is why so many eyebrows were raised when Mr. Krobo Edusei, Minister of the Interior in the new African State of Ghana, was reported as saying that he loved power. Had the man gone mad ? Or was he just telling the truth ? Worse, this outburst was only one of several newsworthy actions by the Ghanaian Government. Journalists and political opponents have been deported, opposition leaders have said that they are under threat of imprisonment and death, and it has been reported (and later denied) that ministers would in future carry revolvers. Mr. Fenner Brockway, the Labour M.P., who can usually be relied on to support nationalist movements in ex-colonial territories, has publicly expressed regret and protest at these actions. He put it all down to an evil genius at the ear of Ghana's Prime Minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. But that is too easy ; we must look a little more deeply into the history and the background of it.

The Modern Story
The first explorers of Africa named parts of the coast by the wealth they found there. There was the Grain Coast, the Slave Coast and, roughly bordering the area which is now Ghana, the Gold Coast. The modern story begins in the 15th century, when European traders, coming from countries which were desperately short of gold, found the precious stuff in common use among the Gold Coast natives. (Three hundred years later William Bosman, who worked for the Dutch West India Company, could still write of the natives of Dinkira, "They are possessed of vast Treasures of Gold, besides what their own mines supply them with "). At first the Portuguese dominated the trade, but soon the Danes, Dutch, French and Germans came, and in 1553 Thomas Windham led the first English party. None of the expeditions tried to penetrate the interior: they only wanted to establish trading forts along the coast. Gold was not the only attraction, for there were plenty of slaves to be branded and shipped to the Americas and to the Middle East. This last journey was terrible indeed, involving a trek across the Sahara desert. And there was every incentive to mutilate the slaves, to satisfy the great demand for eunuchs in the Middle Eastern palaces. The slave traders thought that Allah was being kind if ten out of a hundred survived the operation.

The English settlements date from 1651, when the English Trading Company built the first of several ports. In 1672 the Royal African Company commenced operations, building other trading stations, and later the African Company of Merchants carried on trade in gold and slaves until they were crippled by the abolition of slavery in 1807. Life in these settlements was a precarious business— Bosman has described the "excessive tippling and sorry feeding" among the Europeans, which made " most of the Garrison look as if they were hag-ridden", and the "odious Mixture of noisome Stenches" from the coastal villages.

Inter-Tribal Wars
As the mercantile adventurers of the 16th and 17th centuries grew bolder, sailing out to America and the Far East, European interest in Africa declined and most of the trading settlements along the Gold Coast were left to decay. It was not until the American War of Independence had been won and lost and Great Britain was established in India and Australia, that Africa, lying between England and her Far Eastern possessions, regained its importance. The 18th and 19th centuries were years of inter-tribal wars, mostly between the Fante and the Ashanti. Great Britain kept a traders' neutrality, which did not preclude the occasional double-cross. After one famous betrayal, which caused some native chiefs to be tortured and killed, the torturing chief remarked that he thenceforth took the English for his friends, "... because I saw their object was trade only, and they did not care for the people." The chaos of these wars almost caused the British Government to withdraw from the territory, but the commercial interests prevailed on them to stay put, to unify the command of the trading forts, stamp out the slave trade and develop the Gold Coast's mineral and agricultural possibilities. Thus, in 1821 the British Government took over the operations of the African Company of Merchants and in 1844 signed a Bond with several local chiefs, which recognised Queen Victoria's jurisdiction and laid it down that "... the first objects of law are the protection of individuals and property." In 1850 they winkled out the Danes and in 1871 the Dutch. Thus also, any missionary who undertook to spread the word of Christianity and British "law and order" among the natives of the interior was assured of the benevolent protection of English arms. They did not leave it all to the missionaries; right up to 1900 British soldiers were fighting against the natives in the interior in defence of the commercial and strategic interests along the coast.

Ghana Arise
The two world wars sharply emphasised the importance of Africa strategically and as a source of vital raw materials—in particular the last war saw a tremendous development of the Gold Coast's airfields, harbours and internal communications. The need for self-sufficiency caused independent local industries to be built up. This, with the war's expanded social intercourse, promoted the Gold Coast's political development and the inevitable demand for independence from British rule. In 1951 the Gold Coast legislature for the first time represented all the territory's inhabitants, voting in secret ballot. The elections of 1951 and 1954 were won by the Convention People's Party (CPP), whose leader, Dr. Nkrumah was brought from jail to fill the newly-created post of Prime Minister. The CPP stood on a programme of independence from British rule and when they won a third overwhelming victory in the 1956 elections, Whitehall agreed to the inevitable. At midnight on 5th March, 1957, the Gold Coast ceased to exist and the State of Ghana took its place. A new national anthem—Ghana Arise, by Hector Hughes, a British Labour M.P.—was substituted for God Save the Queen.

The country which Dr. Nkrumah took over has a population of 4½ millions, most of them Africans and pagans. The economy is heavily dependent on cocoa farming, which, said Finance Minister Gbedemah, dusting off a cliche, is "... the life-blood of this country." (Ghana turns out 30 per cent, of the world crop.) The Government are uneasy about this dependence on a primary produce industry, so vulnerable to world economic changes. There is a heavy tax on cocoa farming, which is invested in other fields; there is also a tax relief for those who finance "pioneer" industries. So far these measures have not had much effect and Ghana's prosperity still varies with the price which Cadbury and Fry, Ltd., the United Africa Company, and the like, have to pay for cocoa on the world market.

Betrayed Hopes
Ghana also has substantial deposits of gold, diamonds, manganese and bauxite. Most of the gold and diamonds, mined by companies incorporated in the United Kingdom, are sent to London. The manganese deposits, as an ingredient to steel production, are becoming increasingly important. Bauxite is mined by the British Aluminium Company, who are interested in the prospect of damming the Volta River to generate electricity for smelting the bauxite into aluminium. Although Great Britain takes nearly one-half of her exports, Ghana is anxious to attract any foreign investment. Because of this the Government will take no sides in current Great Power conflicts; Dr. Nkrumah had said, "... Ghana . . . should not be aligned with any group of Powers or political blocs."

The first signs that Ghana was going to betray the hopes of its friends came when Dr. Nkrumah appeared to be fostering his own little personality cult, by having his head stamped on the new coinage and going to live in Christiansborg Castle which, as the old residence of Danish and British governors, is heavy with unpleasant memories. Then came the expulsions and a Special Bill to allow Mr. Edusei to deport two men without the right of appeal. The municipal councils of Accra and Kumasi were suspended and so was the chief of the 300,000 Akim Abuakwa tribe. Several members of the opposition were kidnapped and from the other side, a plot to assassinate Dr. Nkrumah was alleged. In this hysterical atmosphere, it seemed. Africa's immaculate embryo democracy had been born a deformed dictatorship.

The truth of the matter is that last March saw the end of Nkrumah's days of agitation and faced him with the realities of power over a country which is trying to make its way in the capitalist world. The first reality was a staggering fall in the price of cocoa, so that the first budget was chillingly austere and the Ghanaian workers were told that it would be unpatriotic to ask for higher-wages. They had expected better than this from Nkrumah ; a national transport strike was called and rioting broke out in Accra. Another difficulty is that Nkrumah is struggling to establish government on modern capitalist lines and to stamp out the old system of tribal rule. These stresses have caused quarrelling within the government. To clean the matter up a strong-arm policy has been tried, with Mr. Edusei, known in Ghana as the Minister of Noise, to apply it.

Settling Down
It seems that things are now settling down. The cases against the journalists have been dropped and the Emergency Powers Bill, published at the beginning of November, was much easier than expected. The government was probably getting worried about reactions in the countries which would supply the necessary- development loans and of the old-established foreign firms, who have kept their interests in Ghana. The opposition groups, formerly diverse, have united and almost certainly will emerge as an alternative administration. These are all strong checks upon extreme government action. In any case, there is no good reason why Nkrumah's misdeeds should cause such a fuss in quarters which accepted, among other things, the deportations from Cyprus and Uganda and the deposing of the popularly elected government of British Guiana. Nor does it end in London. America has recently altered the constitution of the occupied island of Okinawa to get rid of a troublesome Mayor. Dr. Nkrumah's is only one of a number of distasteful policies and should be seen in its perspective. It will be forgotten long before the world stops remembering the French in Algeria and the Russians in Hungary.
IVAN
(Socialist Standard., January 1958)

African Anarchism

This online book , Archive for African Anarchism: The History of A Movement by Sam Mbah and I.E. Igariwey , makes interesting reading for those who wish to go beyond the state-capitalist and reformist alternatives being offered to the African people . The history of African precursers to anarcho-communism society in chapter 3 is particularly pertinent .

"..the most important features of African communalism are the absence of classes, that is, social stratification; the absence of exploitative or antagonistic social relations; the existence of equal access to land and other elements of production; equality at the level of distribution of social produce; and the fact that strong family and kinship ties formed the basis of social life in African communal societies. Within this framework, each household was able to meet its own basic needs. Under communalism, by virtue of being a member of a family or community, every African was assured of sufficient land to meet his or her own needs."

"Political organization under communalism was horizontal in structure, characterized by a high level of diffusion of functions and power. Political leadership, not authority, prevailed, and leadership was not founded on imposition, coercion, or centralization; it arose out of a common consensus or a mutually felt need.
Leadership developed on the basis of family and kinship ties woven around the elders; it was conferred only by age, a factor which, as we shall see, runs deep in communalism."

Then there were the stateless societies that existed in Africa's past .

"...peoples who had no machinery of government coercion and no concept of a political unit wider than the family or the village. After all, if there is no class stratification in a society, it follows that there is no state because the state arose as an instrument to be used by a particular class to control the rest of society in its own interests . . . One can consider the stateless societies as among the older forms of sociopolitical organization in Africa...Among the stateless societies that existed on the continent were the Igbo, the Birom, Angas, Idoma, Ekoi, Nbembe, the Niger Delta peoples, the Tiv (Nigeria), the Shona (Zimbabwe), Lodogea, the Lowihi, the Bobo, the Dogon, the Konkomba, the Birifor (Burkina Faso, Niger), the Bate, the Kissi, the Dan, the Logoli, the Gagu and Kru peoples, the Mano, Bassa Grebo and Kwanko (Ivory Coast, Guinea, Togo), the Tallensi, Mamprusi, Kusaasi (Ghana), the Nuer (Southern Sudan), etc.-numbering today nearly two hundred million individuals in all."

The book goes on to describe Africa’s incorporation into the world capitalist economy

"The ultimate result of Africa’s incorporation into the world capitalist economy was the destruction of the traditional pre-colonial com-munal mode of production. As the capitalist mode developed, it confronted the noncapitalist mode, violently transforming various communities, turning their lands, resources, and products into commodities. Countless thousands of able-bodied young men were uprooted from their homes to work in capitalist enterprises, and the remaining population was compelled to grow only those crops that possessed exchange value-cash crops."

And then the post-colonialism developments

"The quest to create indigenous industry by African capitalists gives them a nationalist image, but they stop short at the demand for expropriation of foreign capital, upon which they remain dependent. The nationalism of this indigenous capitalist class is the outcome of its desire to appropriate resources (at least for itself) back from the foreign expropriator; and at the same time its commitment to freedom for foreign capital is necessitated, indeed dictated, by its dependence on neo-colonial economic structures. In any event, the conflicts of interest between indigenous capitalists and foreign capitalists often resolve themselves in accommodations that border on delineation of spheres of influence."

The book describes how the proponents of African nationalist liberation movements were using the idea of socialism as mere sloganising but :-

"... had neither a firm grasp of the socialist world view, nor the foggiest mental construct of what a socialist society would look like in the aftermath of the abolition or overthrow of capitalism. This shallow, confused concept of socialism-and the circumstances under which socialist ideas first came to Africa-would later have a decidedly negative impact on the growth and development of the socialist movement in Africa...Despite socialist rhetoric, capitalist relations of production remained dominant for the most part in “African socialist” societies. Corruption and primitive accumulation through use of state powers and resources characterized the dominant political class. Labor repression was pronounced; in fact, the earlier lot of the worker under colonial and post-colonial capitalism often was better than under the very underdeveloped state socialist structures spawned by self-serving “socialists” and, sometimes, gun-toting soldiers and military officers as well..."

Chapter 4 has much to recommend it in its review of the development of workers organisations and struggles in Nigeria , South Africa , Guinea .

A book from an anarchist perspective that is a well -worth read on the whole .

A Book Review - African Socialism or Socialist Africa

African Socialism or Socialist Africa by A.M. Babu, Tanzania Publishing House, 1971.

This is a very controversial book. It is a sweeping generalisation of scientific socialism and there are some interesting passages through which the author quotes from Marx and Engels to bolster his attack on "African Socialism" (nationalisation). State capitalism is the alternative offered and main theme of this book.

The author’s views are very polemical, especially when it comes to the use of the words people, workers, students and peasants, e.g.
"In the long term, it is only the workers who are capable of raising the banner of freedom for our people and for the people who are still under colonial bondage. The working class is the only class which is fearlessly to pursue policies which enhance the people’s well-being as well as their dignity. It is the only class which has nothing to fear from a truly free people."

Such and many more utterances are to be found on very page – to make everyone who has not lived in Africa convinced that workers and university students in Africa are revolutionaries.
Indeed the book was an inspiring contribution to Leninism. In its hey day when we take into consideration how the fact that the book was written during the decade when Leninism was a popular political ideology in Africa and elsewhere.

Our task is to synthesise the inherent contradictions between Leninism and dialectical Marxism, but I do agree with the author that the task of achieving socialism in Africa cannot be achieved through clumsy intellectual diatribes parroted by political scribes as the case may be.

We are forewarned by Babu that a "socialist development strategy " being scientifically enunciated in the book – read MANIFESTO - requires strict discipline in its implementation. Discipline among planners, implementers, and government institutions. The colonial states must be destroyed and replaced by a people’s oriented state!

The strategy we have been describing is a Leninist-Marxist strategy for neo-colonies in transition to self-reliant, self-sustaining independent economy. It is not yet a strategy for a socialist transformation, but a strategy for establishing the preconditions for socialist transformation. In other words, state capitalism is seen as a transition to socialism, which it is not.

More or less this book is a vitriolic onslaught of African economic development though it is everywhere overwhelmed by a Leninist political methodology that goes against the otherwise dialectical presuppositions.

The author openly admired and emulates "communism" (state capitalism) in China, Korea and Cuba and is very certain that workers and students in Africa are ready and eager to do the same.

I have found fault in the book in the sense that it was too flamboyantly written and because "socialism" in Africa is no longer the case so that the so-called prophetic lingua franca of this book is ephemeral. But the fact that the book was party written in prison, and during the decade when scientific socialism was a political issue in Africa, makes it an interesting and worthwhile contribution to political science.

K. MULENGA , Zambia

Appendix

Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu was born in 1924 in Zanzibar in East Africa , died 5 August 1996 . Between 1964 and 1972, Babu headed various ministries in the Tanzanian government, in particular the Ministry of Planning. In 1972, Babu was arrested and imprisoned by Nyerere on charges of murdering President Karume of Zanzibar. Although never convicted, Babu remained in prison in Tanzania until 1978, when he was released . During his time in prison, Babu wrote his book "African Socialism or Socialist Africa?" .

ZAMBIA: ECONOMIC INTERLUDE

Further to our previous posting , this is a follow up on-the-spot analysis of the Chinese effect on the Zambian working class by an African socialist .


The recent visit by the Chinese president Hu Jintao was hailed as a great economic milestone in the New Deal administration of MMD (Movement for Multiparty Democracy) president Levy Mwanawasa.

Toying with Marxist revolutionary political ideology is now a thing of the past in Africa—ever since the dawn of political pluralism and economic liberalism. Thus the phrase Chinese neo-colonialism may seem like a contradiction in terms in the sense that bilateral trade is feasible to Zambia’s economic development in the age of globalisation.

The People’s Republic of China has a long political and economic relationship with Zambia, dating back to 1964. The Chinese helped to train Zambia’s army officers and donated military armaments to the security forces. It was China that constructed the Tazara railway line from Zambia to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.

It is a fact that Chinese investment if various sectors of the domestic economy has not yielded positive results. More or less Chinese investors have brought the syndrome of labour casualisation in Zambia. Resentment against Chinese investors is very prominent on the Copperbelt and in Lusaka.

The Chinese president Hu Jintao held a press conference at which he said that China will open up a new economic zone in Kitwe (Chambishi copper mine) at an initial cost of $800,000,000 that will increase employment by 60,000. However the three-day visit to Zambia was cut short because of the planned demonstrations in Lusaka and Kitwe.

It is alleged that Chinese investors mistreat ordinary Zambian workers and that Chinese imported clothes, bicycles and electrical appliances are even substandard and poor quality. The ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions) has spoken out strongly against the New Economic Zone by pointing out that Chinese investors pay low salaries and the incidence of accidents at workplaces.

But working class political struggles can only take place in societies where basic political and human freedoms are respected—that is the case in Zambia today. Press freedom is very vital to the intensification of working class political struggles.

The dream of abolishing taxes and chasing away Chinese investors is not a method of abolishing capitalism. It is a surest indication of political frustration and moral bankruptcy. Workers of Zambia unite, under the banner of international working class solidarity—Socialism.

K. MULENGA

Nigerians choose new masters

From the BBC we hear that Aliko Dangote may be the richest man in Africa .

Mr Dangote has come along way from his early days of trading commodities in his home town of Kano in the north and now has listed two of his 13 companies on the Nigerian stock market. His stake in those two alone is worth more than $4 billion (£2 billion). His business empire spans the economy. He dominates the markets for sugar, cement, rice, pasta, textiles and salt, and he is big in transport, oil and gas.

In politics, as in business, he is also a powerful player. He is not ashamed to be financially supporting President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling People's Democratic Party .

"I am close to people in government because I am one of the big businessmen in Nigeria," he explains. "If we don't have the right people there then [all the] money I have is useless..."

As Marx said the State is the executive committee of the capitalist class and Aliko Dangote fully recognises this . The Nigerian government is HIS government .

Whereas for the other 140 million Nigerians , the majority of who live under a poverty line of less than a dollar a day, in the words of Femi Kuti , son of legendary Afrobeat musician and political activist Fela Kuti:-

"People are poorer, things in the market are getting more expensive, life is getting more difficult by the day."

And his verdict on politicians vying for election :-

"...when these people get into power they never fulfil their promises. You see them with their big cars, they buy houses in England or America, they give their kids the best education, but the crop of the people, the masses themselves, they lose."

Since independence from Britain in 1960, an estimated $400 billion of oil revenues have gone missing, presumed stolen, by the military and political elite.

Nigerians are used to being let down by their governments and sooner they realise that the existing Nigerian political parties do not represent their interests but are bought and paid for by the likes of Aliko Dangote to protect and preserve his privilege and wealth .

It is time for a Nigerian Socialist Party , one that is a part of the World Socialist Movement . It is time for the Nigerian working class to act in their own interest .