‘African Peasants and Revolution’ revisited

Abstract

This short essay begins by revisiting John Saul's landmark article in the first issue of the Review of African Political Economy in 1974, which was, inevitably, very much of its historical moment. The author suggests that Saul used an ideal-typical conception of ‘peasants’ combined with a particular view of ‘incomplete’ capitalism established by colonial rule in Africa and continuing since political independence. He then proposes, in highly selective and abbreviated fashion, an alternative approach to understanding the social conditions of existence of African ‘peasants’ and the politics of Africa's agrarian questions. He illustrates his argument with special reference to the current moment of globalisation and neoliberalism. ‘Globalisation’ serves as shorthand for the restructuring of capital on a world scale since the 1970s (and not least ‘financialisation’), while he uses ‘neoliberalism’ to refer to the political and ideological project of promoting the interests of capital in such restructuring at the expense of the interests of labour. He concludes with some broad historical theses about ‘African Peasants and Revolution’.