The marxist conception of class: political and theoretical elaboration in the African and Africanist context

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the problem of ‘exporting’ key terms and conceptual frameworks to Africa from Western societies where they were developed and to an understanding of which they were designed. It follows the historical journeys of the notions of classand class struggle — through their application by Marx and ‘classical’ Marxists, by African leaders of political movements, by the early generations of African writers, by ‘neo‐Marxist’ Africanists. It explores contemporary analyses of pre‐capitalist and today's capitalist societies and explores the paradox that the familiar classes associated with ‘classical’ capitalism are quantitatively under‐represented and that other classes that are often seen as mere ‘legacies’ are preponderant in African society. The working out of the political significance of the class structure has been inhibited by the purveyors of theory: ‘neither African political leaders nor Africanists’ really operate as what Gramsci called ‘organic intellectuals’. So ‘class’ remains an imported, ‘luxury’ item.