Kwame Nkrumah and the introduction to the book 📚📚📖📚 “Class Struggle in Africa”

There are different and diverse political, social and economic conditions in Africa, and generalizing about political, social and economic patterns is not easy. Remnants of sectarianism and feudalism still exist.  Living patterns have barely changed in parts of the continent, and a high degree of industrialization and urbanization has been achieved in other areas. But despite Africa's social, economic and political diversity, it is possible to distinguish specific and common political, social and economic conditions and problems. These conditions and problems result from a traditional past, from common aspirations, and from the common experience under the yoke of imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. There is no region on the continent that has not suffered from oppression and exploitation, nor is there any region that exists outside the processes of the African revolution. The unity of the basic purpose of the peoples of Africa is becoming clearer everywhere, and no African leader can survive unless he pretends to support the African revolutionary goals of comprehensive liberation, union and socialism.

In this situation, the ground is well prepared for the next decisive phase of the revolution, when the armed struggle born today must be intensified and disseminated, coordinated at strategic and tactical levels, and at the same time a resolute attack must be directed at the elements of the reactionary minority existing among our peoples; Because the tragic exposure in recent years of the nature and extent of the class struggle in Africa through a series of reactionary military coups and the outbreak of civil wars, especially in West and Central Africa, has demonstrated the unity of interests between neo-colonialism and the local bourgeoisie.

The class struggle lies at the heart of the matter. For too long, social and political experts have spoken and written as if Africa lay outside the main trend of the world's historical development, and as if it were a separate entity to which the social, economic and political models of the world did not apply. Myths such as “African socialism” and “pragmatic socialism” have been spread, myths that insinuate the existence of a type or types of socialism that applies only to Africa.  Much of our history has also been written from the perspective of social anthropological and historical theories, as if Africa had no history prior to the colonial period. One such distortion was to suggest that class structures found in other parts of the world did not exist in Africa.

This is far from the truth. There is a fierce class struggle being waged in Africa, the evidence of which is all around us, and it is, in essence, a struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed, as is the case in the rest of the world.

The African revolution is a full part of the world socialist revolution, and to the extent that the class struggle is fundamental in the world revolutionary processes, this struggle is fundamental in the struggle of the workers and peasants of Africa.

Class divisions in modern Africa became somewhat blurred during the pre-independence period, when national unity seemed to exist and all classes banded together to oust the colonial power. This is what led some to declare that there are no class divisions in Africa, and that the sectarianism and egalitarianism of traditional African society does not recognize any concept called “class struggle.”  But this lie was quickly exposed after independence, when class antagonisms that had been obscured by the struggle to gain political freedom resurfaced, and these antagonisms often became more acute, especially in those countries where the newly independent government pursued socialist policies.

Because the African bourgeoisie - the class that flourished during the colonial era - is the same class that currently benefits from the post-independence and neo-colonial period;  Its primary interest lies in the preservation of capitalist economic and social structures - it is therefore allied with international financial monopoly capital and with neo-colonialism, and it is also in direct conflict with the African masses, whose ambitions can only be realized through scientific socialism.

Although the African bourgeoisie is small in number, and lacks the financial and political power possessed by its counterparts in highly industrialized countries, it gives the impression that it is economically strong; Because of its close connection with foreign financial capital and commercial interests. Many members of the African bourgeoisie work for foreign companies and thus have a direct financial interest in the continued foreign economic exploitation of Africa. There are other people who are connected to capitalism because of their Western background, upbringing, shared experience, and privileged positions. They are especially present in the civil service, in commercial and mining companies, in the armed forces, in the police, and in prestigious professions. They are fascinated by capitalist institutions and organizations and blindly imitate the way of life of their former colonial masters, determined to maintain the status and power they inherited from them.

Africa carries within it a core of bourgeoisie similar to the colonialists and settlers in that it lives in positions of privilege; They are a small minority, selfish, obsessed with money, and reactionary, and they live among large masses of exploited and oppressed people. Although the African bourgeoisie seems strong because of the support of the neo-colonialists, they are very weak. Their lives are tied to foreign support, and they are unable to maintain their positions and privileges once this vital cord is cut. They and the “invisible hand” of neo-colonialism and imperialism that support and sustain reactionism and exploitation are now trembling before the growing tide of worker and peasant consciousness in the class struggle in Africa.

#Africa #Ghana