African socialism
African socialism or Afrosocialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Many African politicians of the 1950s and 1960s professed their support for African socialism, although definitions and interpretations of this term varied considerably. These politicians include Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Modibo Keita of Mali, among others.
Origins and themes[edit]
As many African countries gained independence during the 1960s, some of these newly formed governments rejected the ideas of capitalism in favour of a more afrocentric economic model. Leaders of this period professed that they were practising "African socialism".[1]
Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Modibo Keita of Mali, Léopold Senghor of Senegal, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Sékou Touré of Guinea, were the main architects of African Socialism according to William H. Friedland and Carl G. Rosberg Jr., editors of the book African Socialism.[2]
Common principles of various versions of African socialism were: social development guided by a large public sector, incorporating the African identity and what it means to be African, and the avoidance of the development of social classes within society.[3] Senghor claimed that "Africa’s social background of tribal community life not only makes socialism natural to Africa but excludes the validity of the theory of class struggle," thus making African socialism, in all of its variations, different from Marxism and European socialist theory.[4]
African socialism became an important model of economic development for countries such as Ghana, Guinea, Senegal and Tanzania. While these countries used different models of African Socialism, a common thread of African Socialism emerged. This common thread was the desire for political and economic autonomy, self reliance, the Africanisation of business and civil service, Pan-Africanism and non-alignment.[5]
History[edit]
The first influential publication of socialist thought tailored for application in Africa occurred in 1956 with the release of Senegalese intellectual Abdoulaye Ly's Les masses africaines et l'actuelle condition humaine.[6]
Women and African socialism[edit]
African socialism proved to have mixed results for participating women. While some improvements were made from pre-developmental periods in the quality of life for women under African Socialism, setbacks and reflections of past gender hierarchies still persisted.[7][8][9]
In Ghana, newfound independence did not create a restructuring of old gender roles. Households were the building blocks of agricultural production and were almost exclusively headed by male workers.[9] Accrued resources were then disproportionately controlled by household heads, under the assumption that subordinate women did not have to do as much work.[9]
However, economic crises in the 1980s saw the women of agricultural households adopt new strategies for reviving local welfare, such as replacing imported products with local goods and migrant male labor with their own. The increased presence of these women in the socialist workforce elevated their position in the community and granted them a say in rural production.[10] Groups of working women began receiving their own plots of land from community leaders, and their contributions became recognized under the rural basis of Ghanaian socialism.[10] Nonetheless, women who were not granted land often had to beg or receive permission from male landowners such as husbands or fathers. Without access to this land, local wives and daughters could not collect wild bush fruits or shea nuts, both crucial to financial welfare.[9]
After the introduction of Ujamaa to Tanzanian life in the late 1960s, strict gender roles became commonplace and were celebrated as a pillar of nuclear family.[7] Despite efforts of development policy to purge Tanzanian government of European influence, the reinforcement of nuclear family tradition and arrangement of women into the role of domestic house-maker reflected the practice of Christian colonizers before them.[7]
This was likely because newfound independence saw a political focus on stability in the early developmental stages of Tanzania’s government.[7] Urban, working-class men unsure of the new government were seen as the greatest threat to national stability, and were provided improved salaries and access to housing which bolstered their position as household heads, and pushed women further into reproductive labor roles.[7] Many of the goals surrounding Tanzanian women’s rights movements were nonetheless met, including improvements in education, employment, and political opportunities.[11] Regardless, the slow but sure subversion of women’s rights movements in Tanzania saw women pushed further back into households, and female governmental leaders deposed for a number of trivial offenses.[11] Still, Tanzanian villagization is recalled positively by many Tanzanian women, as it often provided the opportunity to live closer to kin, and commit to more stable marriage practices.[8] Post WWII, pre-development economy had previously resulted in widespread serial monogamy, or the precarious and temporary marrying and remarrying which was seen as more survival strategy than romantic or reproductive endeavor. After resolving the discomfort of villagization, many women found advantage in their placement. For many Tanzanians, the crux of detriment towards women’s rights came with the structural adjustment of Ujamaa economic policies in the 1980s.[11]
Across nearly all socialist states in Africa, women’s participation in politics did not face much improvement. In Senegal, Policies such as the “Code de la Famille” promised improvements for women’s legal protections, but represented a set of laws that women were more subjects to than authors of. In many cases, such reforms were only introduced because of lobbying by wives of well placed politicians.[12] Symbolic representation via educated “femmes phares”, or beacon women, was introduced with the one party system, and a set of quotas for women’s political participation in the 1980s. Still, both concessions were more a result of male political competition than progressive movements for women’s rights. Even those women who were granted public office enjoyed little influence compared to male colleagues of similar position.[12] These developments reflected the predicament faced by eastern European women who received positions in symbolic organs of communist puppet-states. Real political power seemed to flow from the “inner circle” of such states.[12] Power which was visible to the public in African nations was typically held by heads of state who were able to dominate and retain their position in a political monopoly.[12]
African conferences for national liberation and socialism saw great participation from feminist organizations, but very little attention given to feminist issues.[13] Nonetheless, developments were made with the unity of eastern feminist groups, but discourse with their western counterparts. With socialism and anti-colonialism at the forefront of African feminist issues, the question of how male leaders would make economic development benefit all members of a household was paramount, but one that was not taken seriously in conferences.[13] Instead, feminist organizations were forced to drive international change on their own, often starting with the double standards and hypocrisies that could be found in their relations with other feminist groups. While feminists in Egypt were criticized for undemocratic practices in their developing government, countries like Britain seemed to escape scrutiny for its imperialist tendencies and improper treatment of its territories.[13]
Relations to the Soviet Union[edit]
In the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, Soviet Union based Africanists grappled with the concept of African Socialism and its legitimacy within the Marxist–Leninist theory.[14] Leading Soviet Africanist, Professor Ivan Potekhin argued that African Socialism could not exist because there could be no varieties of true Marxist–Leninist socialism.[15] There was not one monolith perspective on whether socialism existed in Africa. It was commonly believed that Africa could have its unique road to socialism but not its own form.[16]
Soviet African Specialists recognized countries such as Guinea, Mali, and Ghana as closer to true Marxist–Leninist socialism.[17] Ahmed Sékou Touré (1961), Modibo Keïta (1963) and Kwame Nkrumah (1962) were honored with Lenin Peace Prizes. Countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire were considered ‘reactionary’ and prone to collaboration with the imperialist powers.[17]
Policies that were generally viewed as favorable by the Soviets were: economic independence, the creation of a national monetary system, a strong state sector economy, a state bank, state control over exports and transports, mutual assistance programs and common land ownership.[17]
African Socialists argued in favor of a distinctive form of socialism because they believed that socialism had its roots in pre-colonial African society.[18] According to them, African society was a classless society, characterized by a communal spirit and democracy on the basis of government through discussion and consensus.[19] The main objective was to unite African people in this idealized image of the traditional pre-colonial society.
Soviet Africanists did not agree that African society had a traditional classless society.[20]
African Socialist Kwame Nkrumah said, ‘African socialism is designed as an evolving African tradition. As such it is socialism of a special brand. And although African socialism may show some organizational resemblance to Communism, it differs from the Marxist socialist approach on vital points. Thus, African socialism rejects the doctrine of the economic class struggle and the inevitability of revolution. The economic class divisions of Europe thought parallel in African society, and the Marxist idea of a world-wide proletarian revolution is rejected in favour of peaceful national and international unification. Equally important, African socialism disapproves of the anti-religious sentiments of Marxism; after all, religion in traditional African society had been basic to social cohesion, and so religion should function today.’[21]