We touched briefly on the atypical development of classes in a few societies in pre-colonial Africa. However, after European contact, class formation accelerated.The European powers that invaded and colonized Africa in the late 19th century were fully industrialized capitalist countries that saw in Africa a captive market as well as a source for rawmaterials for their industries. This was the fundamental reason for colonialism. The colonizers produced a capitalist economy with some similarities to the economies of their own countries.60 In Europe, the owners of capital had expropriated the land and other means of production from peasants and artisans, turning them into wage workers. From their labor, the capitalists extracted a surplus which they accumulated and invested in more land, factories, and labor in order to extract more surplus. In this way they expanded wealth and reproduced capitalist social relations at the same time.61 As we saw previously, the pre-colonial African mode of production was anything but a capitalist mode of production. To serve their own interests, the European colonizers superimposed capitalism on Africa. This entailed the transformation of African societies from relatively self-sufficient communal agricultural units into units dependent on the larger economies being created.62 A new division of labor was being forced on

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Power and Class in Africa

African Anarchism: The History of a Movement

Africa has become more reliant - not less - on exports of primary products and raw materials and on imports of finished and semifinished goods since independence... the fact that Africa's role in the world economy has undergone a relative decline at the same time as dependence on foreign markets, goods and capital has experienced an absolute increase is evidence that the gap between Africa and the industrialised world is growing, despite the ambitious efforts of African states to close it.1 The continuation, and even intensification, of Africa's integration into and dependence upon the world system has profound implications for its future political economy. In this article we analyse Africa's place in the global economy- paying particular attention to the impact of the environment on its development prospects - and we examine different projections of its future problems and opportunities. Most of these macro-studies are compatible with micro-level analyses of Africa in suggesting a dominant trend towards inequalities both within and between states.2 The pessimistic tone of these scenarios has serious long-term implications because in our view there are two major prerequisites for development- continental unity and a socialist strategy. Without these radical policies being adopted and implemented Africa's future will most likely consist of very uneven development and growing tensions between different classes and states. Moreover, given the increasing scepticism about industrialisation as a necessary stage towards economic maturity, because of both resultant pollution and

The Political Economy of Resources: Africa's Future in the Global Environment

Colonisation obstructed the internal process of state formation and development in Africa and left legacies of authoritarianism, corruption and political instability. Embodied in the post-colonial state and sustained by foreign aid, these colonial legacies constitute the main obstacles to development in postcolonial Africa. The only way to liberate Africa and ensure its progress is a three-stage process involving the repudiation of foreign aid, the restructuring of territorial boundaries in accordance with African realities, and the formation of an African continental government. The African academia should be in the vanguard of African liberation by educating and mobilising the populace.

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The State and Development in Africa

Political and economic changes in Nigeria and the organisation of medical care

The article explores the political dynamics that explain the rapidity of the impeachment processes and resignation of Nigeria’s Senate Presidents in the Fourth Republic. By means of narrative analysis and utilising content-analysis of primary and secondary sources, gathered from fieldwork in Lagos and Abuja, the article seeks to capture the crisis-ridden character of the Nigerian Senate from 1999 to 2007. This article probes the elements of corruption, intra-elite struggle and the dimensions of legislative-executive conflict in the determination of the internal power struggle and leadership instability within the Nigerian Senate (1999-2007) and concludes with the need to address the problem of poor representation in Parliament.

	 

	Key words: Democracy, parliament, legislature impeachment, Nigeria, Africa, senate, senate president, corruption, leadership.

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Power and Class in Africa

Citations

African Anarchism: The History of a Movement

The Political Economy of Resources: Africa's Future in the Global Environment

The State and Development in Africa

Political and economic changes in Nigeria and the organisation of medical care

Leadership crisis in the parliament of Nigeria: The case of the senate in the Fourth Republic

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