Class Struggle in Africa

by Kwame Nkrumah

Recent African history has exposed the close links between the interests of imperialism and neo-colonialism and the African bourgeoisie. This book reveals the nature and extent of the class struggle in Africa, and sets it in the broad context of the African Revolution and the world socialist revolution.

Genres: Africa, Politics, History, Nonfiction, Theory, Race, Economics

100 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1970

About the author

Kwame Nkrumah PC was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary. He was the first prime minister and president of Ghana, having led it to independence from Britain in 1957. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.

Reviews

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely one of the greatest texts on Marxism I've ever read. From the perspective of an African Marxist and revolutionary who liberated Ghana, this text intricately lays out a map to liberation and unity of Africa as one nation.

I particularly enjoyed and learned from Nkrumah's statements that 'African socialism' is a backwards statement and set of beliefs that others African revolutionaries' fight for socialist liberation and makes it seem different than the global struggle for socialism and world communism.

Also interesting is Nkrumah's usage of "Indigenous bourgeoisie", a phrase I had never heard of before reading this. Obviously it makes sense, seeing as how it is the best phrase to use when discussing and struggling against neo-colonialism, but it was great to be introduced to this.

A fantastic read. I can't recommend it enough.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone not horribly experienced in reading heavily political texts, I found this to be an easy read. Nkrumah's writing is intellectually accessible to even those without a background in politics. He conveys, with urgency, the need for socialist revolutions in Africa and the world. If you can't handle "capitalism" being treated as the other C-word, this will be a difficult read for you.

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great Kwame Nkrumah dedicated this classic analysis of African political economy and revolution to the workers and peasants of Africa. Throughout the book Nkrumah provides a scathing analysis and indictment of the various African national bourgeois, and their dependence on the European colonial powers. More specifically, he makes plain the manner in which African elites allow for the continued subjugation of the continent to Euro-American powers.

Nkrumah also spends time discussing how colonialism and imperialism disrupted Africa’s natural evolution. Prior to Euro-colonialism, traditional African societies emphasized collective “ownership” of land (i.e. “communalism”). To the extent that land was given to individuals, it was for individual *use*, but was still the possession of the community at large. European colonial domination abolished this arrangement and replaced it with private, racialized property relations, giving birth to what Nkrumah described as the “race-class struggle.” It is this class struggle that Africans fought against during the decolonial era. However, lurking under the surface was the class struggle that Euro-colonialism originally upended—the struggle between African elites and the African masses. As Nkrumah explains, since the African elites still maintain and facilitate Euro-American interests, true decolonization (leading to a Pan African Socialist revolution) requires the destruction of the African national bourgeois.

I was fascinated by the way Nkrumah broke down the differences in the class struggle in Africa before Euro-Colonialism, and after. He describes how Europe imposed a different kind of class structure, one rooted in the privatization and commodification of the commons, and one that entrenched tribal divisions and feudal relations. As Nkrumah detailed, there is no doubt that many African societies were classed and stratified prior to Euro-colonialism, but European conquest deprived the African masses of their revolutionary destiny to change this order, forcing them to combat multiple oppressive systems. Nkrumah ultimately lays out a Pan African socialist vision for the future, one that has not yet been fulfilled. This is a must read.

[Adel · Rating 5 out of 5]

simple and accessible but profound, cant wait to read his bigger texts

[Lukas R]

A very well written, succinct, and prescient overview of African politics, economics, and social relations in the 20th century. A lot of the conditions described here have barely changed or gotten more intense. Nkrumah is an incredibly interesting historical figure, and I will be looking for biographies of him and more of his own writing.

[Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful. Good read.

[Ty G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never understood Africa until I read this book

[Barima Peprah-Agyemang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very easy read. I must say Nkrumah is a good writer. He put forth his ideas very succinct and I must admit that I have picked up some ideas.

[Aurélien Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1970, that is, four years after the military plot that had overthrown him and while he is living in exile in Guinea, Kwame Nkrumah delivers here a very (very) short essay, and where, bitter, vindictive, he settles counts.

What's wrong in Africa?

For him, the issue is simple: problems come from capitalism, itself exported by White people through colonialism. In order to be fully free from colonialism, then, Africa therefore ought to get rid of capitalism too, and, so, turn itself towards the only other option then available during the Cold War: scientific socialism.

The fact was that, even if, back then (as of now?) colonialism was supposedly a thing of the past, as all African countries were by then politically independent, in practice the reality was everything but. Kwame Nkrumah wasn't naïve. Lucid, he fully understood that past colonial powers had in fact left behind a complex neo-colonial system, and under which Africa still remained dependent on its past masters, especially when it comes to economics. He even accuses: this can only happen because some African elites that were established under colonialism are still pretty much in charge, their power coupled with the influence of unscrupulous multinationals, and allowing thus for plots and scheming at political levels to impede, even overthrown, those challenging the status quo (e.g. Lumumba's murder in Congo...). The picture is damning.

Now, of course, the solution he proposed here (Communism applied to the whole continent) would have been even more catastrophic had it succeed (one can speculate, but, given how 'socialism' worked out in those countries which had aligned themselves with the USSR... well!). Nevertheless, his point of view regarding the neo-colonial exploitation of Africa by 'past' colonial powers remains strikingly relevant. The yoke may no longer be political, but on an economical level it's all a very different story indeed! Have things ever changed since then?

[Mtume Gant · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s without a doubt a solid text, and for someone who is just stepping into Marxist thought from an anti colonial perspective it’s a fantastic way to start.

He doesn’t have that next gear of a Cabral, Fanon or Rodney, and there are questions around counter revolution that I wish he would dug deeper on, and I think his double oppression could easily be misinterpreted the way he writes it (I actually advocate that we acknowledge that a racialized being is already a specific class category that doesn’t need a doubling), but the fine points he makes are accurate.

Big thing I love about him are his graphs. Them joints are legendary. So clear, such great utility.

[Pia Bröker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so amazed at how I understood these concepts a few years ago already, but I did not really understand them at the same time. Now, when I read this socialist revolutionary book, I can relate so much and properly understand what the concepts and ideas of the class struggle mean, also for our world today.
I do not share the whole analysis of Kwame Nkrumah, but I appreciate it in its historical context. I think the ideas are revolutionary and great. I just wish he would have been more clear about certain concepts and provided actionable plans. The book has also been lacking sources and deeper analysis. I sometimes felt like he was just making claims without explaining why his ideas are good.

[Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kwame Nkrumah, one of the most successful and betrayed communist leader of African 20th century, writes in this little red book about the realities of class struggle in Africa. Marx says that a strong proletariat must be formed to arm revolution but, as Nkrumah explains, that is not the case in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Algeria, etc. The notion that Africa is homogenous and lacks class distinctions could not be further from the truth, African countries for the most part carry more than simple proletariat and bourgeois classes.

The class struggle in Africa (because of the confusion brought on by white settler governments) has primarily started off as anti-imperialist. Uniting the peasants and proletariat with the indigenous bourgeois, their true class enemy. This does not say Socialism in Africa is different. Principle Marxists know that scientific socialism is “universal…and involves the genuine socialization of productive and distributive processes.” There is no hard dogma that revolution must take form. Africa must look towards the proletariat and peasantry to gain a foothold against the bourgeoisie and neocolonialist agents.

Nkrumah, though focusing on Africa, makes sound observations of current class struggles. In one section on race/class, Nkrumah explains, “race is inextricably linked with class exploitation; in a racist-capitalist power structure, capitalist exploitation and race oppression are complimentary.” Meaning if we can remove one, the other will fall. Another great observation he makes of international class struggle is that of embougeoisement in capitalist countries or the conditions of working-class people improving so much under capitalism that it has corrupted and blurred the realities of class struggle. Again, in other words, the fact most Americans can afford iPhones or perceives themselves as “middle-class” will turn the worker into reaction and conservatism. One issue I believe Marx always overlooked, but Nkrumah didn’t, was that capitalism will improve the conditions of those in the imperial core to a certain strata, nothing more.

This book is thorough and easy to read. Nkrumah lays out in small chapters the realities of elitism, intellectuals, class, coups, and more, making it discernible to what are the issues plaguing Africa’s class struggles. Lastly, the African revolutionary struggle is not isolated. Not only is it a part of the world socialist revolution, but it is also tied to the Black Revolution in the US, the Caribbean, Latin America, and wherever Black people are oppressed.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book as someone who is completely new to the subjects discussed within it's pages, I was nervous I would not be able to follow along with the author, that the information would be above my head but I found that to not be the case. Class Struggle In Africa was an excellent read and very easy to follow/understand, the book has ignited several different thoughts and questions in me that I look forward to following through with further reading.

[Evelyn Konamah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why cant i access the book?

[Inem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it French this time, while living in Burkina Faso-- read with a work study circle/ reading group and yeah it hit differently.

[Khadija · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Class Struggle in Africa is a socialist manifesto that criticises the hierarchy of social class in Africa and scrutinises the hegemonic systems that perpetuates the oppression of minorities.

Nkrumah brings into attention the correlation between Imperialism, Neo-Colonialism, and Capitalism in reinforcing power disequilibrium in the Dark Continent, and their roles in birthing a bourgeoisie class that exploits Africa's riches and creates capitalist structures that trample on lower classes.
Besides, The Author denounces a couple of theories about socialism, mainly “African socialism”, “Pragmatic socialism”, as well as “Popular capitalism”. He, also, underlines the importance of revolutionary socialism as a means of the destruction of neo-colonial, ideological allusions and the abolition of social stratification.

Overall, this book is brief, and informative. It brings into light the nuanced economic and social struggles Africa suffers from, and meticulously describes the factors and characteristics of those issues, as well as the role of socialism in their annihilation.

[~ a b i ~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever I read books like this, I am always astounded by how little has changed. I think, because there is so much othering and claiming that times are different now, it is easy to fall victim to such narratives. Class Struggle In Africa speaks on issues we are facing currently in the United States (as well as across the world) and I think that even though the focus of this essay is Africa, it is an important read for anyone interested in socialism/communism and organization.

[Austin Madsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accessible book that lays out neocolonialism and capitalism went hand-in-hand in post-colonial Africa. If you are already familiar with basic Marxist concepts it reads as a pretty dry review of theory, and isn’t a must read. However if you aren’t familiar with these concepts, it would be worth a read on how Africa was exploited by capitalist powers.

[Daniel Uhrlass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant breakdown of the social classes in Africa, post-colonial for the most part at the time of his writing in 1970. Impressive arguments for socialism, not as much for its inevitability, and not so much for political union across Africa, which he thought would go hand in hand with socialism. Still very relevant reading, nonetheless.

[Godfrey Markoh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kwame Nkrumah, no doubt, a true socialist and pan-Africanist highlights how important it is for a pan-African socialist state. He draws very good causes for this cause and it’s still as relevant as it was at the time of the book as it is now. The objective should remain the same

[Nadia Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most books assigned for class I fell as if I could have enjoyed it more if I was not rushing to read it over the weekend. At a certain point it felt like a lot of the same information was being repeated. The book as a whole felt quite dense. The illustrations and charts were a nice touch.

[Merricat Blackwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a pamphlet than a book. I wanted more specific analysis of particular events and places; what's here is mostly a theoretical schema with occasional notes about how its application varies across locations.

[Tunde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong explanation of the dynamics of class struggle in Africa as in the mid-20th century.

[yvettefordjour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nkrumah does an an amazing job at explaining the different classes in Africa, as well as their origins and their roles in the advancing of socialism throughout the continent

[Gage Hoefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise, and engaging- while slightly dated, Nkrumah's discussion of how to combat neo-colonialism and imperialism remains relevant.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good introduction to class struggles in Africa

[maria manuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rot of all of the bad things that happens to me can be traced back to portuguese colonial empire

[Chanai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super easy read, great introduction to socialism and african politic!

[sube · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good work showing the class terrain of Africa, however while it would serve great as introduction of its application onto Africa and is key in the understanding of Nkrumah from a less idealistic version of communalism in Africa, because of its shortness, it's fairly basic in many regards, sadly. Still a good work, especially as introductionary work.

[Huey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean,, you don't need me to tell you how good Nkrumah is do you. It's like 90 pages go see for yourself