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Political Parties in New African Nations: An Anthropological View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Robert F. Gray
Robert F. Gray
Affiliation:
Tulane University
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Extract

The emergence of one-party political systems among the new nations of Africa, now an unmistakable trend, has been disconcerting to social scientists for at least two reasons: first, this trend was not clearly foreseen during the period leading to independence; and, second, now that it is clearly discernible students of Africa are uncertain as to how the trend should be interpreted and evaluated. This question was discussed in a recent article by D. E. Apter from the viewpoint of political science. The present paper deals with the same problem, but from an anthropological viewpoint. It considers only the new nations in Africa south of the Sahara; these were also Apter's main concern, though he includes in his discussion some of the new nations in other parts of the world as well.

Type
Debate
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , July 1963 , pp. 449 - 461
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1963

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References

1 Apter, D. E., “Some Reflections on the Role of a Political Opposition in New Nations”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, IV (1962), pp. 154–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For a more detailed discussion of this topic, see Wallerstein, Immanuel, Africa: the Politics of Independence (New York: Vintage Books, Alfred A. Knopf and Random House, 1961), pp. 153–167.Google Scholar

3 The principal books published on this subject are: Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (eds.), African Political Systems (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1940)Google Scholar; Schapera, I., Government and Politics in Tribal Societies (London: Watts, 1956)Google Scholar; Middleton, John and Tait, David (eds.) Tribes Without Rulers (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958)Google Scholar; Richards, Audrey I. (ed.) East African Chiefs (London: Faber and Faber for the East African Institute of Social Research, 1960).Google Scholar

4 Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E., “Introduction”, African Political Systems, ed. Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute), pp. 1–24.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 5.

6 Collingwood, R. G., Speculum Mentis or the Map of Knowledge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), pp. 252–260.Google Scholar

7 Apter, op. cit., p. 167.

8 Mercier, P., “The Fon of Dahomey”, African Worlds, ed. Forde, Daryll (London: Oxford University Press for International African Institute, 1954), p. 114.Google Scholar

9 Maquet, Jacques J., The Premise of Inequality in Ruanda (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1961), pp. 135 ff.Google Scholar

10 The political and economic institutions of the Sonjo are described in a book of mine now in press. Gray, Robert F., The Sonjo of Tanganyika (London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute). Published 1963.Google Scholar

11 Apter, op. cit., p. 162.

12 Nyerere, Julius, “Will Democracy Work in Africa?” Africa Special Report, V (02. 1960), p. 3.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., p. 4.

14 Dia, Mamadou, The African Nations and World Solidarity, trans. Cook, Mercer (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1961), p. 134.Google Scholar