This panel will discuss recent empirical studies of elites in contemporary Africa. Papers should cover the following topics: socio-cultural pre-requisites for the attainment of elite status, lifestyle and consumption patterns, forms of organization and communication, constitution of elite identity and the role of age and gender. Of interest are quantitative, comparative (synchronic, diachronic) and qualitative studies (e.g. biographical studies).
This panel will discuss recent empirical studies of elites in contemporary Africa. By elites we refer to those occupying leadership positions in various spheres – be these political, economic, cultural – from which they decisively and regularly participate in central decision-making processes. Papers should focus on the following topics: socio-cultural pre-requisites for the attainment of elite status (access to various forms of capital in the Bourdieuean sense), lifestyle and consumption patterns, forms of organization and communication (networks), constitution of elite identity and the role of age and gender. Of interest are both quantitative studies and comparative analyses (synchronic, covering several countries, or diachronic) as well as qualitative case studies (e.g. biographical studies).
The papers should discuss these issues among others:
This paper examines the material and ideological basis for elite social class and social reproduction in Mozambique. The paper argues that unlike the orthodox interpretation of Marxist theory, Mozambican elites have a varied and often tenuous measure of control over the means of production. I assert that although the country has undergone dramatic changes over the past 30 years, from colonialism through socialism and structural adjustment and neo-liberal capitalism, the basis of elite social class has demonstrated remarkable continuities. The Mozambican liberation struggle was headed by Frelimo, a formerly socialist movement, which has remained in power since independence. The leadership of Frelimo has been largely drawn from the former colonial category of assimilados (Africans who were thought to have assimilated a level of Portuguese culture which allowed them privileges that were normally denied to Africans). They formed the core of the urban African elite during the colonial period and were seen as a modernising force by the colonial power. After independence they continued to try and modernise the country, first through socialism and currently capitalism fulfills a similar role. The basis of elite social power has long been a sense of ‘distinction’, as they see themselves as, by far, the best qualified sector of the population to bring development. As industrial production is limited and the agricultural sector is largely in the hands of small-scale cultivators, the elite’s material power base comes from access to the resources of the outside world, especially the powerful aid agencies. Thus a sense of ‘distinction’ based primarily upon education (the primary badge of modernity) gives both the ideological justification of the current elite and allows them to dominate government and international agency employment giving the elite its material base.
Formal education and social networks were, and continue to be, the most important resources mobilised by Dagara men and women from North-Western Ghana in order to attain elite status. The paper will explore the shifts in the importance of these resources for different generations of Dagara elite. Defined by the development of education in their home region, we can distinguish three generations of Dagara elite men and women. The ‘pioneers’ went to the first colonial and missionary schools and later worked mainly within the region. To be sent to school, they profited from horizontal networks; that is, close contacts to the colonial administration or to the White Fathers via a father or some other relative. The second generation, the ‘achievers’, benefited from the expanding educational opportunities after the Second World War, and frequently studied in the South of the country or abroad. Most members of these two generations were the first in their immediate families to have gone to school. Members of the third and youngest generation, on the other hand, often have ‘elite parents’ and were raised in the cities, but faced growing competition on the job market. With lowering standards of school education and decreasing job opportunities, the third generation has had to rely more heavily on vertical patronage. For this generation wealth has become increasingly important, not least in order to be able to pay for the best schools. Furthermore, while the first two generations relied more on regionally and ethnically defined networks, the third generation has needed to become adept in making national and international contacts. We will further discuss changes in the elites’ self-perception over time, and assess their potential for openness or closure at the local, regional and national level.
The end of civil war in Mozambique has been followed by political democratization and rapid establishment of local and international NGOs in the rural areas. While the central government focuses its efforts on reintroducing community leaders inspired by the figure of the traditional pre-colonial and colonial chief, post-war Mocumbi is seeing the emerge of a new elite that is becoming increasingly influential in local level politics. The paper looks at returning migrant workers, Maputo-based wealthy men and former colonial assimilados and challenges the view that restricts politics in the rural areas to the activities of traditional rulers. Drawing on an ethnographic case study in the Administrative post of Mocumbi in Southern Mozambique, it argues that emerging local elites appeal to both, local and global networks in order to compete in local political arenas. Furthermore, the context of decentralisation and growing development industry provides new sources of symbolic and material capital that bring together pre-colonial and post-colonial elites.
The Eritrean revolution has created a policy environment in which women are legally regarded as equal to men and are encouraged to occupy positions of leadership. It is, however, for women themselves to take up these new opportunities and to help change 'traditional' attitudes in the wider society. To enable women to do so, the avenues opening up via formal education are crucial. The narratives of different generations of elite women show how they find themselves in a position where they have to negotiate their future within the parameters of modern aspirations largely brought about by the revolution, cultural tradition, and the demands of a post-revolutionary patriarchal state. While the Eritrean revolution played a decisive role in bringing about the emancipation of women, a failure to implement democratic structures of governance puts the revolution's societal achievements at risk - and its legacy might well rest with the possibilities of personal liberation in individual lives.
The literature on Dahomean history variously presents the power and ruling mechanisms in ancient Dahomey as one concentrated in the hands of the king and the royal family (Maurice Ahanhanzo Glèlè), or balanced and checked by a class of nobles or powerful priests (Stanley Diamond, Karl Polanyi). Taking a quite different stand, Edna Bay argues that power in Dahomey was diffuse and multifaceted, and was exercised by monarchies, a metaphor for coalitions of individuals whose membership changed overtime, a small and fluid political and economic elite recruited on the basis of meritocracy (1998, 7 and 314).
My discussion in this paper is much in line with Bay’s thesis and I argue that the major institutional components and logic of the kingdom’s ruling mechanisms have survived colonial, post-colonial and revolutionary political eras of Benin. They even have played important roles in them, and have managed to emerge at the first communal elections of the democratic era. . Furthermore, political elites have made these old ruling mechanisms parts of the national political culture in the process of the Benin nation building, beyond the territorial limits of the ancient kingdom
The paper presents an ethnography of the 2002 local elections and the trajectories of present political and economic elites of the 6 communes of the Dahomey land today. A few cases of everyday power yielding and wielding mechanisms at work on these territories are presented and discussed. The cases demonstrate creative and opportunistic appropriation of the democratic system in a context of administrative decentralisation and resource scarcity, which reproduces and modernises old political traditions capable of revealing new skilful and talented individuals from diversified background. The translation of these practices and culture in the national political arenas are briefly discussed.