Problems of Socialist Orientation in Africa

RUIL F URI IN AFRI Edited by MAI PALMBERG NORDISKA AFRIKA1NSTITUT!T 19a4 ·02· 15 UPPSALA Problems of Socialist Orientation in Africa Problems of Socialist Orientation in Africa Edited by Mai Palmberg Papers from a seminar on non-capitalist deve10pment in Africa organised by Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Upp sala, in co-operation with the Institute of Development Studies, He1sinki, August 16-19, 1976, in He1sinki, Finland. Contributors: Mohamed Aden & A.M.M. Ashur,jeremy Gould & Riilta Launonen, Parwiz Khalatbari, Peter Mandi, jozej Nowicki, Mai Palm berg, Lars Rudebeck, Timothy Shaw & Malcolm j. Grieve, Clive y Tho mas The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies Uppsala 1978 Distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm © Nordiska afrikainstitutet 1978 ISBN 91·7106·141-X Printed in Sweden by Uppsala Offset Center AB, Uppsala 1978 PREFACE Since 1963, the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies has organized a variety of international seminars. As a part of its function as a Scandinavian documentation and research centre on African problems, the Institute has sought to choose topics for these international seminars that \vould be of interest to academics as ~lell as to planners, adminis trators and politicians. These topics have included refugee problems, boundary problems, problems of adult education, the role of mass media, co-operative development in East Africa and problems of land-locked countries in Africa. Scholars from abroad - primarily, of course, from Africa - have been invited to discuss their particular topics with Scandinavian specialists and other interested persons. Another of our principle tasks over the years has been to promote and sustain the interest in African affairs among Scandinavians. Seminars comprise one way of doing so at an academic level. During these seminars, however, we have also attempted to offer "another point of view" on a variety of topics. The profile, strength and vigour of our institute depends, therefore, to a great extent on our being able to call upon a large number of Scandinavian Scholars with backgrounds and views widely differing from those held in other African studies establishments, in our discussions with experts from Africa and abroad. This years topic was chosen for several reasons, but the main reason was the general inaccesibility in the west of a collection of papers on a subject matter which has been extensively discussed in eastern Europa over the last decade. The seminar was planned with the Afrika Institut of the USSR Academy of Science and the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Helsinki and held at Hanasaari, Helsinki in August 1976. The Institute wishes to thank Mai Palmberg for organizing the immense conference material into one volume and also to express its gratitude to our Finnish co-sponsors for their participation in the organization of the conference. Carl Widstrand Uppsala, May 1978 CONTENTS PREFACE Introduction 11 Clive Y. Thomas: Class struggle, social development and the theory of the non-capitalist path 17 Lionel Cliffe: A non-revolutionary transition to socialism? 38 Timothy Shaw & Malcolm J. Grieve: Dependence or development: international inequalities in Africa 54 Jozef Nowicki: Non-capitalist agriculture and development strategy 83 Parviz Khalatbari: Application of the marxist reproduction model to the developing countries 103 Peter Mandi: The non-capitalist path and the new international economic order 117 Jeremy Gould & Riitta Launonen: Pitfalls along the noncapitalist path - comments on the genesis of indigenous capital in Africa 125 Mohamed Aden Sheck, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud "Ashur "; Socialist oriented development - the Somali experience 148 Lars Rudebeck: Conditions of development and actual development strategy in Guinea-Bissau 164 Pertti Multanen: Problems of socialist orientation in Nasser's Egypt 184 Mai Palmberg: The political role of the workers in Tanzania and Zambia 194 Reports from the working groups at the seminar on non-capitalist development in Africa, August 16-19, 1976 in Helsinki, Finland 229 Mai Palmberg: Literature on non-capitalist development 240 11 Mai Palmberg INTRODUCTION In a famous speech, "The rationaI choice", early in 1973, President Nyerere of Tanzania, put forward his thesis that socialism was the only rationaI choice of economic and social system for the Third World countries characterised as they are by poverty and national weakness. "In fact", he said, "Third World capitaIism ''1ould have no choice except to co-operate with external capitaIism, as a very junior partner". Socialism has meant many things in Africa. Ten years ago Julius Nyerere defined socialism as "an attitude of mind" in line with the various individual interpretations of a rather mystical "African social ism". The realities themselves have forced the discussion down from the philosophical clouds to the hard and concrete realities. At the time when a great number of African states gained their political independence there were great expectations for a fast econo mic growth and social development. The "undeveloped" nations were to reach their "take-off" into industrialised society with the aid of Western development assistance, know-how, and investment capital. In fact, most African countries have followed the advice of the various Western advisors, but problems of economic and social development have remained unsolved. Instead of constructing their own economy they have become even more dependent on export markets, the investment and price policies of the multinational companies, and on foreign grants and loans. While a growing state bureaucracy is manned by Africans in a position to raise their own standard of living, as truly "junior part ners", the great majority of peasants and workers have not been able to reap the fruits of independence. Tanzania is one of those few countries in Africa, whose leadership have explicitly rejected this course of development, or one might say, this curse of development. There are others, like Algeria, whose massive industrialisation plan is one of the great socio-economic experiments on the African continent. The successful liberation struggle in the former Portuguese colonies have added the republics of Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique to the African states intent on breaking the patterns of neo-colonial dependence. Other, still less discussed, examples include the Republic of Guinea (Conakry) , The People's Republic of Congo, Benin (former Dahomey), Somali Democratic Republic and possi bly Ethiopia. They all claim that their pOlicies aim at the construction of socialism in their countries. 12 Clearly, socialism is no longer in Africa just a popular word behind which hide philosophical ideas about exclusively African values. This time it is the question of the social system. It is significant that the progressive African regimes of today do not speak of a specific "Congolese", "Somalian", or "Mozambiquan" socialism. A serious dis cussion today about the social and economic development in Africa must take into account and examine these conscious efforts at formulating policies which provide an alternative to the dominating dependence pattern. But if these countries strive towards the construction of socialism as a rational choice, how should their present development strategies be characterised and evaluated? Many partial questions and answers have been presented in recent research, notably on Tanzania. What are the prospects for self-reliance for a small economy like Tanzania? What is the role of the party, the trade unions, and workers' committees? What is the relationship between the nationalised companies, the para statals, and foreign capital, particularly in view of various co-opera tion agreements? What role is assigned in practice to agriculture in the construction of a self-reliant economy? What is the social basis of the state, do the state bureaucrats constitute a class of their own, and do they bear the characteristics of a bourgeoisie? What are the causes and effects of the emergence of a class of 'kulak' farmers in some areas? While these questions have been probed into by social scientists in Africa itself, and in development research in Western Europe and North America, a theoretical discussion on the larger question of the possi bilities of constructing socialism in the Third World without passing through a ~tage of fullgrown capitalism has developed in the socialist countries of Europe. This by-passing of capitalism has been termed the "non-capitalist path". There is also a lively discussion on the wider perspectives of the dependence system as a whole. One of the interesting issues here is the question whether new dependence patterns result in new barriers to independent development, barriers which cannot easily be overcome simply by nationalisation measures. Although the roots of this discussion can be traced back to the Comintern debates in the 1920's on the prospects for a transition to socialism in what thenwerecalled the Eastern countries, the concept of a non-capitalist path was coined in the late 50's by Soviet social scientists studying the development in Ghana during Kwame Nkrumah's time. Nkrumah's anti-imperialist foreign policy statements, his Pan Africanism, and the avowed objective of socialist planning and 13 development vlere seen as the basis for a break with Western modeIs, and the starting-point for a new departure in socio-economic develop ment in Africa. Revolutionary demoerats, such as Nkrumah, were

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