Domination and imitation: Xala and the emergence of the black bourgeoisie

See George James , Stolen Legacy (New York, 1954);

and Frank Snowden , Blacks in Antiquity (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), p. 109

For Fanon, see his The Wretched of the Earth (New York , 1966);

for the use of modernising elite, see the summary essay on this literature in James Bill and Robert Hardgrave, Jr., Comparative Politics: the quest for theory (Columbus, 1973), pp. 43-83 and 175-199; for the term petite-bourgeoisie,

see Jack Woddis , New Theories of Revolution (New York, 1974), pp. 84-109.

See Giovanni Arrighi and John Saul, 'Socialism and Economic Development in Tropical Africa', in Arrighi and Saul (eds), Essays in the Political Economy of Africa (New York, 1973);

see also B. Olatunji Oloruntimehin, 'Education for Colonial Dominance in French West Africa up to the Second World War', Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Vol. 7, no. 2, June 1974), p. 348;

Ladipo Adamolebun , 'Co-operation or Neocolonialism — Francophone Africa', Africa Quarterly (Vol. XVIII, no. 1, July 1978), pp. 34-50;

and Samir Amin , NeoColonialism in West Africa (London, 1978).

James , op. cit., pp. 41-53;

and Cheikh Anta Diop , The African Origin of Civilization (New York, 1974).

See T.C. Smout , A History of the Scottish People, 1560-1830 (London, 1970).

See Imanuel Geiss , The PanAfrican Movement (London, 1974 );

C.L.R. James , The Black Jacobins (New York, 1963);

George Padmore , Pan-Africanism or Communism (New York, 1972);

and Arrighi and Saul , 'Nationalism and Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa', in op. cit.

Amilcar Cabral , 'National Liberation and Culture', in Return to the Source (New York, 1973), p. 47.

Amilcar Cabral , 'The Weapon of Theory', in the collection, Revolution in Guinea ( New York, 1969), p. 110.

Cabral , 'National Liberation ... ', op. cit., p. 45.

Maryse Conde , review of 'Sembene Ousmane Xala', in African Literature Today, No. 9 (London, 1978), p. 98.

See Hannes Kamphausen , 'Cinema in Africa: a survey', Cineaste (Vol. V, no, 3, Summer 1972), p. 36.

Sembene Ousmane , 'Letters from France', in the collection of short stories Tribal Scars (London, 1974), p. 62; for a more contemporary account,

see Edima N'Goumou and Jonathan Power , 'The Clandestine Traffic', The Times (15 June 1974), p. 8.

For a history of the French communist movement, see David Caute, Communism and the French Intellectuals (New York, 1964), especially pp. 208-211.

Jurgen Ruhle , Literature and Revolution (New York, 1969), pp. 346-7.

For Padmore, see James Hooker , Black Revolutionary ( New York, 1970), pp. 39-57; for Wright,

see Cedric Robinson , 'The emergent marxism of Richard Wright's ideology', in Race & Class (Vol. XIX, no. 3, Winter 1978), pp. 221-237.

Dorothy Blali , African Literature in French ( Cambridge, 1976), p. 240.

See E. Franklin Frazier , Black Bourgeoisie ( New York, 1962).

President Leopold Senghor of Senegal is already legendary for his inability to confront the less than romantic French past. Despite his extraordinary role in the development of the negritude movement, he continues to indulge in the most peculiar historical reconstructions. He, for example, has recently declared: 'We have elected to live under a system of complete freedom of the Press. This, coupled with the freedom to assemble and form associations, is one of the "fundamental freedoms". These we have put on a rational footing by drawing on the experience of the great, modern democratic societies, particularly on the experience of France, since we were, even before 1960, the oldest French colony in Africa' (my emphasis). 'The Role of the Press in African Democratic Society', in Africa Currents (No. 14, Spring 1979), p. 17.

Edward Corbett , The French Presence in Black Africa (Washington, DC, 1972), p. 40. Ronald Palmer, former US Ambassador to Togo, has put it quite powerfully: 'French religious and secular schools and French priests and French school teachers played a crucial role in importing the ideas of the French Revolution and shaping the thinking of the leaders of French-speaking Africa. The motivations that were later to urge Africans towards decolonialisation and to demand independence were largely acquired in French elementary schools from French teachers. Ironically, perhaps the most important idea transmitted by these teachers was that beyond the errant, unworthy, corrupt France of the present time, there existed an eternal, transcendent France ready and willing to share its lofty ideals with the world.' 'France and Africa', speech to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, 13 September, 1979.

Ibid.;

and B. Olatunji Oloruntimehin , 'The Economy of French West Africa between the Two World Wars', Journal of African Studies (Vol. 4, no. 1, Spring 1977), pp. 51-76.

C.L.R. James , op. cit., p. 86.

Cabral , 'National Liberation ...', op. cit., p. 43.

Dan Georgakas , Udayan Gupta and Juda Janda , 'The Politics of Visual Anthropology : An Interview with Jean Rouch', Cineaste (Vol. VIII, no. 4, Summer 1978), p. 21.

See Walter Rodney , 'Upper Guinea and the Significance of the Origins of Africans Enslaved in the New World', Journal of Negro History (Vol. LIV, no. 4, October 1969), p. 345.

Georgakas, et. al. write:' ... Rouch remains a controversial figure to many scholars of Africa. Some find his work unenlightened and his vision colonial. Some contend that Rouch's Africa is a mythical Africa, that it was a product of Rouch's manipulation .' op. cit., p. 17.

C.L.R. James , op. cit., pp. 108-109.

George Shepperson and Tom Price , Independent African (Edinburgh, 1958 ).

B. M. Kaggia, Fred Kubai, J. Murumbi and Achieng Oneko, Kenyans who had 'in varying degrees been held responsible for the revolt popularised under the name of Mau Mau', wrote: 'A remarkable feature of the personnel of the Land and Freedom Army was the absence in the forest of educated men, educated, that is, in the formal sense beyond primary school level ... The reasons go ... to the wide gulf that has arisen in many parts of Africa between the intellectuals and the masses. The symbols of the revolt ... were traditional symbols. The educated young man of today either does not understand these symbols at all or is taught to look down upon them. They represent a way of life from which he has become increasingly isolated. Essentially, this phenomenon is yet another vicious heritage from colonialism. This is not said as a plea for a return to the old ways. Far from it. But we do have to strive for a society in which intellectuals are part of an organic whole and not merely "black Europeans". Not only politics and economics but also minds have to be decolonised.' Preface to Donald Barnett and Karari Njama , Mau Mau From Within (New York, 1966), pp. 10-11

It would be entirely appropriate to draw attention to the fact that Fanon recognised the process of the transformation of supernatural ecstasy (as canalised impulses towards violence) into revolutionary activity. Since Fanon has already received his share of opprobrium from marxists (see Jack Woddis, op. cit.), it should be said that he was not entirely convinced of the thesis presented in the body of this essay. He did, however, come quite close to it: 'The supernatural, magical powers reveal themselves as essentially personal; the settler's powers are infinitely shrunken, stamped with their alien origin. We no longer really need to fight against them since what counts is the frightening enemy created by myths. We perceive that all is settled by a permanent confrontation on the phantasmic plane. It has always happened in the struggle for freedom that such a people, formerly lost in an imaginary maze, a prey to unspeakable terrors yet happy to lose themselves in a dreamlike torment, such a people becomes unhinged, reorganises itself, and in blood and tears gives birth to very real and immediate action.' Fanon, op. cit., p. 56. This is just short of realising that the defeat of the enemy in fantasy is the precondition for the destruction of the enemy in reality.