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- private ownership; communal ownership; -----renting; - share-cropping; or - squatting (without legal sanction). In the same way, we indeed delimit 'peasants' from other cultivators by indicating that their production relationships are exploitative relationships, but by doing so we say nothing about the identity ofthe exploiters or about the form of exploitation. It is true that we have excluded the wage/surplus labour mechanism from the possible forms which the exploitation might take, but this still leaves open exploitation in the form of: - unpaid labour to landlords or to chiefs; - a part of the crop to either group; - taxes to the state or by other indirect devices; - unequal exchange with merchants. 3 In other words, neither the labour process as analysed in Chapter II nor the elements of the definition which distinguish 'peasants' from cultivators in terms of their relations of production, specify a particular peasant 4 mode of production or designate any particular mode of production as the mode of production of peasants. Even so, the explicit reference to peasant relations of production as relations of exploitation establishes beyond doubt that, although with regard to their labour process and as far as pre-capitalist modes of production are concerned, peasants might well belong within thecommunal mode of production, they should quite definitely be seen as the exploited class within the tributary mode of production. If anything, the definition purports to distinguish peasants from primitive or communal cultivators by stressing that they are living within the political system of a state, dominated by a non-producing chiefly class which appropriates the surplus for its own consumption as well as for redistribution to its retainers and dependents. 5 3. Processes of Peasantization: Pre-Colonial and Later If, in certain parts of Africa, peasantries came into existence well before the beginning of colonial contacts (cf. Saul 197 4: 45), this occurred through an internal development process whereby the communal mode of produc- 20
tion was transformed into the tributary mode within which agricultural producers were placed in the exploited position of 'peasants'. In the colonial period a second and quite different process of peasantization came about which, as characterized by Ken Post (1970: 14) brought both primitive (communal!) cultivators and 'such pre-colonial peasants as there were' alike into a peasant-condition by the extension of the market principle, i.e. by forces working from the outside. In other words, a new type of 'peasanthood' common to most if not all small-scale agricultural producers came into being (Saul 197 4: 47) when the penetration 0 f international capitalism induced them to grow for the export market; as a class, they then came into opposition with the commercial class. At the same time, their incorporation into the colonial (then neo-colonial) state as a class brought them into an antagonistic relationship with the state bureaucrats. The common view is that, within the colonial and neo-colonial social formations, the small cultivator continued to be incorporated into a larger society. If he no longer had to pay tribute in kind as to the chiefly class in the tributary mode, he was now taxed directly or indirectly by the state or had to exchange his crops with traders on an unequal basis (see Post 1978: 33). 6 Although this meant a definite change of the form in which surplus was appropriated as well as of the class of appropriators, the incorporation within a larger society continued to be incorporation into social relations of exploitation. Consequently, the conditions persisted for reproduction of the small cultivators as 'peasants' and of the peasants as a 'class'. To continue to regard small cultivators as peasants within a range of social formations, in subsequent historical periods and affected by a succession oftransformations, has obvious advantages. Nevertheless, the question of their particular position as a class can only be answered with reference to the particular exploiting class, to the form of exploitation, and to the specifics of the prevalent mode of production and of the social formation of which it forms part. 4. On the Class Character of the Peasantry All the emphasis that has been put on the position of 'peasants' as being an exploited 'class', does not alter the fact that doubt has repeatedly been cast on the class character of the peasantry. Peasant formations have been labelled as 'class' -less; they have also been put outside the class system, e.g. when Fanon wrote that 'The starving peasant, outside the class system, is 21
Page 1: · 1\\m\I~\II~~\IIII~\i!~\\\! t~~es
Page 4 and 5: The views expressed in this publica
Page 7 and 8: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research coul
Page 9 and 10: INTRODUCTORY NOTE When Emile Vercru
Page 11 and 12: I A BRIEF INTRODUCTION 10 THE PROBL
Page 13 and 14: agricultural productivity has reach
Page 15: Notes 1. Keith Griffin (1979) has c
Page 18 and 19: Most fallow land around Abura-Dunkw
Page 20 and 21: field which has been reaped; in the
Page 22 and 23: shelled pail by pail whenever it is
Page 24 and 25: Notes I. Quotations in this paragra
Page 27 and 28: HI ON THE SOClIAL RELATIONS OF PEAS
Page 29: - whether or not they have control
Page 33 and 34: ges in exploitation and exploiters
Page 35 and 36: of a state government, both involve
Page 37 and 38: other words, exploitation is now in
Page 39 and 40: There is now fairly general recogni
Page 41 and 42: must now move to a much more concre
Page 43 and 44: 12. According to Christensen (1954:
Page 45 and 46: IV AKAN LAND TENURE ARRANGEMENTS: A
Page 47 and 48: most if not all accounts of customa
Page 49 and 50: person (usually, but not always, a
Page 51 and 52: land. This intervening role ofthe e
Page 53 and 54: deemed abandoned after non-occupati
Page 55 and 56: Ch.III; Reindorf 1895; Kimble 1963)
Page 57 and 58: ered in that it had nearly brought
Page 59 and 60: purposes, and to subjects of other
Page 61 and 62: Notes 1. The first edition of Mensa
Page 63 and 64: v THEABURA-DUNKWA FAMILY LANDS AND
Page 65 and 66: anyone to acquire a right to farmla
Page 67 and 68: Equally, the land held (or claimed)
Page 69 and 70: eiterated that, consequent on their
Page 71 and 72: admitting that Nana Quansah was the
Page 73 and 74: emotions than anything else because
Page 75 and 76: Cape Coast where the case was down
Page 77 and 78: for him must be cancelled: It must
Page 79 and 80: Adwenadze: present-day descendants
Page 81 and 82:
TableS: The Nnamfodo Lands and Thei
Page 83 and 84:
It may be useful to point out that
Page 85 and 86:
land (specifically: Kukubir 1 and 2
Page 87 and 88:
6 . Swearing an oath to an Akan mea
Page 89:
20. As we have explained in Ch.I1,
Page 92 and 93:
homogeneous in terms of quality (gr
Page 94 and 95:
tion of sample cases over the four
Page 96 and 97:
(Dawurampon) is all there is availa
Page 98 and 99:
4. Auxiliary Rules for Allocating F
Page 100 and 101:
Table 11: Farmers on Family Land of
Page 102 and 103:
portion oftheir own family land may
Page 104 and 105:
From Table 14 we see that apart fro
Page 106 and 107:
together with annual tenancies at l
Page 108 and 109:
- a proportionally larger part of t
Page 110 and 111:
Hypothesis 4: Ignoring the uncultiv
Page 112 and 113:
in the part played in the allocatio
Page 114 and 115:
approval and cooperation of the oth
Page 116 and 117:
7. 'Total Acreage' in Thble 17 refe
Page 119 and 120:
APPENDIX A SOME NOTES ON MFANTSE PO
Page 121 and 122:
1944 - and by then Ghana, or rather
Page 123 and 124:
APPENDIXB OVERVIEW OF THE ARUBA-DUN
Page 125 and 126:
NSONAMBUSUA 30. Kodju Dadzie Ekrofu
Page 127 and 128:
APPENDIXC RANK CORRELATION BETWEEN
Page 129:
RANK CORRELATION: Calculation rho =
Page 132 and 133:
TnbleA.l Allocation of Farming Righ
Page 135 and 136:
APPENDIXE THE FIELDWORK AND ITS IMP
Page 137 and 138:
extent to which they were under cul
Page 139 and 140:
people could not acquire land throu
Page 141:
2. Results of the farm operations q
Page 144 and 145:
Casely Hayford, J.E. (1903) Gold Co
Page 146 and 147:
O'Brien, J. (1979) The Political Ec
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