Peasants Organisations and the Democratisation Process in Africa

Authors

Mahmood Ben Romdahne
Sam Moyo

Keywords:

Peasant, organisations, Democratisation, Process, Africa

Synopsis

What are the issues shaping contemporary African peasant movements? Are they fundamentally democratic or anti-democratic? Are they defensive and local in their organization and aspirations or should they be seen as taking a leading role in a wider process of economic, social, and political transformation? Are they in the state’s pocket or can they pose a threat to state power? And how do they fit in with other organs of African civil society, with overseas donor groups, and with imposed programs of structural adjustment?

In this collection of important new research findings from all corners of Africa these questions and others are addressed while adding another dimension to the democratization debate: what of the real grassroots, the majority of Africa that is rural? Are modern rural peasant movements relevant to the debate at all or do they still only engage in what has been called “the politics of everyday politics,” with the “weapons of the weak?”

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Author Biographies

Mahmood Ben Romdahne

né le 9 juin 1948 à Tunis, est un universitaire, économiste et homme politique tunisien.

Sam Moyo

tait un universitaire zimbabwéen et militant pour la réforme agraire, co-fondateur et directeur exécutif de l'Institut africain d'études agraires et président du Conseil pour le développement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique.

Published

October 5, 2002