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Social Stratification in Africa by Arthur Tuden; Leonard PlotnicovReview by: Jan VansinaAfrican Historical Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1971), pp. 139-141Published by: Boston University African Studies CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/216273 .

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BOOK REVIEWS

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN AFRICA. Edited by Arthur Tuden and Leonard Plotnicov. New York: Free Press, and London: Collier-Macmillan Ltd., 1970. Pp. viii, 392. $10.00

Social stratification in Africa was a neglected topic in African anthropol- ogy and African history until well into the 1960's. This book, patterned after a set of collective publications by the International African Institute, attempts to introduce the Africanist to the issues raised by social stratification. It therefore has an immediate relevance to historians. The introductory essay, which dis- cusses the concepts involved and their use, is refreshingly clear and restrained in its presentation of the subject matter. The authors state first that the differ- ences in opinion among scholars lie primarily with the definition of the types of stratification found and secondarily with the concept of social stratification it- self. They hold that all stratified societies exhibit hierarchical rank, relative permanence of groups as viewed by most of the population, a link with major social (economic, political, religious) institutions, cultural distinctions and so- cial distances between members of different strata, and the grouping of individ- uals with similar social statuses within a single stratum. Also, individuals ex- perience a sense of identity with others of their stratum or at the least feel what their position is in the overall hierarchy. Then there is an overarching ideology to articulate the groups and to validate the hierarchical arrangement. But in any given society the degree to which any or all of these features is exhibited can

vary.

With regard to the comparative aspects of the study, the authors stress that present theories, definitions, and conceptual frameworks of social stratifi- cation have proven inadequate for dealing with African conditions. Models based

exclusively on one or another criterion, such as control over the modes of pro- duction, political power, the differential allocation of honor, etc., simply do not

apply to most African societies. Within these societies great differences in wealth or control over means of production, they say, are absent. I may dis-

agree with this statement. But I whole-heartedly concur with the further state- ment that there is no simple cause for the rise of social stratification. No

single factor, whether political, economic, or prestigious, explains all cases.

Turning to the types of stratification, the authors deal with slavery, caste, social class, mobility, and social pluralism with ethnic stratification. For each of the first three, definitions are proposed or suggested. Slavery is the legal institutionalization of persons as property, a definition similar to Ro- man Law. They reject the notion that slavery represents the earliest form of social stratification by pointing out that in most African cases the status was

ephemeral and transitory. This contradicts the definition unless the notion of

"property" be altered. As for caste, one school of anthropologists, including

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BOOK REVIEWS

Leach and Dumont, would restrict the term to situations in India. Nevertheless, the writers propose a definition which stresses the occupational specialization of

endogamous groups in which membership is based on ascription and between which social distance is regulated by the concept of pollution. The Rwanda case discussed by J. Maquet comes closest to this definition. Yet even here the au- thors admit that it is only an incipient caste system. None of the other cases in the book even comes close to the definition. Still they felt that the use of the term caste is best suited for the examples cited in the book (Rwanda, Marghi, South Africa), whereas the reviewer thinks that the word may better be restricted to the Indian cases mainly because the ideology underlying the system there is so much more elaborate and pervasive.

Debate has been raging on social class for some years. Tuden and Plot- nicov state here that one or another class may exist without the presence of a

system of classes, just as they argued that caste could exist without a system of castes. No clear definition of class is given, however, even though the differ- ences and similarities in Weber's and Marx's uses of the term are brought to the fore. In any case, they say, social class in Africa is still in the process of for- mation; one class which has emerged is the elite, although it maintains too many contacts with the other members of society to be completely distinct. Since there is only one class, there is no class system and no class conflict. I disagree with this, because one can consider a given class as part of a system with at least two parts, all the rest being the other class. All class systems show contact between classes. In the study of precolonial African societies, class formation and class differences may have been glossed over. To refine the analysis one could intro- duce the notion of estates, oppose it to class, and show that with increasing mo- bility and achieved status the estate system had broken down into a class system by the nineteenth century, at least in many parts of Western and Central Africa. The introduction concludes by raising the problems of ethnic stratification and social pluralism. Pluralism implies both the use of force by the top group and a lack of consensus among the groups as to the legitimacy of the system as well as a lack of cognitive agreement as to what the system is. The authors feel that the term should be discarded in favor of caste and class because it has been used to cover too broad a range of conditions. The historian may see in it merely a con- ceptualization of a phase in a process because of the instability inherent in its definition.

One may ask what the use is of all these definitions. It is clear that so- ciology does not give historians a single valid overarching theory. It does, how- ever, teach us a set of concepts which can help to illuminate our understanding of a given society and allows us to draw some comparative inferences. Thus, caste is used in four essays. It is used differently in each of these. Yet the very use of the word has stimulated the four to some fresh thinking about their evidence.

The papers include essays by A. W. Southall on the Alur and other Nilotic people, A. Tuden on slavery among the Ila, J. H. Vaughan on caste systems in the Western Sudan, especially among the Marghi, J. Maquet on Rwanda castes, M. L. Perelman on stratification among the Ganda and the Nyoro, H. Lewis on wealth influence and prestige among the Shoa Galla, A. Hoben on stratification in

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BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS

Amhara society, R. Cohen on stratification in Bornu, L. Plotnicov on the elite of Jos, J. C. Mitchell on race, class, and status in Central Africa, and P. L. van den Berghe on race, class, and ethnicity in South Africa.

The authors are well known specialists and their essays are of uniform high quality. They are well informed and have published previously larger works dealing with the same sort of problems. Their essays are therefore a form of confrontation between men who have used the concepts before as applied to their own case studies. For historians the special interest of the book lies, of course, in its inclusion of cases from modern history along with the so-called "traditional" situations, most of them in fact from the nineteenth century, with the exception of Southall's essay, which implies a much greater time depth.

Because its subject matter will give food for thought and some guidance to all of us on vertical (as opposed to horizontal, i.e., ethnic) stratification, this book will be extremely useful. Its introductory essay has been discussed at length because it is especially relevant. In fact, one might have thought that if all the authors had not written up their case studies but participated in a common discussion of the book's basic concepts, its quality would have been even higher.

This volume of essays is of a high standard throughout and well integrated internally. But it has become the exception in a genre. More and more collected essays are being published on one topic or another and this reviewer finds them less and less useful. They pose bibliographical problems without end and they rarely allow for an in-depth discussion either of a single society and its culture or a discussion of the more general phenomena, the "themes" which unify the essays. There was a time a decade ago when such studies were very useful in- deed. By now African studies has grown enough to make this type of publication often banal, irrelevant, or almost useless. At least this book escapes from my strictures, but I hope fervently its format will not reinforce further the trend in

publishing "non-books ."

Jan Vansina

University of Wisconsin

PROTEST AND POWER IN BLACK AFRICA. Edited by Robert I. Rotberg and Ali A. Mazrui. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. $25.00.

Albert Camus has said in his philosophical essay on the rebel that "re- bellion is the very movement of life and it cannot be denied without renouncing life." In this volume Robert Rotberg and Ali Mazrui have offered, perhaps unknowingly, supporting proof for Camus' assertion. For Protest and Power in Black Africa contains thirty-six essays on various aspects of African rebellion

ranging from latter nineteenth century movements to resist European expansion to an analysis of the Organization of African Uliity as an instrument of protest. It would seem that every major development over the last century of African his- tory fits somehow within the definition of protest. But that is not all; we discover that these major protests are merely the overall result of series of lesser ones. For example, in Yves Person's "Samori and Resistance to the French," we of course read about Samori's sustained war with the French. But we also learn of how he developed support for his emergent Dyula state -- a kind of protest

Amhara society, R. Cohen on stratification in Bornu, L. Plotnicov on the elite of Jos, J. C. Mitchell on race, class, and status in Central Africa, and P. L. van den Berghe on race, class, and ethnicity in South Africa.

The authors are well known specialists and their essays are of uniform high quality. They are well informed and have published previously larger works dealing with the same sort of problems. Their essays are therefore a form of confrontation between men who have used the concepts before as applied to their own case studies. For historians the special interest of the book lies, of course, in its inclusion of cases from modern history along with the so-called "traditional" situations, most of them in fact from the nineteenth century, with the exception of Southall's essay, which implies a much greater time depth.

Because its subject matter will give food for thought and some guidance to all of us on vertical (as opposed to horizontal, i.e., ethnic) stratification, this book will be extremely useful. Its introductory essay has been discussed at length because it is especially relevant. In fact, one might have thought that if all the authors had not written up their case studies but participated in a common discussion of the book's basic concepts, its quality would have been even higher.

This volume of essays is of a high standard throughout and well integrated internally. But it has become the exception in a genre. More and more collected essays are being published on one topic or another and this reviewer finds them less and less useful. They pose bibliographical problems without end and they rarely allow for an in-depth discussion either of a single society and its culture or a discussion of the more general phenomena, the "themes" which unify the essays. There was a time a decade ago when such studies were very useful in- deed. By now African studies has grown enough to make this type of publication often banal, irrelevant, or almost useless. At least this book escapes from my strictures, but I hope fervently its format will not reinforce further the trend in

publishing "non-books ."

Jan Vansina

University of Wisconsin

PROTEST AND POWER IN BLACK AFRICA. Edited by Robert I. Rotberg and Ali A. Mazrui. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. $25.00.

Albert Camus has said in his philosophical essay on the rebel that "re- bellion is the very movement of life and it cannot be denied without renouncing life." In this volume Robert Rotberg and Ali Mazrui have offered, perhaps unknowingly, supporting proof for Camus' assertion. For Protest and Power in Black Africa contains thirty-six essays on various aspects of African rebellion

ranging from latter nineteenth century movements to resist European expansion to an analysis of the Organization of African Uliity as an instrument of protest. It would seem that every major development over the last century of African his- tory fits somehow within the definition of protest. But that is not all; we discover that these major protests are merely the overall result of series of lesser ones. For example, in Yves Person's "Samori and Resistance to the French," we of course read about Samori's sustained war with the French. But we also learn of how he developed support for his emergent Dyula state -- a kind of protest

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