The New Elites of Tropical Africa


Book Description

Originally published in 1966, this book brings together papers dealing with the emergence and development of elites in sub-Saharan Africa among social categories ranging from farmers and women market traders through foremen and merchants to administrators and managers in government and industry. The authors analyse distinctive social characteristics and attitudes and the development of class consciousness.




The New Elites of Tropical Africa


Book Description







Modern African Elite of South Africa


Book Description

A profile of the lives of 60 eminent Black Africans who have reached the top of their professions and social hierarchy in South African society despite the political system. It argues that White fears of a Black government destroying the economy of South Africa are unfounded.







Yoruba Elites and Ethnic Politics in Nigeria


Book Description

This book investigates the dynamics and challenges of ethnicity and elite politics in Nigeria.




Western Education and Political Domination in Africa


Book Description

The contribution of Western education to the creation of an African-educated elite is well documented. What is not equally well documented is the fact that African-educated elites have used their education and the schools to perpetuate their dominance by denying the poor the knowledge necessary to protect their political and economic rights and to advance in society. On the other hand, educated elites in Africa make opportunities available to their own members through selective ordering, legitimization of certain language forms and learning processes in schools, and legitimization of elite codes and experiences to the exclusion of the histories, experiences, and worldviews of the poor. This book highlights the processes by which the poor in Africa have been disenfranchised and marginalized through schools' ascriptive mechanisms, and explains why African economic development is very slow.




The Lumumba Generation


Book Description

How and why did the Congolese elite turn from loyal intermediaries into opponents of the colonial state? This book seeks to enrich our understanding of the political and cultural processes culminating in the tumultuous decolonization of the Belgian Congo. Focusing on the making of an African bourgeoisie, the book illuminates the so-called évolués’ social worlds, cultural self-representations, daily life and political struggles. https://youtu.be/c8ybPCi80dc




Class Formation and Civil Society


Book Description

First published in 1999, this study of the politics of education in Cameroon, the Congo and Kenya presents arresting empirical evidence that urban elites exiting public sector educational systems they have dominated in favour of private school networks of their own creation. Seeking to enhance their offspring’s chances for survival and even domination in a world of scarce resources and limited opportunities for employment, elites see private schools as tools to shape newly emerging civil societies in Africa in their own image. From a theoretical perspective, the fresh evidence presented here shows that schooling has once again become a major social force influencing the balance of state and society in modern Africa. Re-examining an older political tradition of class analysis and integrating it into more recent civil society perspectives, the author shows that the abandonment of the unreliable education services of dysfunctional African states in favour of private schools has profound consequences for class articulation in societies dividing, once again, according to educational opportunities.




The Palgrave Handbook of Political Elites


Book Description

This handbook presents a comprehensive view of the current theory and research surrounding political elites, which is now a pivotal subject for academic study and public discourse. In 40 chapters by leading scholars, it displays the field’s richness and diversity. The handbook is organized in six sections, each introduced by a co-editor, focusing on theories about political elites, methods for studying them, their main structural and behavioral patterns worldwide, the differentiation and integration of political elite sectors, elite attributes and resources, and the dilemmas of political elites in this century. Forty years since Robert Putnam’s landmark Comparative Study of Political Elites, this handbook is an indispensable resource for scholars and students engaged in the study of this vibrant field.