Hegemonische regimes en volksverzet in postkoloniaal Afrika: Bayart, Gramsci en de staat in Kameroen

Samenvatting

State formation in postcolonial Africa is not adequately described by current concepts of "the state," & recent Marxist approaches emphasizing economic dependence & SC are of limited use. The contradiction between the strong authoritarian African state & the relative autonomy of the peasants has posed new questions for anthropologists & political scientists. According to J.-F. Bayart's "Les Societes africaines face a l'Etat" ([African Societies and the State], Pouvoirs, 1983, 25, 23-39), such contradictions can only be understood by expanding beyond a purely political-economic view of the situation. In his political history of Cameroon, he emphasizes the struggle of the state to establish hegemony over society. Thus Bayart places himself within the tradition of A. Gramsci's Marxisme als filosofie van de praxis, ([Marxism as a Philosophy of Praxis], Schotten, Y. [Ed], Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1978). Bayart's insistence on the regime's ideology as a determinant in relations between the state & the peasantry may provide clues for the recognition of popular protest against new forms of hegemony. 37 References. Modified HA.