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Kandjadja, Guinea‐Bissau 1976–1986 observations on the political economy of an African village
Abstract
Recent work in both Mozambique (Egero 1987) and Guinea‐Bissau (Galll & Jones 1987) argues that in both, the transition to socialism has been halted or undermined by three basic failures: to create a peasant‐based strategy of rural development; to sustain popular participation (people's power); and to ensure that the state represented the interests of workers and peasants. The leadership have failed to recreate after independence the political alliance with the peasantry that successfully supported the anti‐colonial liberation struggle. Instead, there has been a centralisation of power and an erosion of party and state at local level, with policies and institutions working to benefit a growing petty‐bourgeoisie, at the expense of peasants as producers and as consumers of state services. Rudebeck provides us with a vivid illustration of these processes for a single village in northern Guinea. He was able to visit Kandjadja at regular intervals from 1976 and compares for each visit the condition and functioning of local political Institutions, health, education and the people's store, and the nature and level of production. From this he draws in sharp outline a picture of neglect by the state and erosion of the party, In favour of institutions and relationships based more on pre‐war social and political structures. Since he was also part of the team whose work is reported by Egero, he makes a direct descriptive comparison with the situation in Mueda, a former ‘liberated area’ in northern Mozambique.
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Bibliographic note
1974. . Guinea‐Bissau: a Study in Political Modernisation . , Uppsala : : Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. .
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1982. . Problemes de Pouvoir Populaire et du development . , Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Research Review 63. .
Galli Rosemary and Jones Jocelyn. . 1987. . Guinea‐Bissau: Politics, Economics and Society . , London : : Pinter. .
1986. . Poder Popular è deagregacao nas aldeias communais do planalto de Mueda . , Maputo : : Centra de Estudos Africanos, Univ. de Eduardo Mondlane. .
Egero's Bertil. . 1987. . Mozambique, a dream undone: the political economy of democracy 1975–84 . , Uppsala : : Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. .