Issue #0

Land and class in Kenya

Plot

During Kenya's transition to independence, and beyond, significant changes took place in regard to land — that country's main economic resource and most important political issue. These changes are described here and the evolution of agriculture analysed in a Marxist class framework. Leo shows how the settlers in the White Highlands helped create four classes - the landless, the peasants, the petit bourgeois, and eventually the haute bourgeois -and how each class participated in the move to independence and in its consequences. The Marxist notion of a succession of modes of production is, however, challenged by the facts in Kenya, for the peasant and capitalist modes are flourishing in tandem and are mutually reinforcing. Professor Leo goes beyond the work of such analysts of Kenya as Colin Leys and Michael Cowan in developing and understanding the dynamics of African production and class relations. He concludes with an assessment of the likely effects of the agrarian and class syste