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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:What 'the friends of the peasants' are and how they pose the question of the peasantry
Author:Nyong'o, P. Anyang'ISNI
Year:1981
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:8
Issue:20
Pages:17-26
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:farmers
class formation
modes of production
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056248108703453
Abstract:The way of stating the problem of the Kenyan peasantry is important for political practice. Unless the kind of society being dealt with is known, all types of political programmes for the liberation of the peasantry may be proposed which may be Utopian, adventurist or simply demagogic. But, in order to understand the structure of that peasant society, a theory of that structure is required. For theory provides the proper tools of analysis for dissecting social phenomena so as to understand them. If anything, theory gives us the ability to shape questions in such a way that answers to them can lead us to see reality more clearly and hence not be deceived by the illusions of appearances. This unmasking of appearances with proper theoretical tools for social inquiry is the quintessence of Marxism, examined here in the context of the peasantry in Kenya. The discussion opens a debate addressed to, not only what is happening to the Kenyan peasantry, but also which agrarian social classes are capable of revolutionising productive forces in Kenyan agriculture, and what stand should progressive intellectuals take vis-a-vis the status quo. Bibliogr. p. 121-124.
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