Akiwowo - Sociology in Africa Today

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Trend Report : Sociology in Africa Today

Akinsola A. Akiwowo
Current Sociology 1980 28: 3
DOI: 10.1177/001139218002800202
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Trend Report:
SOCIOLOGY IN AFRICA TODAY
Akinsola A. Akiwowo
1
INTRODUCTION
Paul F. Lazarsfeld, in his introductory remarks to Main Trends in

Sociology, observed that as unstable as the history of sociology has
been since its inception, and diversified as its activities have been,
yet a sociological mode of thought and a way of raising problems
and giving explanations has coalesced into a discipline with a new
research technique and a promising quest for intellectual
coherence. Today, nowhere are the instability and diversification
of the intellectual activities of sociologists better illustrated than in
Peter Christian Ludzs description of the present state of sociology
and political science in the Federal Republic of Germany, where
there is a realignment of the two disciplines and a new approach
to the definition, object and commitments of both subject areas.2
When, however, we shift our attention from contemporary Ger-
many to Africa today and attempt to observe the state of the art
one does not know how, in all honesty, to depict or describe the
complex warps and woofs of sociological work in African univer-

sities, where the discipline is professionally lodged. What I
therefore plan to do in this Report is to present as much as possible
of what I have discovered to be key elements of the sociological
paradigms used in the writings of sociologists in Africa. To do this
I shall proceed from those countries in Africa from which I have
received written responses to my enquiry about the present state of
sociology, to a description of the level of development of sociology
in universities of Africa in general. Following this, there will firstly
be a discussion of the development of social science in Africa on a
regional basis, then a consideration of some current problems of
social science journalism in Africa, and finally of the contributions
of UNESCO to the development of sociology in Africa.

4
Methodology
To obtain the basic materials which are brought together in this
Report, I entered into correspondence with one or more
sociologists in each of the following countries: Ghana, Liberia,
Malawi, Zaire, Republic of Benin, and Tunisia. Insights were gain-
ed into the state of the art in such places as the Union of South
Africa, Zambia and Nigeria by a study of a number of current con-
ference papers some published, some not
-
together with a -
careful survey of certain articles in learned journals. From these in-

spections of the contents of sociological works as well as a few An-
nual Reports, a general impression of the nature of current
sociological activities was gradually formed.
The Concept of an African Sociology

Before starting on Report it must be admitted that it is difficult
the
to state categorically whether any distinctively African sociology
exists, or ever existed, and what paradigmatic scheme it possesses.
We, therefore, need to give some attention to the senses in which an
African sociology has been said to exist and function. We have an
early indication that there was a notion of African sociology in the
creation of the post, Lecturer in African Sociology, held by Geof-
frey Lienhardt at the University of Oxford. We are not told by E.
E. Evans Pritchard, in his Introduction to the collection of essays
to which Lienhardt contributed, what were the distinctions then
current between anthropology and sociology. One forms the im-
pression that both terms were sometimes used interchangeably in
British circles. Attempts to characterize African sociology have
been undertaken by Pierre Van den Berghe,3 Professor Vilakazi
and Georges Ballandier, at various times and places. Those authors
took the view that the anthropologist is first and foremost a
sociologist, only his unit of study is the non-western society which,
unfortunately, he has labelled the primitive society. I say, unfor-
tunately, because the early anthropologists, who happened to be
Europeans with a Western habit of dividing humanity into us and
them, of separating ourselves from themselves, and of ranking
the familiar higher than the unfamiliar, extended this habit of mind
into their scientific activities which, by the very nature of science,
should have been objective. However, as E. E. Evans Pritchard,

5
one of the foremost anthropologists of all times, himself put it, to

investigate in particular societies, the nature of religion, ethics, law,
and modes of thought and the basic functions of the family and of
economic and political institutions ,44 the anthropologist as a
sociologist of the non-European society, is in fact studying sub-
jects of general interest and problems which are found in all
societies, including his own.5 It is in this sense that the concept of
African sociology, or the sociology of African societies, is an ele-
ment in what Christopher G. A. Bryant, following T. S. Kuhn,
recently called the disciplinary matrix of concepts, assumptions,
basic laws, proven methods and other objects of commitment com-
mon to all practitioners of a specified disciplines It is in the
same sense too, that the European sociologist of African society is,
intellectually, the predecessor of the contemporary African who
has been trained as a sociologist in European or American institu-
tions of learning and who now makes African societies his objects
of study.
There are, however, in African universities today a few well plac-
ed anthropologists who still perceive and study African societies
from the traditional vantage point. To these their job is one
perpetual fieldwork with periods of residence among the natives
being studied. In a few instances fieldwork spreads over a decade
or more. Rather than accepting the transnational character of
sociology today, these anthropologists divide human intellectual

products into dichotomous sets; on the one hand traditional or
primitive thought, belief systems, native cosmologies and non-
philosophical thought processes, on the other, classical thought,
theoretical orientations to society, and philosophical systems. They
continue to see in the non-western societies where they work,
evidences of a lack of critical discernment of fact from fiction,
even though they admit of the existence of other ways of thinking8
than their own. Because of this, in part, there is an absence of
African paradigms of sociology which are free from the distor-
tions of subjective labelling, in our scientific endeavour to account
for social phenomena. Another factor which inevitably hinders the
emergence of better paradigms of society in Africa is the complete
dependence of sociologists in general upon the conceptual
categories developed to explain European and American ex-
periences of social life. These are then treated as universal tools for
cognition and explanation of social life in various African societies.
This dependence will continue until the futility of this method of

6
knowing, understanding, and explaining social phenomena in-

evitably forces sociologists of African life to discover conceptual
categories that are born of the dynamic social processes taking
place in various parts of Africa. Before these can be developed
there is a fundamental philosophical problem which has to be solv-
ed, namely, how to detect and identify appropriate concepts from
the thought systems by which Africans mentally codify what they
see, touch, and experience, and how they organize their ideas about
them. But this presupposes that Africans do, in fact, organize ideas
in their minds about their experiences. This problem does not arise
for the ordinary African doing his thinking in his own language,
because his task is not to prove anything but just to think.
However, some African or European teachers of philosophy at cer-
tain African universities now do question the existence of any
system of ideas or thoughts fit to be called a philosophy among
Africans in general. Thus far these teachers of philosophy have
shunned the onus of proving the non-existence of philosophy
among Africans. Their argument is merely tantamount to saying
that Africans do not have a documented body of thought and
theses in their societies which are of equivalent status to the
writings of Plato, Aristotle, Thales, Heraclitus, Socrates,
Pythagoras and Zeno, to list a few of the famous thinkers in early
European history, or of Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes -
latter-day European thinkers who developed a new and specialized

method of reasoning that departed from those of their forebears.
However, if as some have maintained, philosophy is interpreted in
a less narrow sense, to mean metaphysics in general and also
discussion of various abstract questions such as the nature of being
and the great first cause of things (with which science is concerned
when scientists -
natural or social study particular aspects of

-
the world, nature, or of society itself), then it remains to be seen

whether African thought-systems share or do not share those fun-
damental characteristics of philosophy. Is it wrong, philosophically
speaking, to conclude that the existence among philosophers
themselves of so many diverse schools and methods is a clear in-
dication that there is a basic diversity of philosophies, depending
upon the special orientation, language and conceptual schemes ap-
plied to the explanation of the metaphysical dimension of
knowledge? Why cannot African concepts of society, social
groups, social processes, and the like, derived from African ways
of codifying reality, be used to draw our attention to other distinc-

7
tive elements in the disciplinary matrix of sociology? Lienhardt in

an address to his British colleagues on non-western ways of think-
ing had boldly suggested:
As anthropologists, we have to give at least a temporary assent to such ways of

thinking. By assenting them, I mean being prepared to entertain in the mind,
without at once trying to rationalize them to fit them into a place, so to speak,
already prepared for other, more familiar, ideas. Only by suspension of criticism
can one learn how thought of this sort, in its context, is a representation of ex-
perience which at least is not obviously self-contradictory; and which can satisfy
men no less rational, if less rationalizing than ourselves. We have our neat
distinction between metaphor and fact, and we are bound at first to assume that
the assertion Some men are lions is an assertion of one or the other kind, either
figuratively or literally accepted. We have to learn that often, in translating
primitive language, it is not possible to make just such sorts of distinction bet-
ween the literal and metaphorical and we have to be content to recognize that
such statements made by primitive people cannot really be said to be of one sort
or the other.9
If one removes the objectionable word primitive (Lienhardts free

use of it merely reflecting his own culture-boundness) and
substitutes the word Nigerian or African then this exhortation to
his colleagues to suspend criticism so that one can gradually learn
how various African thought-ways not only represent rational ex-
perience, but also how African languages and usages of terms or
idioms draw attention to dimensions of phenomena which Euro-
pean experiences and concepts exclude from peoples perceptual
fields, becomes clearer.
Briefly then, this is what I understand Godfrey Lienhardt to be
saying: in studying African languages or African modes of
thought, an outsider be he a European, Asian, or a Westernized
-
African -
needs to be prepared to accept certain postulates con-

tained in African idioms, proverbs, and other forms of expression,
without initial criticism, until his or her mind has grasped the full
import of various African expressions of ideas, even though at first
any such statement does not properly fit his own cultural, literal,
or figurative mode of comprehension. Personally, I believe that
before ever the outsider can presume that he is even making the
same assumptions as those that lie behind the surface of such
linguistic expressions or distinctions he must first find out how

-
correct such assumptions are rather than proceeding on the basis of

his presumed but unsubstantiated assumptions about what
Africans are saying. This point of caution needs to be made, lest a

8
, totally different set of assumptions be substituted and used as a

basis for explaining African philosophical or social ideas. These in-
troductory remarks are intended as a back-drop to the next section
which deals with the influence of the colonial situation in Africa on
the implantation and growth of sociology in African universities.
They are also intended to lead logically to the examination of the
different perspectives which may exist and be brought to bear on
the subject of African sociology.
2
COLONIAL TRADITIONS IN
THE SOCIOLOGY OF AFRICAN SOCIETIES
Sociology is one of those inventions of western civilization that was

introduced into Africa during the colonial epoch. It did not, at the
start, find its place in the curricula of the university colleges and
similar institutions that were being introduced into Africa, as it
did in its beginnings in the United States. Rather it was part of the
skills which the colonial administrator, particularly in the British
territories, was to cultivate and to apply during his period of col-
onial service. The particular skills of sociology, or anthropology,
were applied to the acquisition of knowledge about the social
organization and ways of life of the local communities under Home

Rule. It was not until in the early sixties of this century that
sociology became a part of the expanding higher education pro-
gramme, trailing behind history, geography and economics in some
countries.
Higher education in some countries of colonial Africa had as its
initial object, what Edward W. Blyden described in 1881 as a
search for a liberal education for Africans.&dquo; According to
Blyden, the curriculum of the Liberia College at that time included
the study of certain epochs in the history of European civilization,
the classics -
that is Latin and Greek, languages and literature,
Arabic, and Geography. Liberia College was a higher institution of
learning whose founders had in mind the goal of making Africans
sharers in the advantages of their civilization.2 This is what is
called today the civilizing mission. The mode of teaching
at the College, and in subsequent institutions, such as Fourah Bay

9
College, Sierra Leone, and the form of reasoning underpinning it

which Africans were taught to pursue, continue today in all African
universities, polytechnics, and university colleges. Blyden believed
very strongly that certain external influences have been such as to
force them (that is Africans: AA) from the groove which is natural
to them, where they would be strong and effective, without fur-
nishing them with any avenue through which they may move
naturally and free from obstruction .&dquo; The use of foreign text
books, Blyden pointed out, had the power of forming for Africans
their idea of everything that they may do, or ought to do, accor-
ding to the standard held up in those teachings.~ The results of
that kind of education have been, in part, to make Africans copy
and imitate European thinkers and teachers, without the physical
and mental aptitude for the enterprises which they are taught to ad-
mire and revere .15 Even if one disagrees today with that interpreta-
tion of history, Blydens insightful analysis of the colonial tradition
in African higher education is uncannily true for today, even if
many educated Africans have not realized the changes which have
taken place and which continue to take place amongst them.
Blyden summed up the essential truths about the conditioning of
the African mind and emotions in these words:
Having embraced, or at least assented to these errors and falsehoods about

himself, he (that is, the African) concludes that his only hope of rising in the
scale of respectable manhood is to strive after whatever is most unlike himself
and most alien to his peculiar tastes. Whatever his literary attainments or ac-
quired ability, he fancies that he must grind at the mill which is provided for him,
putting in the material furnished to his hands, bringing no contribution from his
own field; and of course nothing comes out but what is put in.6
In my judgement this passage by Blyden, written almost one hun-

dred years ago, clearly describes what Syed Hussein Alatas&dquo; recent-
ly refers to as the making of the captive mind. Little or no atten-
tion has been paid to the serious study of this unique phenomenon
in history, in which one race of mankind abandoned, within a short
period of contact with another, the habits of thought which were
natural to its members and in which they were strong and effective,
for a strange one in which they developed weak and, relatively
speaking, non-productive habits of reasoning, logic, and the mastery
of unfamiliar metaphysics. If it is true as Blyden reminded us, that
the object of all education is to secure growth and efficiency, to
make a man all that his natural gifts will allow him to become; to

10
produce self-respect, a proper appreciation of our own power...a

fitness for ones sphere of life and action, and ability to discharge
the duties it imposes , 8 then without a doubt what the African has
received has not achieved those ends. When the African unwisely
and injudiciously gave up his natural propensities he surely, though
unwittingly, enslaved his own mind.
Today, Ukpabi Asika9 has queried the practice he noted among
various African and Third World communities to declaim the
failure of the intellectuals who are the prime products of systems
and methods of education which, as I see it, are similar to those
which Blyden described in his role as a participant observer during
late nineteenth-century principally in Liberia but also in West
-
Africa generally. But, Asika who is himself a Nigerian intellectual

and a product of the British and American educational systems (in
and outside of Nigeria respectively), agrees that the framework
within which the Nigerian intellectual arises is that of the colonial
situation .20 He goes even further and identifies three dimensions of
the colonial situation, namely, the political, economic, and
cultural. Each dimension defines the Africans ways of life within a
system of social interaction dominated by an alien power. Unfor-
tunately, Asika was more interested in the process of political
decolonization than in suggesting a programme for intellectual
decolonization, although his detailed analysis of the relationship
between social structure and intellectual life may be regarded as a
step forward in the study of the liberation of the captive mind.
Under the theme of decolonization on the cultural plane, Asika
traces the outline of what may eventually emerge as decolonization
on the intellectual plane. One gets the impression that Ukpabi
Asika believes that it is futile to expect any successful decoloniza-
tion on the intellectual level, as an aspect of cultural decoloniza-
tion, as long as opposition to the colonial images of Africans are
conducted in the borrowed idiom, in terms of criteria of excellence
which are taken as absolute and given, but which in fact represent
the view of world of the West. 21
In an editors introduction to a selection of readings on social
problems, change and conflict,22 Pierre L. Van den Berghe review-
ed the state of sub-Saharan Africanist scholarship of the colonial
epoch, from the late nineteenth-century to date. He noted how in
that tradition there was an inevitable impingement of the colonial
ideology on scholarship, since, he averred, scholars from the col-
onial powers nearly monopolized the field, and since many of them

11
even were direct or indirect participants in the colonial systems,

either as administrators or missionaries, technical advisers, and so
on. 23 Another factor which affected scholarship in the colonial
epoch, according to Van den Berghe, was the fact that although
many of the colonial scholars did not accept the dominant racist
ideology from Europe, most if not all of them possessed the
dichotomizing trait of the intellect which has been treated in the
Introduction of this report.
In practice, it was the sharing of such a trait which made them
accept, as he put it, a number of ethnocentric postulates which
made them look at black Africans as a different kind of people,
and made them adopt particularistic criteria and concepts in deal-
ing with,their subject matter. 24 When we look at such traits in the
light of the inaugural address delivered in 1881 by Edward W.
Blyden, first President of Liberia College, Van den Berghe seems to
be saying that he too noted in the colonial tradition in African
scholarship, a civilizing mission, especially among African
historians in their teaching of and research on African peoples.
However, Van den Berghe also pointed to the approaches of
social anthropology and ethnography as being more fruitful
because of their scientific point of view and their avoidance of an
ethnocentric bias. Nevertheless, these were not without their short-
comings, chief among which was their seeing African social
organization and ways of life as static over time, reaching far back
to epochs prior to the civilizing mission of colonialization. The
result of this attitude to African society and culture is today
evidenced in the tendency of some African nationalists (for exam-
ple, the intelligentsia or the cultural revivalists) to romanticize
precolonial societies which they now study through oral sources. Of
these shortcomings, sociology, and more particularly social an-
thropology, share a considerable proportion. Some of these accor-
ding to Pierre Van den Berghe, are (a) the inadequacy of the
structural-functional model of explanation which reflected the
static view of African societies, (b) sociological commitment to
preserving the status quo, (c) the belief that the traditional was
good and hence preferable, as well as, (d) the intellectual commit-
ment to social stability and equilibrium, (e) commitment to the
consensus and integration of societies and not to their dynamism,
and, (f) ignoring social instability and conflictual tendencies as
facts of society. Added to these is the confusing usage of concepts
such as tribes, tribalism and detribalization, principally among

12
English-speaking sociologists, to label certain social phenomena,

even though their French colleagues have relegated the concept
tribu to disuse.
another point emerges clearly from reading Pierre Van den
Be~ ghes introductory remarks. It is that the concepts, social
theories, and me) ilodological approaches of the colonial tradition
in Africanist scholarship definitely prove inadequate for studying,
understanding, and explaining contemporary African societies and
emerging life styles. Pierre Van den Berghe however, speaks of a
new look among contemporary social scientists as a result of ef-
forts to correct such biases. However, a careful analysis of the facts
will reveal the continuity of the colonial tradition in post-
independence scholarship. Like their fellow Africans who, after
taking over the reins of government, continued the colonial theory
and practice of government, African scholars, by and large, could
not help but continue the colonial tradition in their scholarship.
This has been particularly true of the sociological profession. There
is a noticeable absence of a new look, or of any set of correctives
to old biases. One needs only to read through the writings of many
African sociologists, including this writer, to see reflections of the
colonial tradition. It does not appear that we, as African
sociologists, have shown the capacity for formulating new theories
and/or techniques which can be used to study or explain social
phenomena in Africa, although some of us are eminently learned in
the works of sociologists from Asia, Europe and the United States
of America. The new-look amongst Africanist scholars, which
Pierre Van den Berghe recognized as being coincidental with the
political emancipation of the continent, can only be new western
images of contemporary African societies, for the basic questions
of the sociology of knowledge still remain - Who says what, of
whom, and how? - when we speak or write about African per-
sonality, culture, and society. The contribution which Pierre L.
Van den Berghe makes to this issue of the survival of the colonial
tradition, when presenting African scholarship, is undoubtedly
.,,adable. It should, however, encourage us to answer correctly and
unashamedly the basic question What is the nature of African
-
sociology?

13
3
THE CONCEPT OF AFRICAN SOCIOLOGY:
SOME PERSPECTIVES
Jacques I. Maquet has defined the term African Sociology

variously and has also distinguished between ethnology and
sociology as disciplines that are concerned with the study of socie-
ty. Because of its relevance to this work, it is worth quoting the
following excerpt in full.
(I) The study of non-literate societies has enriched sociology, but, in Africa,
during the second half of the twentieth century, non-literate societies have
become rare exceptions. To call ethnology the study of African social
phenomena is, thus, no longer justifiable. This furthermore puts to an end
the anomaly of defining a discipline through its subject matter rather than
through its point of view. This study of the social phenomena of non-
literate groups is a speciality rather than a discipline separate from
sociology, the latter, being reserved to western social phenomena, reveals a
probably unconscious racism. 25
I agree with Maquets view that it is no longer justifiable to call the

study of social phenomena in Africa ethnology. Furthermore,
the time has come to remove for evermore the study of African
societies from ethnology and properly place it within the discipline
of sociology. However, the reason why that transfer is legitimate is
not because non-literate societies have become rare exceptions.
This is insufficiently convincing as a reason because when sociology
emerged as an intellectual discipline, the population of Europe was
preponderantly non-literate. The men of knowledge who formed
the intellectual elite were fewer than the number of men and women
who have received formal book learning in an African country such
as Ghana or Nigeria, today. Yet these and other African societies
are still studied from the theoretical and methodological perspec-
tives of ethnology.
We learn from Robert A. Nisbet that the essential unit ideas of
sociology when it emerged (which still represent the moral basis of
modern sociology) and the artistic frames of mind which con-
stituted the elements of the sociological imagination, grew out of
the conflicts between traditionalism and modernism in the Europe
of that era. Both points of view were linked together in one dialec-
ticai process as a set of prevailing ideas and their antitheses. What

14
are the essential unit-ideas, those which, above any others, give
distinctiveness to sociology in its juxtaposition to the other social
sciences? There are, I believe, five: community, authority, status,
the secular and alienation, says Nisbet. These ideas stood respec-
tively in antithesis to society, power, class, the sacred, and pro-
gress. African sociology also derived its beginning from these con-
ceptual roots which continue growing today.
It is not, however, intended to give the impression that there was
one tradition of work shared by all those European scholars who
introduced sociology to their African counterparts. In the context
of this Report, knowledge of sociology in Africa today is, as noted
earlier, culled from the study of a random sample of African
universities in the following countries which are listed in an
alphabetical order: Egypt (UAR), Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya,
Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tunisia, the Union of South Africa,
Zaire and Zambia. However, it is necessary to emphasize that all of
these countries have been influenced by either British or French
habits of thought and social practices. Andrew Boyd and Patrick
Van Rensburg, as far back as 1962, depicted this situation accurate-
ly as follows:26
The period of European dominance, brief though it was for most parts of
Africa, has bestowed a pattern of institutions and habits derived from the
various ruling powers. For most Africans this means either a British or a French
pattern. Outside the Arab Countries, the African Languages are so numerous
and mostly so confined to small areas, that the new independent states use either
English or French as their main political languages. (French is also used in the ex-
Belgian Congo, English in American-sponsored Liberia).
Nowhere are these different colonial influences more evident than

in the study of African cultures and in particular in the study of
religion. In the accounts of both early travellers and missionaries,
one today detects gross misrepresentation but one also notes that
equally jaundiced view points grew out of the application of evolu-

tionary theory as promulgated by the early anthropologists. By the
time they arrived in Africa, however, this theory had begun to
undergo modifications as a result of the emergence of a more
systematic approach to the study of social phenomena. Benjamin
C. Ray, of Princeton University, has recently observed that:
With the decline of evolutionary theory and the advent of social anthropology,
systematic fieldwork studies began to be made of African societies. An-

15
thropological approaches, however, developed in different directions and

became divided, along national lines of schools, primarily British and
French. 27
Unfortunately, this slanted field-work studies according to the na-

tionality of the author, and thus imposed a colonialist structure
upon the interpretation of African social and religious systems.
Benjamin C. Ray added a detailed and useful review of the dif-
ferences between the British and French colonial traditions of an-
thropology with reference to religion. Among the chief con-

tributors to the British tradition, he named Malinowski, who
established the fieldwork characteristic of his school, Radcliffe-
Brown, who contributed to the development of the structural-
functionalist theoretical system, Max Gluckman who advocated the
study of religion as a &dquo;reflex&dquo; of the social order, E. Evans Prit-
chard, whose own works and those of his associates shifted the em-
phasis from the structural-functional view of social reality to the
explanation of African behaviour in terms of a system of ideas
within their own universe of thought.21 Regarding the last-named
scholar, Benjamin C. Ray also maintains that it was the increased
emphasis on fieldwork and the resultant need for the an-
thropologist to immerse himself in the langauge and behaviour of
Africans which finally led to the shift from structural-
functionalism to the understanding of linguistic categories. Signifi-
cant contributions were subsequently made by John Middleton and
Victor Turner to this study of semantic, mythological levels of
meaning .
Standing in contrast to the characteristics listed above are those
of the French school, or tradition. Ray states that French an-
thropologists focussed upon the symbolic-philosophical order,
while the British concentrated upon the structure and functioning
of the social order. Commenting upon this difference, Ray states:
In adopting this perspective, the French made great advances in
elucidating Africans cosmological systems and implicit
philosophies, as shown, for example, by the brilliant work of the
Griaule mission among the Dogon of Mali. It should be noted,
however, that Rays review of the approach of the French school is
very limited indeed and centres around the cosmogenic and
religious concerns of the Dogon. Increasingly it appears that the
anthropologists of both schools see their perspectives and ap-
proaches to African systems of thought as complementary. These

16
observations on the British and French schools are intended to

show in what sense these two traditions of scholarship continue in
the works of African sociologists in the anglophonic and fran-
cophonic Universities of Africa, which are our next port of call.
4
SOCIOLOGY IN SELECTED AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Republic of Benin
The Republic of Benin formerly known as the Republic of

was
Dahomey. Its changed in November 1974 when its pre-

name was
sent Head of State, President Mathieu Kerekou, came to power
through a military coup. The Republic of Dahomey became in-
dependent on 1 August 1960. According to one source, its multi-
ethnic population is estimated at two and a quarter million
people. 29 Sociology today in Benin has not left its colonial mooring;
yet it would be grossly misleading to assume that the winds of
revolutionary change that are sweeping the nation have not, or will
not eventually, affect the intellectual life of the country and par-
ticularly its sociological concerns and writings. While it may be dif-
ficult to predict the pace of growth, one can safely hazard the view
that research, theorizing, and application of existing social theories
will be directed towards the greater understanding of the changing
social order, while substantive sociological work will provide the
appropriate rationalizations for the sweeping social, economic and
political reconstruction going on there. In short, sociology in
Benin during the decade of the seventies and eighties may be ex-
pected to reflect the dominant ideology of social development of
the ruling group.
To ascertain more concretely the state of sociology in Benin, a
questionnaire was sent to a number of sociologists at the Universite
Nationale du Benin. This is the same questionnaire as was sent to
sociologists in Ghana, Zaire, Liberia, Malawi and Tunisia respec-
tively. The present situation in Ethiopia accounts perhaps for the
impossibility of obtaining a response from there.
The questionnaire solicits the following twelve items of informa-
tion :

17
1. List of Universities in your country with established Chairs

of sociology.
2. List of Universities where sociology is a sub-department.
3. Names, qualifications and business addresses of
sociologists/anthropologists in your University.
4. Area of specialization or present interest of each sociologist,
if known, mentioned in (I.) above.
5. Names and addresses of other sociologists in other
neighbouring Universities.
6. Trends in research undertaken by sociologists in your
University (i.e. current research topic).
7. A selection of the most recent publications by sociologists in
your University which are known to you.
8. Is the academic tradition among your countrys
sociologists (a) American? (b) British? (c) Russian?
(d) Italian? (e) Latin American? (f) Asian? (g) A combina-
tion of (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), and (f)? (g) Other?
9. Trends in interdisciplinary research (e.g. Political Science
-
and Sociology).
10. Any Organisations of sociologists/anthropologists?
11. Sources of funds for research listed in order of amount of
assistance generally received (e.g. Government, Foreign
Foundation, University Research Committee, etc.)
12. Your name, address and academic status.
According to a colleague responding from the National University
of Benin the following, in the original French text, is the state of
sociology in that country.
(a) Sur les sociologues du Benin

1. Professor AGUESSY Honorat:
Doyen de la Facult~ des Lettres des Arts et des Sciences Humaines. Specialite:
Sociologie des religions Africaines.
Universite Nationale du Benin (UNB)Contonou (R.P.B.)

2. Dr OKE M. Finagnon:
Chef de Department de sociologie Specialit Sociologie Politique
C.N.R.S.-UNBP BP 118 -
Portnova (R.P.B.)
3. Dr OLOGODOU Emile:
Complexe Polytechnique Lycee Coulibaly CONTONOU (R.P.B.)
Specialit: Sociologie des religions Africaines.
Ceux-ci font effectivement 1enseignement et la recherche scientifique et ont
fait plusieurs publications dans ce domaine.

18
(b) L in fluence sncinlogique

au Benin dans le domaine:
- des livres
-
des theories
-
des m~thodologies
Les sociologues et anthropologues beninois, quoique de I~cole franqaise de
sociologie et de Ianthropologie ne sont pas influences par cette seule ~cole de
sociologie. lls sont aussi bien influences par les theories et methodologies
fran~aises de
E. DURKHEIM
G. GURVITCH
R. ARON
G. BALLANDIER
P. MERCIER, etc.
que par ceux des anglo-saxons:
M. GLUCKMAN
M. FORTES
F. NADEL
E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD
S. M. LIPSET, etcetera. 30
From the brief statement we see clearly that Benins sociologists are
exposed to both leading French and Anglo-saxon writers in the
same way as are their counterparts in Ghana or Nigeria. The total
number of Benins sociologists was not forthcoming. Banji
Ogundele explains the prevailing political situation in the country
in a way which may account for this gap in our knowledge:
In November 1974, President Kerekou announced the creation of the National

Political Bur,eau which would lead Benin to a socialist state based on the Marxist-
Leninist theory. The Bureau was saddled with making all revolutionary policies
and its members were very carefully selected to exclude businessmen, people
issued to foreigners, church leaders, as well as politicians. All political opponents
and reactionary students and intellectuals were forced to go into voluntary exile
upon the implementation of the new socialist policy. 31
Thus, in addition to the inner history of sociological develop-

ment within the University, the political process of the nation has
also been a determining factor in the state of the sociology in
Benin.
Cote dIvoire: Ivory Coast
Sociology in the Ivory Coast took a significant step in 1964 when a

19
Centre dEthnosociologie was established at the University of

Abidjan in the Ecole des Lettres. The centre of Ethnosociology has
since become, in 1970, an Institute of Ethnosociology and is cur-
rently placed under the control of the Ministry of Scientific
Research. What is the definition of ethnosociology at the Institute?
Whilst there is no formal definition of it in the report of the In-
stitute, yet it is possible to derive one from the objectives contained
in the decree (called Dcret 66-372, 8 September 1966) establishing
the Institute. Ethnosociology is the study of Man and Civilization,
that is Tetude des hommes et des civilisations de la C6te
dIvoire .32 Although LInstitut is principally a research institute it
has assumed, since 1970, the functions of a university department
by offering seminars and special sessions.
However, within the framework of the Institute there is a
Department of Ethnosociology which is now re-attached to the
Faculty of Letters and Humanities of the University. The educa-
tional programme of the Department, as distinct from the Institute,
may be divided into trois cycles dtudes Universitaires with a set
of common objectives which include offering the means for acquir-
ing theoretical and practical competence in sociology, developing
awareness of the interrelationship between economic and social
data and preparation of students for the occupational market of
the Ivory Coast or for the sociological profession itself. Needless to
say, the cycles dtudes Universitaires at Abidjan follow the
French tradition of university education, with the first cycle in this
case devoted to selected courses in History, Geography, English,
introduction to the social sciences, and to problems in an-
thropology. Research at the Institute has for some years concen-
trated on three main areas, namely (a) modern religious
movements in Africa, (b) the phenomena of acculturation, and
(c) the problems of professional groups. The Institute boasts of
several monographs and other forms of publications such as doc-
toral theses, in these three areas. There is a particularly keen in-
terest in the following sociological themes; sociology of the family,
sociology of work, and sociology of change. Mention should also
be made of the sociological work being done at the Centre for the
Study of Architecture and Urbanism - a multi-disciplinary centre
concerned with the management of space in Africa.
The Institutes interests in ethnological studies may be assessed
from the repertoire of films dealing with the music and rituals of
such ethnic groupings as the Baule Guro, Dan Gwere and Senoufo.

20
This is further evidenced by its with the Institute of

co-operation
Applied Linguistics. In addition, it subscribes to an impressive list
of social science journals from Britain, France, the USA and
Africa. Acquisition of the journal Africa dates as far back as 1928.
Thus both students and staff have available to them the current
publications in social science in general and particularly those con-
cerned principally with the ethnosociology of that society. It is
commendable too that the Institute has contacts at personal and in-
stitutional levels with a number of francophone African countries
such as Madagascar and Cameroun. From the impressive list of
publications, research projects, film spools, audio-visual tapes, and
photographic collections, it is safe to conclude that in the Ivory
Coast what is called ethnosociologie represents the theoretical and
methodological fusion of the discipline of ethnology and the em-
piristic techniques of the social survey. There is no doubt that the
peoples and civilizations of the various nationalities in the Ivory
Coast have been far better studied and documented by both
Ivoirian and expartriate scholars than has been attempted in, say,
Nigeria. There is a lot of this material now published, which can be
exchanged with other West African universities on an inter-library
loan basis. Furthermore there are many works which await wider
distribution if they are translated into English. One is impressed by
these efforts to employ audio-visual techniques in sociological
research. They constitute an example worth copying by those other
African research centres that have not yet adopted this medium of
research.
The Ivoirian society, people, and culture continue to attract
young scholars, particularly American scholars from universities of
Chicago, Stanford, Johns Hopkins (the School of Advanced Inter-
national studies (SAIS)), Northwestern, Harvard, California, and
from Columbia University and New York. Although men and
women from these universities normally carry out research in the
country for their Ph.D. theses, nevertheless their efforts make

significant contributions to sociological knowledge of the country.
There is, in addition to the expatriate young scholars, who are
sponsored by research foundations in their own countries, a
category of sociologists called les chercheurs associ~es, or
research associates. By and large these are individuals, African as
well as non-Africans, with established competence in the area of
their investigation. However, most of their research interests are
ethnological.

21
Professor V. C. Diarrassoub, Vice-Chancellor of the University

of Abidjan recently (1974) summed up the general situation in
which sociology has found itself in Ivory Coast as follows:
Evidence shows that most University student protest movements are incited by
students enrolled in Humanities Departments, and especially in Sociology and
Philosophy. We all remember that the serious events which originated in Europe
in May 1968 had repercussions in various African Universities and in most cases
this was due to the activity of students in the Humanities. It might therefore be a
great temptation to African Governments to withdraw from the University cur-
riculum if not all, at least some of the subjects which offer very few openings to
graduate students and which may give rise to discontent. 33
While implicity at least, sociology and philosophy have appeared at

Abidjan as disciplines likely to give rise to discontent, Dr Diar-
rassouba took care to note that:
There can be no doubt that the Humanities have great educational value. It
would have been impossible for me to deliver you this introductory report if I
had not had at my disposal one of the great languages of international com-
munication. 34
He then highlighted the contributions which history, art, ar-

cheology, and linguistics make in helping African universities to
understand their own societies and expressed confidence that the
future can be built on solid foundations. He further argued that the
scientific study of African languages would reveal their adaptabili-
ty to scientific language, and with reference to the role of
sociology in particular, he maintained that it should help determine
the conditions under which imported techniques or technology
can most effectively be communicated to the people living in the
rural areas .35
Egypt (UAR)
The nationstate renamed United Arab Republic (UAR), formerly
Egypt, has an estimated population of 27 million people according
to a 1968 source. It occupies an area of 396,000 square miles. It
gained its independence from Great Britain as far back as 1922.36
By 1974 a number of UAR universities belonged to the Association
of Arab Universities. They are, (a) Ain shams University, (b) AI -

22
Azhar University (one of the oldest universities in all Africa),

(c) Alexandria University, (d) the American University in Cairo,
(e) University of Assial, (t) Cairo University, (g) Cairo University
in Khartoum, (h) University of Mansoura, and (i) the Mid Delta
University. These universities have among their objects the promo-
tion of interchange, contact, and co-operation among themselves
and other institutions of higher learning in Africa, and the en-
couragement of the development and wide use of African
languages. 17 How these facets of the twin British and Arab
heritages, the contact with Africa and the development of local
languages, have together influenced the development of sociology
and its present state in the UAR is a matter for conjecture in the
absence of a comprehensive study.
From the careful account by a leading sociologist, Professor Ez-
zat Hegazy, of the introduction and development of sociology in
Egypt, we can begin to construct the state of sociology today in that
country. We can also start to discuss the development of sociology
as a university discipline and its differentiation into substantive
fields. This account may be regarded as somewhat typical of those
African countries where sociology has either a long history, or is
making a recent but very dynamic response to the various aspects
of social change. From the Hegazy account the following currents
can be identified in the mainstream of Egyptian sociology: (a) the
general and full acceptance of sociology in higher institutions of

learning, (b) a definite response by sociologists to planned changes
within the Republic, (c) the institutionalization of social research,
(d) a growing influence of Marxist thought or ideas, and (e) a
disenchantment with what the late C. Wright Mills called
abstracted empiricism. With reference to the first current, Pro-
fessor Hegazy states that with the greater appreciation of university
education in Egyptian society, the number of universities increased
within the decade 1967 to 1977. For sociology this growth resulted
in the creation of more departments and in the establishment of
postgraduate programmes leading to the Masters and Ph.D.
degrees. Consequently, the number of sociologists in the country
multiplied and the total number of undergraduate and
postgraduate students in other departments and faculties serviced
by sociology was also enlarged. This development process has, as
may be expected, led to the creation of new substantive areas or
subfields in which sociologists can specialize. In a number of foot-
notes, Hegazy revealed how sociology had been combined with

23
such disciplines as philosophy and psychology to offer complemen-
tary of study for higher degrees. It seems from all accounts

courses
too that sociology is considered as an Arts subject, hence its loca-
tion in the Faculty of Arts in Ains Shams University; the Depart-
ment of Sociology is also located within the same Faculty at Cairo
University, as is a Department of Philosophy and Sociology at
Alexandria.
The following selective list of Ph.D. theses (from 1959 to 1973),
gives some impression of the issues and substantive areas of
sociology which those in charge of graduate studies in Egyptian
universities consider academically significant:
Alexandria University
1959 A Comparative Study of Social Change in the Government Dakahlia.
1964 Mohammed Khary Mohammed, Indrrstrial Location & Social Welfare:
With Special Reference to the UAR.
1968 Mohammed Abou Ali: The Social Organization of the Petroleum In-
dustry in the UAR.
1971 Mohammed Ali Mohammed: The Theory of Organi::ation: A Study of
the Textile Industry in Alexandria.
1973 Ali Galoby, The Social Structure of an Industrial Organization: A
Study of Small Groups.
I Ain Sham University

1969 Mohamoud A. Ouda, Patterns of Communication and Social Change: A
Field Studv in the Governorate of Manoufia.
1973 Noha Fahmy, The Urbanized Village: A Case Study of al-Hawamdia.
1972 Samia al-Saaty, The Roles of Husband and V 7fe in the Egyptian Family.
1972 Hoda Megahed, The Sociology of Family Solidarity.

Cairo University
1972 Abdel Baset Mohammed, .Approaches to the Study of Social Conflict:
Study of Social ConJ7ict in Two Egyptian Villages.
1972 Sayed al-Husainy, Social Organization.- An Analytical Study of Sonre
Variables in the Process of Organization.
19711 (3) Salah Abdel Mutaall, Sncial Chunge and the Structure of the Eyptian
Family.
1972 Nahed Saleh, The Statistical Method in Social Anthropological Studies:
An Application to a Social Community.
It would be an injustice, to say the least, to draw conclusions

about the range of issues and problems which Egyptian sociologists
are concerned with today from the above list. Other bibliographical
sources must be sought to complement this list, if we are to
know what is being done at the Masters degree level, and it may also

24
be useful to examine the topics undertaken at the undergraduate

long essay level
(see bibliographical appendix).
A large number of Ph.D. dissertations, some of which were men-
tioned above, were obviously concerned with the consequences of
planned social development in the United Arab Republic. Par-
ticularly notable in this connection are those seeking to understand
and explain the structural changes caused by the textile and
petroleum industries. However, from Hegazys account the con-
cern of Egyptian sociologists spans a wider field of interests. A
breakdown of the empirical studies undertaken reveals the follow-
ing areas of planned change to be the major concerns of research;
resettlement of newly cultivated areas, family planning, the
religious considerations of family planning, industrial organiza-
tion, rural development and Egyptian folklore. Due attention had
always been given by Egyptian sociologists to the persistent social
problems of the country, particularly crime and juvenile delinquen-
cy. More recently it appears that interest in these two problems is
receding into the background, due, I suspect, to over-study of
these problems in earlier decades. While this is happening, the
sociology of law is attracting the attention of an increasing number
of non-sociology scholars.
Organized Research and Research Offices

The centre for Social and Criminological Research in Cairo has,
since its inception in 1950, also established a world-wide reputation
for itself as a national social science research institution. It sym-
bolizes recognition of the strong need for a multi-disciplinary ap-
proach to organized social research in Egypt, outside the walls of
the universities. Hegazy noted:
Though one sometimes runs across a few titles reporting on research projects
carried out by some university professors, organized social research has not
become one of the universitys major tasks. Research offices established at some
universities are mainly administrative bodies. 38
It is likely that the relatively underdeveloped character of organized

social research in Egyptian universities may be attributed to the
declining interest in abstracted empiricism, as the philosophy
underpinning research methodology, and to the rising preoccupa-
tion with theory formulation.

25
Growing Interest in Marxist Mode of Social Analysis
This shift in intellectual focus may not be unconnected with the

shocking experience of the 1967 war with Israel whose resultant
was a felt-need for a critical stance towards social reality and an in-
terest in the critical character of Marxist sociology. As in other
African countries today, there is a growing appreciation of Marxist
ideas among some sociologists, especially among the younger ones.
In some other parts of Africa, however, the ideological division
between structural-functionalism and Marxism cannot be neatly
correlated with the divide between older and younger
sociologists. The growing appeal of Marxist sociology should not
be attributed too quickly to one factor or another: it is neither
simply nor exclusively a fruitful alternative to existing modes of
social analysis, nor solely due to the more critical frame of mind of
younger scholars. There is indeed a definite need to study this
phenomenon in its own right at some future time. As a step toward
such a study, the distinction made by Tom Bottomore in his Marx-
ist Sociology, between Marxism as sociology and Marxism
against sociology is suggested as fruitful. However, the basic ques-
tion to answer in relation to the growing interest in Marxist ideas is
one which queries the nature of its appeal by asking Is it Marxism
as a sociological theory or as &dquo;abstracted and implicative&dquo; set of
philosophical concepts which is the source of attraction?39

Such a study would, I believe, have to take a historical view of
the development of knowledge in Egypt. A logical baseline for this
study would be 1908 when a privately owned university called The
National University was established and courses on the sociology
of law&dquo; and other related courseS40 were offered for the first time in
Egypt. It was a period, according to Hegazy, dominated by
speculative philosophy. This period was followed by the introduc-
tion of some sort of scientific sociology. It was not until 1924, after
the establishment of a true national university, that sociology was
introduced into regular university teaching. Between the decade of
the twenties until the seventies, Hegazy notes that Professor Ali
Abdel Wahid Wafi played perhaps the most important and cer-
tainly the most influential role as the first holder of the chair of
sociology in an Egyptian University. During more than three
decades, he wrote a large number of monographs devoted to the ex-
position of the major ideas of Comte and Durkheim on a variety of
topics.

26
Today, according to Ezzat Hegazy, sociology in Egypt is still in

the process of formation. But though the position remains
precarious, there are signs of relief in the not so far future .4 This
optimism derives from the fact that Egyptian sociologists continue
to be extremely sensitive to the history and social change which
fashion the essence of their ideas about social development.
Ghana
The information contained in this section on sociology in Ghana

has been gathered from three sources; from participant-
observation of the tenth anniversary of the Ghana Sociological
Association (1975), the questionnaire already mentioned, and a
review of some of the papers presented at the Ghana Conference.
Two Ghananian universities, the University of Ghana Legon, Ac-
cra, and University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, have established
chairs of sociology. At the University of Science and Technology,
Kumasi, sociology is lodged in a sub-department. Two sociologists,
Professor P. Austin Tetteh and Mr Yaw Adjei of the Faculty of
Social Sciences are the only people offering sociology courses there.
Ghananian universities publish an Annual Report which lists the
names, qualifications and addresses of social scientists. Copies of
these reports are distributed to the libraries of these universities.
According to my respondent, current research topics include the in-
terrelationship between medical systems; religious revival; and the
pre-school child and the socialization process. Interdisciplinary
research projects are being conducted in population studies and the
sociology of family planning.
In the departments of sociology of these Universities, British and
American traditions compete. The Ghana Sociological Association
is the leading professional organization in the country. Research
funds come from two main sources: university research funds and
the Ghana Academy of Arts and Science. Ghananian sociologists
are, on the whole, making quite significant contributions through
books, journal articles, and pamphlets, to the field of sociology in
Africa. The most recent publications include P. A. Twumasi,
Medical Systems in Ghana, published by the Ghana publishing
company, Tema..~2 A forthcoming book by J. M. Assimeng is en-
titled The Social Structure of Ghana. The Tenth Annual Meeting of
the Ghana Sociological Association (April 1976) provided excellent

27
opportunities for the Nigerian sociologists attending it to meet and

exchange views with their Ghananian colleagues. From the papers
presented and the discussions that ensued, a number of needs
emerged as basic to the present state and future prospects of
sociology in Africa. They are:
(a) The need to study further the classical writings of the
founders of sociology.
(b) The need for a very careful examination by African
sociologists of a number of monographs written by both
Africans and Europeans, which have had an impact on the
development of African sociology.
(c) A continuous and careful study of ideas and institutions in
African communities with a view to assessing, for purposes
of further exploration, those notions, concepts and theories
that can contribute to the development of a transnational
sociology.
(d) A critical study of conflict theory which examines its
relevance as a mode of explanation of social reality and
social change in Africa.
(e) A study of the place of critical judgement in explanatory
schemes such as marxism and structural-functional theories.
In the paragraphs which follow, I shall review two unpublished
papers by two Ghananian sociologists, Max Assimeng4l and K. K.
Prah,44 on the state of sociology in Ghana today. The former held
the post of Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Legon, while the other
was a lecturer in sociology at Cape Coast. One gains the impression
that the Cape Coast sociologists are by and large younger than
most of those at Legon where the eminent Ghananian sociologist,
Professor K. E. De Graft-Johnson holds the chair of sociology.
Although these papers differ in tone, content and style, both never-
theless seem to be operating upon the basic assumption that the
discipline stands to gain scientifically if they critically question the
philosophy, methodology and findings of sociology as a social
science. In short, both may be classified as explorations into the
emergent area, the Sociology of Sociology in Africa. In his paper
Max Assimeng shows that he is quite familiar with the literature
and practices in this area, as his bibliography attests. Assimeng
begins his task with a long but instructive history of sociology in
Ghana. As an academic discipline, sociology in Ghana is nearly
twenty five years old; but it has yet to become a familiar -word, as
Assimeng puts it, in the vocabulary and thinking of the people of

28
the country. Different professionals and non-professionals,

academics and non-academics use the term sociology with different
connotations and a wide range of expectations about the nature of
sociological practices.
To Assimeng, the reason for this widespread currency and can-
vassing of sociology, especially by those not themselves
sociologists, may be located in part in the fact that men who have
described themselves as sociologists have also engaged in holding
public authority and shaping public policy. Their classrooms have
transcended the narrow confines of the university. To most Ghana-
nians for two decades the name of Professor Kofi A. Busia was
synonymous with sociology. Assimeng describes him as a former
don at the University of Ghana whose political agitations and pro-
nouncements from the 1940s and early 1950s culminated in his
premiership of the country between October 1969 and January
1972, when his Progress Party Government was terminated by a
coup detat. The names of C. G. Reindorf, J. E. Casely-Hayford,
J B. Danquah, E. K. Kurankyi Taylor and R. E. G. Armattoe are
also listed among Ghananians whose writings revealed a mode of
viewing their society and culture that was sociological even though
these men were luminiaries in different intellectual callings.
However, I believe that E. K. Kurankyi Taylor and R. E F. Ar-
mattoe may more correctly be categorized as a sociologist of law
and a cultural anthropologist, respectively, whilst the others may
be regarded as proto-sociologists in their writings.
Assimeng also recognized the possibility of finding among early
Christian missionaires the seeds of the sociological imagination,
but he carefully divides the missionary era into distinct phases ac-
cording to his yardstick for measuring evidence of scholarship (or
in lieu of it some form of thinking or speculation on the nature of
social structure and social groups). Assimeng acknowledges the
contributions of the colonial anthropologists and colonial ad-
ministrators to the foundation of present day sociological thought
and knowledge about Ghananian peoples and cultures. But by far
his most illuminating revelation is the fact that it was the voices and
writings of protest and rebellion among eminent Ghananians like
Sir Ofori Atta, Omanhena Ossandoh, Sir Emmanual Mote Korle I,
and Kwegyhir Aggrey who, not only saw and stressed the need for
the study and conservation of traditional values in the country,
but also pressed that these be reflected in school curricula, which in
turn made the search for the services of anthropologists very

29
urgent. As Assimeng interprets it:
Certainly, the colonial administrative progress itself became increasingly

humanized. Refresher and orientation Courses were for instance, established in
Oxford, Cambridge and London Universities where cadets intended for. or
already in, the colonial services werc given lessoils in what may not be very ap-
propriately described as African and Oriental Studies, when promotion and
future prospects within the senior ranks of the service required, among other
things proficiency in some selected Ghananian languages and customs. There
were occasional Native Customs examinations. Also, when the colonial burden
came to be seen by its protagonists as a civilizing mission, it became imperative
for the government to conduct sevcral social surveys into the need structure and
need priorities of thc population. 45
In this manner the foundation of present day sociology in

stone
Ghana, and indeed in West Africa, laid in response to the
was
challenges of local social thinkers from the nineteenth century to

the mid-decades of the twentieth century. Thus the aims of an-
thropological activities and colonial state-craft converged in laying
the foundations for African sociology. Assimeng emphasizes this
fact, because of its importance especially in the light of contem-
porary criticism, as a result of political independence and na-
tionalist self-assertion.
Present Debates and Future Prospects
Earlier in this section on Ghana, I reported on two of the substan-

tive areas in which my respondent mentioned that Ghananian
sociologists, particularly those at Legon, are currently working.
Other substantive areas which I noted during the conference are
family planning, sociology of occupations, criminology and
juvenile delinquency, demography, and sociology of development.
Some of the sociologists working in these areas46 are K. N. Bame
of the Institute of African Studies at Legon, who presented a paper
entitled Some sociological variables which need attention in
development support communication. Examples from a Ghana-
nian family planning study; E. Date-Bah who presented her paper,
The nature and significance of occupational sociology in Ghana:
The Case of the professional drivers; D. M. A. Nortey whose
paper Criminology and crime; new dimensions in crime in Ghana
attracted the attention and interest of conference members because
it threw new light on existing facts about crime in Ghana. A paper

30
on The role of demography in understanding the social structure

of African societies, prepared by both Professor N. O. Addo and
Dr S. K. Gaisie, Senior Lecturer at the United Nations Research In-
stitute for Population Studies, Cape Coast, was presented by the
second author. It was an illuminating report on the co-operation
and achievements of sociologists and demographers in Ghana, as
well as a charting of the areas of useful co-operation in other parts
of Africa. These and similar papers listed for the conference are
largely reports of ongoing or completed empirical studies of
Ghananian society. All of them dealt directly in different ways and
styles with the theme of the conference: The Role of Sociology in
National Development and Planning.
The centre-piece of the conference, however, was what emerged
as a colloquium or debate on Origins and Orientations in African
Sociology, under the chairmanship of Professor Peter Morton

Williams, a highly respected expatriate sociologist with many years
experience of living in Africa. He may be described as the doyen of
sociologists, expatriate and African, in contemporary Ghana.
Among the Ghananian contributors47 to that debate were: J. M.
Assimeng, whose paper Sociology in Ghana: context and institu-
tionalisation has formed the mainstay of this Report on Ghana so
far; K. K. Prah, The crisis in Ghananian sociology continues: A
critique of sociai science in Ghana; Kofi Agyeman, Sociology of
the development of Sociology; E. H. Mends, The Sociological
relevance of 19th century nationalism, and J. Mensah Sarbah and
A. F. Aryee, Sociology in the African context. In his presidential
address, Justice Nii Amaa Ollennu, the outgoing President of the
Ghana Sociological Association, described sociologists, among
other things, as holders up of mirrors to society, and encouraged
the Association to promote the free exchange of sociological
knowledge with other national associations. One of the most
dynamic organizers of the conference was Mrs Martha Tamakloe
who also contributed significantly to the debate from the floor at
various sessions. She and her colleague, Mrs Yvonne Asamoah,
judging from her contributions also made from the floor, may be
classified among the radical, critical sociologists in Ghana. Final-
ly, mention should be made of two papers of very outstanding
quality in relation to the main theme of the conference - that of
social development. The first was by Professor K. E. de Graft-
Johnson and entitled Fictive thinking and social development,

31
while the other by Ebow Mensah, who teaches at the Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, Nigeria, was entitled On the evitability of in-
stability.
Space does not permit me to review the high points of each paper
listed above. It is sufficient, however, to state that the central issue
appeared to me then, and now, to be the question of what is the
most valid and effective scheme of explanation for African
sociologists to use in their studies of their own and other societies.
Is it the structural-functional theory, Marxist-Leninist theory or
another theory, yet undiscovered, which will provide a reliable
African perspective, yielding correct answers to the multifarious
questions Africans and non-Africans alike ask about rapidly
changing African societies? What makes any social theory useful or
helpful in ones scientific endeavours and what are the relevant
criteria of this-
helping to keep the society going, explanation

alone, or practical contributions to social change? Regarding the
place of critical judgement in the scheme of explanation, have the
various conflict theories, especially those of Marx and Lenin, Mao
Tse Tsung, Franz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah and Amilcar Cabral,
to mention but a few, important roles to play? What of classical
writers like Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Gabriel Tarde,
Durkheim, Gumplowicz, Simmel, Toennes, have their views of
social reality any relevance to African social life today? What of
the works of nineteenth century and early twentieth-century African
writers? Should they continue to be read today and if so, what
general significance do their works still have for us? These and
many other points were raised and tackled in the writings of
Ghananian sociologists.
There is no doubt that the careful study of the works of Euro-
pean sociological writers of the nineteenth century will yield useful
basic concepts that can be used to explain not only African social
development, but also the crisis and contention among
sociologists, in Ghana in particular, and in Africa in general. K. E.
de Graft-Johnsons able use of Comtes fictive thinking is a good
pointer to what can be done with the classics. The same paper
shows how African social thought can be used to complement, or
enlarge, the scope of concepts drawn from classical writings. E. H.
Mends paper shows how the careful study of the writings of men
like Sarbah, Casely-Hayford and Sekyi Danquah, plus other equal-
ly illustrious writers mentioned earlier, may point to various phases
in the dialectical interplay between colonialism and anti-

32
colonialism. Mends is on firm ground when he suggests that Sar-

bahs studies of traditional social institutions were not only in-
formed by a sociological perspective but, in themselves, are con-
tributions of sociological relevance today. Although K. K. Prah
was attacking those who may be labelled as establishment
sociologists who are guilty, according to him, of always com-

municating in a language which mystifies rather than enlightens,
he was also seeking not merely to enthrone Marxism, but to
legitimize it as a sociological perspective. He states his claims on
page 2 of his paper; Marxism is not a disease. It has been the only
critical science of society in this era of human history, and no social
scientist worth his salt has not in one way or the other been affected
by dialectical materialism. Unfortunately, the language of the con-
flict school, at least in Ghana and Nigeria, often generates more
heat than light and tends to cloud the issue by a reductio ad absur-
dum style of logic. The methodology of the critical approach un-
doubtedly leads to an over-kill of opponents views, styles of
writing, and methodological techniques, leaving the reader or
listener with little if any substantive contribution to an understan-
ding of the social realities which are the concern of us all. Ebow
Mensahs paper On the evitability of instability points out how
the theme of the inevitability of political instability can provide a
framework for explanation of change over time from one era to
another. It was the Catholic prelate, Reverend Father J. OCon-
nell, who first used the phrase in 1967 to explain that the frequent
coups and political changes in African states were unavoidable.
What Mends discerned as fatalistic undertones in OConnells
statements were essentially contained in similar statements, made
much earlier (in 1948) about economic uncertainty and political
discontent in African colonies by Martin Wight, of Nuffield Col-
lege, Oxford. In response to the latter, Dr J. B. Danquah sought to
provide a challenge by underlining what things are excluded by
-
making such assumptions. Dr Danquah wrote as follows in reply to

Martin Wight:
I have read an account of an article of yours in the Observer commented upon in

the Cape Coast Observer of August 27, and I am entirely in sympathy with
premise that one damned thing deserves another: namely, because of the political
discontent and economic uncertainty in the Gold Coast as elsewhere in the
world, political instability would become self perpetuating, the conception of a
probationary period meaningless, political revolutions more frequent in the col-
onies than general elections at home (i.e. in the United Kingdom).

33
I cannot, however, subscribe to your final statement and education for self
government would not exist, it being a case of putting the cart before the horse.
Historically, education for self government consists in the adjusting of the
people by changes in the constitution to meet economic uncertainty and political
discontent. With those two prerequisites there might be no Cromwell and no
Restoration and English people might have suffered the fate of the French peo-
ple ; no king or centre of gravity, and a new prime minister every two or three
months. ,48
This quotation illluitrates very clearly that Ebow Mensah was

following in the footsteps of J. B. Danquah when he adopted a
critical attitude towards OConnells conceptualization of political
instability. He pointed out the inadequacy of certain of the latters
basic assumptions, just as Danquah had done in the case of Martin
Wights conceptualization of political discontent. This critical
tradition of scholarship, from Danquah to Ebow Mensah, has its
place in the general state of sociology in Africa today. Its main ob-
jective is intellectual emancipation, which is a necessary step, as
Mensah correctly observes, towards originality and inventiveness.
Before concluding this report on sociology in Ghana today, it is
only fair to refer to K. K. Prahs Essays of African Society and
History (Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1976). In the preface the
author indicates that three different topics are treated in the essays.
In the first essay, he deals with the phenomenon of colonised at-
titudes and uses the phrase African ideological interiorisation of
European economic and social domination to conceptualize it. In
the second he studies the exploitation which Northern Ghananians
suffered while the Europeans defined and demarcated the frontiers
of African feudalism. These essays, despite their shortcomings,
which result from an effort to employ a method of analysis that
Prah describes as rooted in the intellectual tradition of Marx
because of its truly scientific character, nevertheless form a signifi-
cant part of sociology in contemporary Ghana. In my judgement,
these essays compel one to grapple with the concepts and methods
of analysis being used by African Marxist sociologists, if only to
understand what they are saying each time they write or talk.
Liberia
One of the oldest republics in Africa is Liberia and it also has one
of the oldest institutions of higher learning in West Africa, called

34
Liberia College at its foundation. This institution was the

predecessor of the contemporary University of Liberia. Yet accor-
ding to my correspondent from the University of Liberia in
Monrovia:
The status of sociology and hence sociologists is low both within and outside the
academic community. Though a Department of Anthropology and Sociology
was created within the College of Science and Humanities in 1955, it was only in
1971 that the University of Liberia graduated six students with a Bachelor of
Arts Degree in economics and/or political science, let alone sociology.
As far as the public is concerned, a sociologist is a social worker. A sociologist
is supposed to help the poor. A young sociologist who has just returned from the
United States was told that she had come back home to help the poor. As a
result she was employed as Director of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Health
and Social Velfare.
The very small number of sociologists in Liberia is exceedingly conscious of
the low esteem in which sociology is held. We are doing everything to gain
recognition and support for sociology comparable to that give to Economics and
Political Science. At present we are planning to form the Liberian Sociological
Association. In this way, we hope we will be able to achieve respectability and ac-
ceptability for sociology in Liberia.
This was the briefest report on sociology in an African country

that I have received. Consequently, there are many gaps in our
knowledge. For example, we do not know whether or not sociology
is offered at Covington College, nor do we have a list of
sociologists in Liberia, their qualifications, the institutions from
which they received their training and their areas of specialization.
We need more information on current trends in research, or
publications. Most likely the dominant academic tradition will be
American. It is too soon to expect contending schools to emerge.
There may be minor differences in points of view about what to
emphasize on the curriculum or the direction of development to be
taken by the sociology department. These are the differences that
may be expected even among scholars trained abroad in the same
country but in different universities which may belong to different
traditions. The gaps in our knowledge about the state of sociology
in Liberia should therefore be seen as a challenge to those who pro-
fess it in Liberia as well as for those, like us, who are trying to
monitor its development there. Sociology in Liberia stands in need
of a small but dedicated core of people who are committed to ex-
plaining it to the academic public. It may well be that its acceptance
and legitimacy amongst the academic community may depend

35
upon how well sociologists perform in the applied areas of social

welfare within which opportunities are now opening up for them in
their society, given the inner history of the discipline in Liberia.
Those who go into the Ministry of Social Welfare have a good op-
portunity to influence planning for social development and the ex-
ecution of social development plans. What is crucial in the next five
to ten years is the extent to which academic sociologists and civil
service sociologists can establish a strong professional bridge bet-
ween one another which will enable them to act in concert. Theory
and practice stand in a mutually beneficial relationship, ab inito in
the sociological enterprise in Liberia. This potential can be fulfilled
if this relationship is carefully fostered in the decade of the eighties
when, hopefully, the aggregate number of sociologists trained at
home in Liberia and abroad should have increased. It may even be
that a few new universities will be created in the decade ahead with
departments of sociology: thus sociology in Liberia will develop in
response to its own inner history, and that of the history of the na-
tion and people of that senior African state.
Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia
The University of Malawi is the only university in Malawi; but it is

a member of the Association of African Universities. Although, ac-
cording to my responden t49 there is no established Chair of

Sociology there yet, the subject is taught along with anthropology,
philosophy and psychology in the Department of Human Behavior
at Chancellor College of the University. There were, in 1976, two
full-time sociologists: Dr J. A. K. Kandawere and Miss J. Muwalo
at the University of Malawi. The former specialized in social in-
stitutions, sociological problems of colonial Africa and an-
thropological theory, while Miss Muwalos area of specialization is
urban sociology. Her current teaching interests are social change,
sociology of the family, and sociology of development.
Dr Kandawere took his Ph.D. in Edinburgh; Miss Muwalo
received her foundation training in sociology at home. She later did
additional work - a Diploma in Sociology and took a Masters
Degree from Manchester University. There used to be a third
member: J. M. Schoffelers, but he has left to join the Free Univer-
sity of Amsterdam. These active sociologists show in their current
research topics that sociology is very responsive in Malawi to the

36
problems of leadership, land tenure, the survival of oral traditions,

the changing roles of Malawi women, and to social welfare pro-
blems of poverty and old age. In both teaching and research the
academic tradition followed is British. Interdisciplinary research
involving the Department has not yet begun and the formation of a
profesisonal association is a thing of the distant future. As regards
the sources of research funds, the University underwrites all ex-
penses.
Diffusion of Sociological Knowledge
The following journals have served and are serving as outlets for
sociological communication from Malawi:
(1) Dziko: The Geographical Magazine.
(2) Journal of Eastern African Research and Development,
in Nairobi.
published
(3) Kalulu: A Bulletin of Malawian Oral Literature and
Cultural Studies, published by the Department of English,
University of Malawi.
(4) The Sociely of Malawi Journal, published in Blantyre.
(5) Africa: Journal of the international African Institute, Lon-
don.
(6) Journal of Social Science, published at the University of
Malawi.
(7) Cahiers des Religions Africaines.
Conferences and books also provide outlets for the works of
Malawian behavioural scientists, including sociologists and an-
thropologists.
The inner history of sociology in Malawi is very different from
that of Liberia; but it is reminiscent of its beginnings in many coun-
tries with a dominant British colonial educational tradition. The
survival of the colonial influence is reflected in the writings of Kan-
dawire Muwalo and Schoeffelers respectively, particularly in their
writings on land tenure matters, the mobilization of labour, and
rural development. It should be recalled that Malawis 3.75 million
people (according to a 1968 source) gained their independence on 6
July 1964 from Great Britain, but since then its economic
dependence on trade with the apartheid regime of South Africa has
not been reversed,50 nor have the effects of its establishment of for-
mal diplomatic relations with South Africa totally died out. The
salience of the racial discrimination issue and the challenge of the

37
liberation movements, along with the larger issues of social

development within the East African community as a whole, made
sufficient impact on the University to provoke a movement away
from the methodological and theoretical assumptions of pre-
independence social anthropology.
There is, however, a noticeable effort being made by the few
Malawian sociologists to know what is going on in the discipline
within other universities of Africa, and it may be hoped that the ex-
change of ideas will inevitably lead to the radicalization of
sociology in Malawi in the next decade.
When one considers the paucity of information on the state of
sociology in Malawi, the urgent need to seek, in a systematic man-
ner, a fuller knowledge of the East Africa region becomes clear and
immediate. The nearest source of information on sociology in the
entire eastern region of Africa is an eight year old report of the fifth
Annual Conference of the University of East Africa Social Science
Council. Even this source does not tell us in much detail what is
currently going on in sociology. We know that when the Social
Science Council of the University of East Africa held its twentieth
Conference in Nairobi, from 8 to 12 December 1969, three hun-
dred scholars drawn from the then Congo, Ethiopia, Lesotho,
Malagasy Republic, Malawi, the Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda,
Kenya, and Zambia, participated. The papers read and discussed at
the Nairobi Conference were divided into four parts. It is in part
three in particular Problems of Methodology in Social Science
-
Research in Africa; Sociology, Social Psychology and Education

that papers are found which have a direct bearing on this Trend
Report. At the turn of the century, sociology in the East African
community was dominated by such names as G. H. Boehringer, S.
J. Fjellman, A. Kuper, J. Van L. Mas, J. Weatherby, J. Rex, F.
Nursey-Bray, T.Weisner, J. N. Morgan, J. Fry and R. Woods and
J. Saul, and several others. There were also African-sounding
names such as A. Chilivambo, A. Matjeko, E. Muga and K. Ndeti.
At the Conference some of the topics which the papers touched
upon included the reliability of Zambian statistics, social defence
planning in Tanzania, the restructuring of state education in
Buganda before colonial domination, the role of fortune-tellers in
Nandi society, social and cultural change among the Luo in Kenya
and the socio-economic problems of resettlement schemes.
There were other papers some of which were of theoretical in-
terest, such as one on the concept of the intelligentsia by A. Mat-

38
jeko ; the concept of by J. Rex, and Saltmans study of the

race
status of customary law among the Kipsigis. One may classify
another of Matjekos papers on boundary-crossing as being
oriented towards internal migration. There is no doubt that these
topics pointed to the existence of more challenging research enter-
prises by sociologists in the East Africa region. At this point it is
important to state that by the beginning of the 1970s, the centre of
social science research and teaching had shifted from Makerere Un-
iversity to the University College of Nairobi, where there were such
leading sociologists as Professor Arthur T. Porter, who at the same
time was the Universitys Vice-Chancllor, and Professor Zev Bar-
bu. Professor James Coleman was director of the Institute of
Development Studies; while Dr John Kiernan represented the
Department of History and Dr S. Kimeni the Geography Depart-
ment.
The Vice-Chancellor explained this shift as follows in his address
of welcome:
In the preceeding decade, Makerere undoubtedly commanded the acknowledged

leadership in the social sciences in this region. Makereres distinguished East
African Institute of Social Research created, nurtured, and institutionalized this
Annual Conference as a regional gathering and earned for it an international
report for its scholarly excellence. 61
However, he added that the number and composition of scholars

taking partin conferences since the shift to Nairobi had increased
and had become greatly diversified. In addition, he noted that:
The number of African social scientists presenting papers has quadrupled (six to
twenty-four); that there is a noticeably greater diversity of nationalities
represented among the non-African social scientists; that the number of in-
dividual scholars from Universities in the other countries of Eastern Africa has
increased more than ten fold (two to twenty-two); and that the number of invited
student participants has increased from virtually nil to a total of forty-five, in-
vited from the three University Colleges, including students at postgraduate and
undergraduate levels. This increased participation by both established and
potential African social scientists and the expansion in the number of par-
ticipants from University Institutes within Africa, from Lesotho, Malawi, the
Congo Kinshasa, Ethiopia and Sudan, means that the Conference is becoming at
once markedly African, and at the same time, more cosmopolitan.
The address of welcome also talked about the opportunities

which faced the social sciences at the time as a result of the

39
generous provision University College Councils made for the

development of the social sciences in (that) region. That was some
eight years ago. Today, the University College of Nairobi has at-
tained full status as the University of Nairobi. Uganda has also her
Makerere University and Zambia, her University of Zambia. With
these universities emerging, and with many more still to come in
response to the continuing demand for university education
throughout Africa, more departments of sociology will no doubt
emerge, whose main thrust may well be towards increased

knowledge of the various societies that are being formed and of
which the universities themselves are parts.
Nigeria
Since the publication, in 1974, of Contemporary Sociology in
Nigeria&dquo;12 by this author, new departments of sociology have been
introduced, to undertake necessary fields of study, in the Univer-
sities of Benin, Calabar, Jos, Maiduguri and Sokoto. In a recent
stencilled brochure, Professor Justin J. Tseayo, Head of the
Department of Sociology, University of Jos, writes about the ob-
ject of sociology in that new university in these terms:
Sociology in the University of Jos does not intend to shut itself off from the rest
of the non-African Sociological World, nevertheless we do not intend to be prin-
cipally a bastion of the &dquo;Western Sociological Tradition&dquo;, and thus removed
from our own African peoples and their social environment. Sociology in Jos
will direct itself to tackling the question of how to transform our social structures
and processes into viable social institutions, through teaching and the promotion
of relevant research.
Further on he declares:
In other words sociology in Jos is going to be responsible for organizing the use
of sociological knowledge in ways aimed directly at coping with our national
issues, i.e. how the African cultural background and national resources, can and
should contribute to solving our present problems and needs. For example, there
is the pressing phenomenon of urbanism and urban growth in Nigeria. What do
these mean and by what characteristics can we define them: by physical size,
character of ethnic relations, economic and technological features or the com-
position of its population?
These two statements indicate the teaching and research con-

40
cerns, not only of the University of Jos, but also of the other newer
departments as well. Sociology is coming of age in Nigeria. It now
enjoys the same recognition on most, if not all campuses, as
political science, economics and geography. Chairs of sociology are
currently held in Lagos, Ibadan, Nsukka, Jos, and Benin Univer-
sities, the last two being newer universities. There are sociologists
who hold the post of Senior Lecturer in all the universities, while
at the University of Ife the highest position currently held by a
sociologist is that of Reader. Due to its inner history, the University
at Ile-Ife has not been able to fill its chair of sociology yet. There is
a large corps of creative, young, up-and-coming scholars (both men
and women) not only teaching in universities, but also in the
polytechnics as well. A few more are engaged in research at In-
stitutes of Social and Economic Research at the Univerities of
Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello. Today one of the Federal Commis-
sioners is a sociologist and a former lecturer at the University of
Lagos. Another, an industrial sociologist, is also a Commissioner
in Ogun State.
In the work referred to above, this author traced the place of
sociology as an intellectual discipline in Nigeria and discussed its
professionalization. At that time (1974), sociology and an-
thropology did occupy less enviable positions vis-d-vis other social
sciences. I also reviewed extensively the ongoing teaching and
research interests of most of the sociologists in the country. To-
day, a number of books have been published by Nigerian
sociologists. Peter Ekeh, of the University of Ibadan, has published
Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions;53 Ikenna Nzimiro,
Studies in the Political Systems; Chieftancy and Politics in Four
Niger States;54 T. O. Odetola, Military Politics in Nigeria:
Economic Development and Political Stability,55 and more recent-
ly, Ethnic Relations in Nigeria56 has appeared, edited by A. O. San-
da. In addition, there are the books on Tiv political structure by
Professor Justin Tseqyo of Jos University and on the Social An-
thropology of Africa by M. Onwujeogwu .51 Two books by E. E.
Ekong are forthcoming, firstly the Sociology of the Ibibio and
secondly, Evaluating Development: The Case of Western Nigeria
(soon to be released by a Nigerian publisher, Ilesanmi Press). In ad-
dition O. Imoagenes, Social Mobility in Emergent Society, A
Study of the New Elite in Western Nigeria, is to be released by the
Australian National University Press.58 Mention should also be
made of the unpublished doctoral dissertation by Ibrahim A.

41
Tahir, Scholars, Sufis, Saints and Capitalists in Kano, 1904-1974.

The Pattern of Bourgeois Revolution in an Islamic Society, submit-
ted to the University of Cambridge in fulfillment of the re-
quirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Also of note is
the doctoral dissertation by Martin Igbozurike, entitled, Problem
Generating Structures in Nigerias Rural Development, published
by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, 1976.
In addition to books, several new journals have been established
in Nigeria for social scientists. These are the Nigerian Behavioural
Science Quarterly, under the editorship of D. J. Idiang, Depart-
ment of Political Science, University of Calabar, and the Nigerian
Social Science Review, under the editorship of O. Ojo, Department
of Economics, University of Ife. Mention should be made too of
the Nigerian Journal of Manpower Studies, produced from the
Faculty of Business Administration, University of Lagos, and the
West African Journal of Sociology and Political Science, edited by
Justin Labinjoh, Department of Political Science, University of
Exeter, England, now a member of the Department of Sociology,
University of Ibadan. The most recent learned journal is edited by
Dr Akin Sanda, from the same Department, and is called the
Nigerian Social Science Quarterly Review. Finally, it should be
recorded that the Nigerian Journal of Anthropology and
Sociology, the official organ of the Nigerian Anthropological and
Sociological Association is now being edited by William Ogiowo,
Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan. He succeeds the
late Professor Francis O. Okediji as Editor.
Creative Confrontation
We have already seen how, in Ghana, a critical analysis of society
and a critical approach to sociological practice, by members of the
various schools or traditions, represent a creative response on the
part of sociology to the development of Ghananian society. The
present state of sociology in Nigeria is not, in a general sense, very
different from the situation in Ghana. There is also a group of
sociologists here who apply the Marxist-Leninist theory of the
materialistic basis of social existence and the historico-dialectical
method to the explanation of social phenomena.
Fortunately, annual general meetings provide the needed forums
for the discussion of topical issues and also mutual criticism.
Unlike Ghana where the Cape Coast is seen as the main seat of

42
radical sociology, the Nigerian sociological radicals may be found

in at least three universities. There are, however, those who see, ac-
cording to I. Eteng, 59 of the University of Nigeria in any sociologist
the radicalizing objective of the association since Nigerias tradi-
tional social past demands a fusing together of patriotism and
scholarship. However, as Eteng was quick to point out, the
development of a radical Nigerian sociology, realistically speak-
ing, faces major constraints, some of which are historically
politico-ideological as well as institutional. To clarify his state-
ment, Inya Eteng asks these profound and basic questions:
How do we resocialize a majority of Nigerian sociologists and anthropologists

whose basic training in Euro-American institutions does not equip them either
with a radical orientation or the intellectual flexibility to accommodate new
paradigms? How do we get across the fundamental fact that a majority of
Nigerian social scientists are typical, intellectual compradores in the service of
capitalism and neo colonialism? How do we sell our new wares to incredible
conservative Nigerian publics and the governing elite who are either generally ig-
norant of what sociology basically is, or who erroneously believe that sociology
is fundamentally synomynous with socialism? How can a radicalizing orienta-
tion thrive in the Nigerian society where the civil war and other drastic
secularization processes have intensified an increasing monetarization of tradi-
tional wholesome relationships and our moral philsophy of alirLIlsm? How effec-
tively will the new radical sociologists and anthropologists play their liherating
ovant-garde role given the present constraints of structured inequalities,
monolithic and unresponsive decision-making processes, pervasive corruption
and clientelistic dependency relations in the Nigerian society?
The main issues in sociology in Nigeria today stem from honesi

attempts to answer the question:. What should an authentic
Nigerian sociology be like? Some sociologists, including this
author, see the main issue now as being essentially a conceptual
one. It appears that if the conceptual schemes or paradigms of ex-
planation which came with sociology from Europe and the United
States are to be adequate, then they must, (a) be developed into
new ones whose units of explanation include those which carry
African significations; (b) creative efforts must be undertaken at
synthesizing the contradictory approaches to the study of society in
Africa; (c) a serious charge must be counteracted which is made
against the developments taking place among African social scien-
tists in general, and sociologists in particular, namely that of har-
bouring attitudes which are tantamount to intellectual nationalism
and isolation, and hence, (d) Nigerian sociologists must

43
demonstrate a creative awareness of the work of European,

American and Third World sociologists in their own works. On the
other hand this important task of developing new concepts which
are capable of capturing the linguistic and dialectical nuances of
particular language communities in Africa should also be viewed as

part of a more fundamental one: that of generating one common
international language for sociology, il~ a babel of tongues is not to
emerge.
Next in importance to the conceptual issue is that of the com-
munication and diffusion of sociological knowledge in Nigeria.
Given a strong belief in the fictitious nature of some supposed in-
ternational standard, which is endorsed by certain well placed
members of the Nigerian academic power-elite today, and implies
that Nigerian scholars must first achieve acceptance and recogni-
tion by European and American scholars, then several fundamental
issues present themselves what to communicate? Who should it
-
be aimed at? What ought constitute the acceptable style of com-

to
munication and format of scholarly journals? All of these loom
large in discussions about the diffusion of sociological knowledge
of Nigeria. Related to these problems concerning the communica-
tion of knowledge is a fundamental inability or unwillingness on
the part of the Nigerian intellectuals, generally, to depart from the
methodological paradigms inherited from their universities of
socialization. On the other hand, there are some Nigerian
sociologists who advocate the re-writing of the socio-economic
history of their society in the hope that this would be likely to
stimulate methodological breakthroughs in the attempt to clarify
new approaches to the object of study. Furthermore, there are
others who hold that the critical revision of the major works of
European, American and Third World writers may itself facilitate
the communication of sociological knowledge. Finally, there re-
mains the problem of the relative isolation of African sociologists
from one another at national, regional and continental levels. In-
creased contacts between sociologists, not only in Nigerian univer-
sities but in and between universities in different parts of Africa, is
seen as a positive step towards reducing such isolation. The rich but
conflicting body of ideas, definitions and beliefs, which now preoc-

cupy sociologists in Nigeria today, can be subsumed under the
generic notion of RADICALIZING SOCIOLOGY. Thus the com-
ing of age of sociology in Nigeria is accompanied by the
phenomenon of intellectual radicalization amongst its practitioners.

44
Zaire
The present state of Sociology in Zaire, the former Democratic

Republic of the Congo, is best considered within the framework of
the complex structure of its university system. In 1971, the Univer-
si1 Nationale du Zaire (UNAZA) was established. It incorporated
the former three individual but interdependent universities which
have now become local campuses of the National University. Ac-
cording to the source-material on OAU member countries, Zaire,
w~hose capital is Kinshasha, had a population of 15 million in-
habitants by 1968. There are no current figures available on the
total number of students in the universities. What is clear is that
eleven years after her independence, the Republic of Zaire has
formed one strong institution of higher learning from the former
Universit Lovanium, otherwise called the Catholic University,
established by the Belgians and located in Kinshasa, the former
Ulliversit Officielle du Congo (OUC), otherwise called the State or
Secular University, located in Lubumbashi, and the former Free
University of Zaire, otherwise called the Protestant University,
located in Kisangani.
The educational programmes of these branch-universities are to-
day divided along the lines of different Schools. On the Kinshasa
Campus there are the Schools of Medicine, Law, Economics,
Science (including mathematics, physics and chemistry) and the
School of Engineering (where public building, electricity, and civil
engineering are taught). The UNAZA at the Lubumbashi Campus
also has five schools of Letters, Veterinary Medicine, and
-
Medicine, Social Science, Science and Engineering. At the School

of Social Science, politics, public service (i.e. public administra-
tion), sociology and anthropology are offered. At the School of
Science, geology, minerology and geography are offered, as well as
mining, metallurgy, and industrial chemistry. Finally, there are
three Schools at the Kisangani Campus, namely Schools of Farm-
ing and Agricultural Sciences, Educational Sciences, and Science.
At the School of Educational Sciences courses in psychology,
pedagogy and professional training are offered.
The Place of Sociology
The only chair of sociology in Zaire is at the School of Sciences in
the Lubumbashi Campus, whilst there are sub-departments of

45
sociology on the Kinshasa and Kisangani Campuses respectively.

The latter campus is located in the upper region of Zaire. Many of
the Zairean sociologists have doctorate degrees and some of their
main areas of specialization are anthropology and political science.
In addition to doctoral degrees, some Zairean sociologists have
taken the licence in philosophy, public administration, pedagogy
and ethnology. The following are some of the current areas of
research interest of these sociologists: urban anthropology, witch-
craft and sorcery, mass media, political institutions and the
sociology of work.
One of the leading sociologists in Zaire is Doctor Ngoma
Ngamm Kukabile me Ngumba, Professeur Ordinaire, in the
Facult des Sciences Economiques at the Kinshasa Campus. Pro-
fessor Ngoma was born at Dianga-Luozi, in Lower Zaire. He
studied pedagogy and education at the former Universit Officielle
du Congo (OUC), from which he graduated with distinction in the
equivalent of the B.Sc. (Education) in Nigeria or Ghana. He holds
a licence in social anthropology, a Diploma in Political Science,
and a Doctorate in Sociology from the Sorbonne, Paris. He is also
proficient in English and holds the Certificat danglais. He has held
very important occupational positions in Zaire between 1950 and
1970 when he became Rector of his alma mater and Vice Rector of
the National University. He has attended several international con-
gresses including those held by the ISA at Evian in 1966, and at
Varna in 1970, and has several publications to his credit. He has
been Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago, the University
of British Columbia and the University of Brazzaville. Among his
colleagues today are Drs Bola Nteto, Bukasa Tulu, Malembe
Tanzem, Munzada Babole and Muwabila Molela on the Lubum-
bashi and Kinshasa Campuses. It is in the hands of men and women
sociologists of the calibre of Professor Ngoma that the develop-
ment of sociology in Africa lies at present.
Southern Africa
Two of the objectives laid down at the foundations of the Con-

ference of African Universities held at Rabat, Morocco, in
November 1967 were (a) to promote interchange, contact and co-
operation among university institutions in Africa, and (b) to en-
courage the development and wider use of African languages.
When considered against these two objectives the universities of so-
46
called Southern African are deficient in themselves, regardless of

the reasons that have accounted for their deficiencies. The main
cause is the leading role that the universities of the apartheid Union
of South Africa have played and are playing in the organization of
higher education in that region of the continent. By Southern
African is meant, in this Report, the Union of South Africa,
Namibia or the former South-Western Africa, and Zimbabwe,
otherwise called Rhodesia. This of course contrasts with the usage
employed by the publishers of the Journal of Southern African
Studies, edited from the Department of Political Science, Universi-
ty of Bristol, England, in co-operation with the Association for
Sociologists in Southern Africa (ASSA). This group considers the
following as constituting Southern Africa: the Republic of South
Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia,
Malawi, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Angola and Mozambique. On
some occasions, the editors of the Journal also include Zaire, the
Malagasy Republic and Mauritius.

The isolation of Rhodesia and the Repubic of South Africa from
the rest of Africa is physical, political, intellectual, and also
spiritual to some extent, for as Dr E. N. Dafala, Vice-Chancellor,
University of Khartoum has put it:
The African University should be looked upon not only as a material institution
but also as the depository and promoter of all the good values inherent in the
African culture and language. It should live with its society, ever ready to study
and disseminate knowledge about the achievements of individuals outside its
walls. Likewise, the African University should live with the world community,
upholding its identity but sharing contributions with it, realizing the whole time
that the area of knowledge is a human heritage, handed from the past through
the present to the future, from which all can draw and to which all those worthy
should contribute. 60
The various universities in those two countries are not known

nowadays for promoting the good values of the various African
cultures within their territories, nor do they disseminate, if indeed
they study, their knowledge of the achievements of their black
members. They sometimes give the impression that during the
decades of the sixties and seventies, they lived with the rest of the
world community without sharing with it their knowledge of their
own societies and peoples. This, to me, has been due to the
ideology and policy of racism which is the bedrock of the governing

bodies in those two southern states of Africa. Racism, in my judge-
ment, prevents the attainment of what Anthony F. C. Wallace has
termed psychic unity with the rest of the human groups in Africa
47
-
which would, in turn, have facilitated cross-cultural com-
munication. The paradox of racism in the Union of South Africa
and in Zimbabwe is that these two societies continue to exist to all,
given their different maze ways. As Wallace defines it, a maze-
way is the organized totality of learned meanings maintained by an
individual (organism, person, or groups) at any time.&dquo; To explain
the paradox of the continued existence of the social orders of Zim-
babwe and South Africa one may start from Wallaces view point
that Societies of organisms will be to a greater or lesser degree
culturally organized if the organisms are sufficiently proximate and
sufficiently capable of learning so that their maze-ways will contain
either identical or merely equivalent meanings for a standard
stimulus. 6
One would therefore expect the sociological enterprise in these
countries to be concerned, to a greater or to a lesser degree, with
the examination and critical analysis of this paradox of the con-
tinued existence of these societies which have been organized
around the dominant ideology or policy of apartheid or
separateness of human groups. This expectation has prompted me
to examine selected papers submitted at the First Annual Con-
ference of the Sociological Association of Southern Africa for clues
as to the sociological insights attained by Southern African
sociologists into the pervasive issues of their social orders.

The Association for Sociology in Southern Africa was formed in
July 1971, after a year of careful preparation. 61 Its first President is
Professor S. P. Cilliers, of the University of Stellenbosch, and its
first General Secretary is Homero Ferrinho of the Centro Mocam
bico de Estudos Co-operation, Mocambique. Members of the Ex-
ecutive Council were drawn from higher institutions of learning in
South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Angola. Probably because of its
racial policy, the first Annual General Meeting was held at the
Scientific Research Institute of Mocambique, Louren~o Marques,
from 26 June to 1 July 1972. It is significant to note that the grant
to publish the papers presented at the Meeting was provided by the
Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa Ltd., and De Beers _
Consolidated Mines Ltd., also of South Africas

Among the published papers used as references in this Report are
those by sociologists from the following South African univer-
sities : Cape Town, Natal, Stellenbosch, and Witwatersrand, and
from the University of Malawi, and University of Rhodesia respec-
tively. Professor Wade C. Pendleton from California State Univer-
sity was the only contributor from a University outside the African
48
continent. I shall now consider first the following two papers:

Some Remarks on the State of Sociology by S. P. Cilliers, first
President of the Association, and The Values Problem and the
Role of the Sociologist in Society: towards Humanistic Sociology,
by Jan J. Loubser. Professor Cilliers Presidential Address, in
which he reviewed the state of sociology, is most disappointing
because it tells us nothing about the state of sociology in Southern
Africa; it is rather a brilliant and sensitive assessment of the state of
sociology in general. In it, there is displayed an impressive
knowledge of the contributions of notable American sociologists
beginning with Talcott Parsons and including Zetterberg, Robert
Merton, C. Wright Mills, and more recent writers like Alvin
-
Gouldner, Robert W. Friedrichs, and Jackson Toby. Controversial

sociologists like Irving L. Horowitz were conspicuously absent,
although it was admitted that the advancement of sociology as an
academic and scientific discipline is dependent upon continuous
critical evaluation15 and that it is most enlightening to apply the
rest of the sociology of knowledge in an exposition of the develop-
ment of sociology itself.66 The review, however, was also concern-
ed with describing the internal state of our discipline as well as
the status of the discipline in the public arena. Professor Cilliers
could have seized the opportunity offered him to comment, at least
for the benefit of sociologists in other parts of Africa, on the status
of sociology in the Southern African region. The faintest hint
about the attitude of the public to sociology in Southern Africa is
contained in the following seemingly harmless statement: although
it is rather ironical that while the main internal revolt is currently
directed against alleged conservatism- the main charge from exter-
nal sources is one alleged radicalism. 67 His reference to Peter
Bergers article Sociology and Freedom, published in The
American Sociologist (1971) helped further to crystallize the con-
tradictory images which appear to be held of sociology in South
Africa. I suggest that these statements: (1) sociology is subversive
of established patterns of thought, and (2) that sociology is con-
servative in its implications for the institutional order, reveal more
about the state of sociology in South Africa than about the state of
sociology in general. In other words, this Presidential Address is
more significant for what it does not say about the state of
sociology in Southern Africa, and for what is said between the lines
than for anything else. This is also the case for what is said, im-
plicitly, about the reasons why young South African students take

49
to the discipline and their expectations of it.

While Professor Cilliers Address is concerned with the state of
sociology in international circles, Jan J. Loubsers paper remains
closer to home. He mentioned the existence of a sociological
association in Suid-Afrika, called The Suid Afrikannse
Sociologiese Verenigning, and also refers to the preoccupation of
several national associations with the professional ethics of
sociology. His main concern is with the conflict between the so
called establishment of the profession and those generally refer-
red to as practising radical activist sociology. 68 Again, however,
like Cilliers, he avoids any direct discussion of the conflict within
the Republic of South Africa between establishment sociologists
and the radicals. This is not to deny the importance of this paper
which contains quite explicit propositions favouring the humanistic
tradition in sociology. Also, one can read between the lines that the
training of young South Africans in the field of sociology is such
that it has probably improved their effectiveness as social critics
and enhanced the validity of their criticism of social injustice in the
Republic. It is also likely that the very effectiveness and validity of
their critique have earned or are earning a bad name for sociology
from some who now want to see an end to it, or the end to those
who profess it in the Union of South Africa. How otherwise does
one interpret the statement; it is small wonder that social and
political injustice will tend to be intolerant of the discipline of

sociology. It was not a mere personal idiosyncracy of Adolf Hitler
which led to the persecution of sociologists under the Nazi
Regime?69
Jan J. Loubser, however, has raised a very serious charge against
sociologists in general which is particularly relevant for African
sociologists. This is that it is most regrettable that so much time
and energy is being devoted by sociologists to commenting in sub-
jective vein on their colleagues and predecessors,7 while they ig-
nore the outside world which is assailed by problems of un-
precedented complexity and magnitude.&dquo; This undoubted tenden-

cy may lead in Southern Africa, and specifically in Suid Afrika and
Zimbabwe, to a considerable disenchantment with sociology.
Social Issues and Social Problems
The empirical studies contained in the ASSA proceedings tell us a

lot more about the social issues with which Southern African

50
sociologists are concerned than do the two theoretical papers of

Cilliers and Loubser. For example, Michael Savage of the Universi-
ty of Witwatersrand, in his study of interlocking directorships in
South Africa, reveals a great deal about the enormous, far
reaching, exploitative economic and political powers of those who
control the South African national economy. This study also
demonstrates the potential use of Gerhard Lenskis status con-
sistency theory in the study of the distribution of directorships
within different categories of companies. This paper should be read
as a companion to chapters 7 to 12 in Kwame Nkrumahs, Neo-
Colonialism. 72
The Last Stage of Imperialist

B. A. Phipps paper on the process of social change in Malawi from
colonial to independence times, tries to identify and describe the
various types of entrepreneurs in Malawi. His generalizations may
be extended to all Africa, although certain ones are now out of date
for some areas. Sociologists in West Africa may find that Wade C.
Pendletons Ethnicity as a factor in occupation prestige contains
valuable information about the practice of apartheid in Namibia;
the most obnoxious aspect being the deliberate creation of an inter-
ethnic boundary-maintenance system even within the African
population.
Space does not permit a detailed review of all the other papers
presented at the ASSAs first Annual General Meeting, therefore I
shall present a summary of them. These papers may be divided into
(a) those with a theoretical concern, (b) those of methodological
interest, and, (c) others focussing on social problems in South
Africa. Papers in the last set included a study of the unification of
South Africas white oligarchy which is made up of Afrikaaner
and English elites respectively. This paper is, theoretically speak-
ing, a study of structural integration. There are also studies of
Jewish ethnic persistence, of the Cape Coloureds as a minority
group, and a study of rural-urban migration among African
females in Southern Natal. In the same set, but of a more
theoretical nature, are (d) a study of the perception of personal
adequacy, and (e) a social survey of anomie as a correlate of
authoritarianism and ethnocentrism among 15 ethnic groups in the
Johannesburg municipality.
There were also two papers on Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) whose

51
primary emphases were on methodological skills. One of the papers

was a study of social stratification among African women, while
the other was concerned with the relation between aspiration and
achievement among African secondary school students. Daniel J.
Websters Mozambique study, of Chopi Kinship classificatory
terms, stood out, both in its methodology and insight, as an impor-
tant study in cognitive anthropology or the sociology of African
knowledge. Finally, there were another two noteworthy papers en-
titled Towards a Dynamic Conception of Social Order by T. Dun-
bar Moodie, and Deviant or Variant? Some sociological perspec-
tives on homosexuality and its substructure, by Brunhilde Helm, a
Cape Town study of male homosexuality among the white
populace.
I should like to conclude this section on sociology in Southern
Africa with an observation. There is no doubt that the sociologists
in Southern Africa, as defined earlier on, are interested in a
number of social issues in their apartheid social system which their
colleagues in other parts of Africa should also endeavour to know
about. However, there is no direct evidence of their critical con-
frontation with the system. Instead, rather, there appears to be a
strong theoretical dependence on leading American theorists and
methodologists. As the liberation movement hots up in Namibia,
Zimbabwe and in Suid Afrika itself, it will be interesting to watch
if sociology and sociologists will continue to enjoy the patronage
of both the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa Limited
and De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. How many sociologists
will be forced to leave the country for other parts of Africa,
Europe, or the USA if they discover that they must in the final
analysis repudiate the ideology and policy of the South African
government?
Tunisia
The Centre dEtudes et de Recherches Economiques et Sociales

(CERES) of the University of Tunis is one of the most active cen-
tres for social science studies and research in Africa. Through its
prestigious journal, the Revue Tunisienne de Sciences Sociales the
research interests and orientations of not only those in economics
but also those in linguistics, Islamic studies, and sociology are
widely publicized throughout the arabophone and francophone

52
countries of Africa. The Revue also provides a respectable forum

for geographers and students of literature and aesthetics, as well as
those engaged in the specialized study of patrimony. The
sociological cahiers include works by such as internationally known
Tunisian sociologists such as Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, and Has-
souna Ben Amor, and others with expatriate-sounding names such
as Paul Sebag and Carmel Carmilleri.
The sociological enterprise in Tunisia is based in several universi-
ty departments. Among these are the Facult des Lettres CERES,
CERFAG, ENA and the Ecole du Service Social, all at the Univer-
sity of Tunis. The sociologists, and these include anthropologists,
who work at the Facult des Lettres comprise two women and three
men, while those at the CERES also include representatives of both
sexes. The following are the CERES sociologists: Mme Badra
Bchir, Mme Naima Karoui, Hachmi Karoui, Salah Hanzaoui,

Khelil Zamiti, Bechir Maaloul, Brahim Bouzaiane, and Abdelkader
Zghal. Those working at the other centres are Lilia Ben Salem,
Alya Baffoun, and Tahar Lebib Jedidi. For most of the sociologists
listed above, it was possible to obtain a list of ongoing research pro-
jects from CERES, including work by both permanent and
associate members, for 1976. Their- research topics then included
the study of elites and development, social change in Saharan set-
tlements (rural and urban communities) and in Kairouan. There
was a joint study being conducted by Mrs Salah Hamzaoui and the
husband and wife team Hachmi and Naima Karoui. There was also
Stamboulis study of rural schizophrenia in Tunisia from the close
of the World War II. This represents a sample of the ongoing
research projects in the sociological division of CERES.
A number of sociological works have been published over the
years. The most recent was published in June 1976 (number three in
a monograph series), entitled Dveloppement et le Probleme de
cadres: le case de la Tunisie by Lilia Ben Salem. The first in this
series of monographs appeared in 1968 and was prepared jointly by
Paul Sebag, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba et al., and entitled Les Precorr-
ditions Sociales de lindustrialisation dans la rgion de Tunis.73 The
second represented the transactions of the colloquium on Identit
culturelle et conscience nationale en Tunisie. I should mention two
very recent articles whose titles greatly fascinate me and for which
it is desirable to have English translations. These are Badra
BChirs Lcombinatoire dramatique du Theatre en Tunisie, and
Larabisation: probl~me ideologique by Salah Hamzaoui,

53
which appeared in the Revue Tunisienne de Sciences Sociales, Vol.

13, No. 34, 1976.
In all of these and other sociological works, the tradition of
scholarship was French, even though arab script is often used in the
publication of works by scholars in Islamic studies. It is difficult,
however, to judge the extent of French influence from the reference
in the footnotes alone. It should be added here that the Tunisian
government is the sole source of research funds. Lest I am guilty of
an oversight, it should also be mentioned that a considerable
amount of work is conducted in demography and some of these
studies are concerned with various demographic aspects of life in
Northern Africa since the post-war years.
Despite the fact that French is the official language of sociology
in Tunisia, the discipline is, I suspect, Maghrebian in outlook and
involvement. By this I mean that the major social issues with which
colleagues grapple in their research activities can be seen to concern
not only Tunisia but other countries in that northwestern corner of
Africa -
which Andrew Boyd and Patrick van Rensburg described

as the relatively fertile coastal belt, 2,600 miles long and, except in
Morocco, seldom more than 100 miles wide.

They share an Arab-Berber configuration of culture. Boyd and
van Rensburg have grouped Tunisia, Lybia, Algeria, Nlorocco,
Spanish Sahara, Mauritania, and Ifni under the Maghreb. Tunisia

now belongs to the Organization of African Unity, modern Tunisia
having gained its independence from France on 20 March 1956.

When, therefore, we try to conceptualize sociology in Tunisia from
a distance, we can, at least, do so within the context of both its
geographical and cultural dimensions. Even though economic and

social factors are common to a number of countries in the Maghrab
there are certain aspects of the internal economic, cultural and
social structure which are peculiar to Tunisia. Nevertheless, of
greater importance are the historical impacts of contacts with other
powers which have served to shape Tunisian civilization: the
French in the recent past, the Arabs and Islam in remoter times,
and before them, the Romans, who were themselves preceded by
the Greeks and Pheonicians. All these factors, in addition to con-
tacts through trade with Kano and other historic centres of trade in
what are now Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, and Chad in the thirteenth to
the seventeenth centuries, are the formative elements of Tunisian
society today. They are the building blocks of Tunisian society of
whose statics and dynamics, in the Comtean sense of these terms,

54
contemporary sociology is attempting to uncover. The highest

Tunisian institution of learning, the Universit de Tunis which is
the seat of the sociological enterprise, reflects the historico-cultural .
dimensions of Maghrebian civilization by being a member of both

the Association of African Universities and, at the same time, an
active member of LAssociation des Universifs Arabes.
Significantly membership in the latter organization includes univer-
sities from Jordan, Beyrout, Bagdad, and Khartoum, to mention
but a few Middle-Eastern universities. Members of these univer-
sities have been studying ways and means of exchanging staff,
students and teaching methods, and the coordination of research
where possible.
In this section of this Report there is obviously a definite gap in
our knowledge about sociology qua sociology, in the arab-speaking
region. One would like to know the content and orientation of
sociological training at the University of Tunis, what degree pro-
grammes exist, what textbooks are used, how many chairs of
sociology exist if any, and the academic backgrounds of the lec-
turers and professors who are sociologists. Until this and other in-
formation is provided by Tunisian sociologists themselves, the
scope of this section of the Report must be considered as inade-
quate.
5
SOCIOLOGY AND UNESCOs ACTIVITIES IN AFRICA
This part of the Trend Report is a brief but bold incursion,into an

aspect whch may rightly be regarded by some readers as tangential
to the Report. Yet I have the feeling that a Trend Report on
sociology in Africa today is incomplete without some discussion of
UNESCOs efforts to make a significant contribution to the
development of the discipline in Africa.
Now, to do this is not an easy task because of the complex struc-
ture of the delivery system for UNESCOs intellectual, moral and
financial support to social scientists in general, and to those in
Africa in particular. For example, it is possible to trace the impetus
for sociological development in Africa from UNESCO through the
International Sociological Associations (ISA) Executive Commit-
tee, congresses, and research committees. Whenever an African

55
sociologist participates in the activities of any ISA congress or in

any of its sub-bodies, that sociologist is likelyto be a direct or an
indirect beneficiary of UNESCOs support. William M. Evan, of
the USA, in a paper delivered before the Special Session on
Sociology in UNESCO and International Organizations at the
World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, August 1974, observed
how a content analysis of the papers presented at ISA World Con-
gresses between 1953 and 1966 reveals several indices of the interna-
tionalization of subject matter, authorship, citations, et cetera.
Among the authors, citations and subjects were some which
represented different sections of Africa. Such representation has
been made possible by UNESCOs policy of contributing to those
international organizations in which African participation may be
mere tokenism, but it is a tokenism which often too has far
reaching, unanticipated, but beneficial consequences for sociology

or the social sciences in general.
Consequent upon the increasing participation of African social

scientists in international conferences, UNESCO has taken a bolder
step forward with different resolutions designed to develop social
science in Third World countries by working through National
Commissions. Unfortunately, certain National Commissions have
sometimes failed to live up to the expectations of UNESCO, Paris,
or of the local sociologists, when it comes to liaising between the
local social scientists and the Paris headquarters in matters affec-
ting financial support of national or regional conferences, or the
publication of conference proceedings. This is because, more often
than not, the officials at some National Commissions, though good
administrators per se, are primarily civil servants trained in
disciplines other than sociology, economics or allied social sciences.
There is the fact too that the offices of some National UNESCO
Commissions are located in the capitals of African nations and are
generally inaccessible to the social science departments of univer-
sities which are established in provincial towns or on entirely new
locations in the hinterland.
The point being made is that it is not in all African countries that
sociologists, or other social scientists for that matter, benefit max-
imally from UNESCOs activities in Africa through the National
Commissions of member countries. There are constraining factors,
such as the particular style of local civil service bureaucracy, the
academic backgrounds and interests of the staff at the World Na-
tional Commission, and the particular preferences of the ministry

56
within which the Commission may be located.

Another avenue of indirect UNESCO assistance to sociology in
Africa is the International Social Science Council (ISSC) whose ac-
tivities are, in part, financed by UNESCO. Recently, in 1974, a
Committee on World Social Science Development was established
by the General Assembly of the ISSC to review conditions and in-
frastuctures for social science research in the Third World and to
prepare specific projects across three continents: Africa, Asia, and
Latin America. Although this project was successfully launched in
1975, there are no clear and immediate pay-offs for sociology in
Africa. However, one of the most encouraging statements came
from the late Professor Stein Rokkan, the previous President of the
ISSC. He said,
The interdisciplinary programme of the ISSC can only be developed in close con-
sultation with the social science sector of UNESCO. lt is essential that the two
programmes be co-ordinated to ensure maximal multiplication effects. The ISSC
programme must of necessity reflect a greater concern with the health and
growth of the social sciences as intellectual enterprises in their own right, while
UNESCO obeying the instructions of Member Governments, will be more inclin-
ed to treat the social sciences as arsenals of tools to be used in its efforts to pro-
mote socioeconomic and cultural development. 74
However, it should be remembered that not all member Govern-

ments of UNESCO regard the social sciences as relevant arsenals of
tools to be used in efforts at social development, nor is it universal-
ly the case that sociology is even perceived as a tool at all. While,
therefore, agreeing that the establishment of a distinctive social
science section within UNESCO is highy commendable, perhaps
the time has now come when thought should be given to its sub-
division into complimentary departments of economics,
geography, sociology, anthropology, social psychology and
history. Such a sub-divsion, despite the potential problem of un-
necessary competition within the social science sector, may never-
theless facilitate the earmarking of specific funds to each discipline
by National Commissions.
As one approaches the regional level, there is another indirect
manner in which the social science sector of UNESCO may prove
to be of help to sociology in Africa. That is, by convincing
member-governments of the importance of establishing a National
Social Science Council which can harness local social science talent
and provide some leadership in the applied sphere or in relation to

57
the constitutive disciplines. In this respect the Centre for Co-

ordination of Research and Documentation in Social Science for
Sub-Saharan Africa (CERDAS), under the directorship of Pro-
fessor Bongoy Mkepesa in Kinshasa, Zaire (as well as the
CODESRIA) have far reaching influences to exert on behalf of
UNESCO. Already these two institutions which are becoming more
widely known throughout the anglophonic regions of Africa may
find themselves being called upon to undertake innovative roles on
behalf of UNESCO member-countries. It is very encouraging to
note that those two organizations are seeking ways and means of
contributing effectively to the intellectual and organizational ac-
tivities of national sociological associations. It is hoped that
UNESCO, or similar agencies, can make funds available to a few
scholars located in different universities or research institutes of
Africa, every year, for the purpose of financing their trips to these
centres. The benefits to both the scholars and the centres would
undoubtedly be incalculable.
6
SOME PROBLEMS OF COMMUNICATING
AND DIFFUSING SOCIAL SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE
The scope and effectiveness of the media by which African

sociologists communicate and share ideas and research findings
command attention in a Report of this nature.There is no doubt
whatsoever that African social scientists in general seek various
outlets for their ideas or works within and outside their own coun-
tries, as well as outside the continent of Africa. What are the types
of book publishing houses and publishing bodies of learned social
science journals available in African countries today? From which
disciplines are these journals run? What are the objectives which
the journals and publishers pursue? We need to know something
too about the readership and periodicity of publication for the
learned journals.

58
Publishing of Books and Learned Journals

z
In a forthcoming article being prepared for the International Social

Science Journal (ISSJ) by this writer, an attempt will be made to in-
vestigate some of the problems encountered by social science editors
as they seek publication outlets for their colleagues. When publish-
ed, it is hoped that it will provide useful information and insights in-
to other social science journals in neighbouring West African
countries where few social science journals exist. With respect to
the publishing of books, there are four or so, major types of book-
publishing houses in most African countries to which
sociologists may turn for the publication of their works: university
presses, government-owned presses, foreign-owned presses, and in-
digenous, privately-owned publishing houses. These types of
establishments differ in objectives and in financial and manpower
capabilities. Even if the existing presses can and are willing to ac-
cept manuscripts dealing with social science subjects, there is the
real problem of obtaining suitable manuscripts from university
social scientists. Some local publishers complain that African
scholars, by and large, are simply not making enough effort to
come forward with manuscripts fit for the market. They further
allege that African social scientists seem not to have new ideas to
develop, or if they do, they have not the time and incentive to
devote to the development of those ideas in written form. They at-
tribute this to the large amount of time spent in African univer-
sities, especially in those following British traditions of administra-
tion, on committee work, such as membership of senate, inter-
faculty boards, faculty boards, departmental ad hoc committees
and also in giving service to the nation.
The Mass Media .
The mass media as another outlet for academics also syphons off
some of the creative moments of sociologists in certain countries.
This is particularly true of controversies over public issues. Quite
often on such occasions, university men, especially social scientists,
are invited to speak at the shortest notice. Unfortunately, the media
give the impression that social scientists share a group point of view
and use the same set of concepts, language, and style of presenta-
tion of ideas. They also give the public a false impression that

59
university people are those with book knowledge alone, and this
in turn serves to portray African social scientists as having no ideas
of their own outside what the whiteman tells them in books about
themselves and their country, or to present their views as being of
little relevance to the local problems which affect the lives of the
masses of people living outside the academic community.
Pre-empting the Universities
Despite the unfortunate impressions given through the mass media,

some of the finest minds in many nations of Africa, today, are to
be found in the universities. Certainly the social sciences and Arts
have their fair share of them. One hard fact is, ironically, the
disproportionate value placed by African University authorities
upon publication for publications sake, and the seeming lack of
appreciation of those who are, first and foremost, good teachers.
There is no indication of any appreciation of the dilemma faced by
those who combine together teaching, administration, and
research. Yet it is the creative University Lecturer, the dedicated
Senior Lecturer, and the experienced Professor who together
devote their talents to the training of the much needed manpower
produced by the universities on whom many African governments
place a very high premium.
It is from the same group of intellectual workers, especially
social scientists, that some African governments draw men and
women for top level posts in the ministeries concerned with internal
and external affairs. From this group there is also a certain amount
of brain drain into the various branches of the private sector. Given
both of these factors replacement is not occurring fast enough.
Social Science Journalism and the Numbers Game
The style of social science journalism in some African countries

often creates moral dilemmas for the sociologists of those nations
with respect to communication and the diffusion of knowledge. Of
course, this is not confined to our discipline. Indeed, it is a
widespread dilemma facing African scholars regardless of
discipline and field of specialization. The dilemma arises from the
universal pressure to publish or perish which impels the academic

60
to play the numbers game and acquiesce to a widespread use of

the double standard in assessing ones own work and that of ones
colleagues. The unfortunate and shameful truth is that every one
playing the numbers and standards games knows deep down
that when a colleague is described as having not published
enough, or has published an impressive number of papers which
lack a focus, or that certain publications are not quality papers,
or when book reviews and review essays are described as not coun-
ting as publications, one is either acting against ones own cons-

cience or operating as a killer of dreams. The consequence of this
for those who want to get ahead at all costs within the academic
community is a resort to sycophancy and kow towing in order to
smooth their pathway to promotion.
In a situation of such pervasive deception and occasional arm
twisting, attention and value are not placed first and foremost upon
originality of ideas. A university don who deviates from the
prevailing and traditional role played in the search for professional
honour and recognition, may find himself or herself being regarded
as a controversial figure or a non-conformist in relation to those
who are in position to pronounce on that dons competence. The
playing-out of the role of he-who-can-pronounce-on-competence,
again obeys the double standard where assessment of publications
is concerned. One who is elevated to pronounce on another
persons competence is invited to serve temporarily on a selection
panel. On another occasion, his colleagues may be invited to serve
on a panel set up to pronounce upon his competence. This is often
the case when prospects of advancement or stagnation are in the
balance. The composition of the panel and the unwritten rules
about what is said are a good set of cues by which an individual fac-
ing a panel can predict whether or not he will be declared to have
performed well at interview.
It is highly probable that it is because of the continuing impor-
tance of the oral tradition in most parts of Africa that such
significance is placed upon The Interview as a vital tool of the
Selection Panel in deciding what judgement to pronounce on the
life work of an individual scholar. Many African sociologists
,
therefore have perfected the art of interviewing well, for promo-
tion or appointment. Woe betide anyone coming before the Selec-
tion Panel who allows himself or herself to be ruffled by some of
the questions put to him at an interview, no matter how brilliant he
may be or how deep is his understanding of his discipline. The la-

61
tent function of The Interview is, from my point of view, to rein-

force the prevailing belief that he-who-interviews-well is the most
knowledgeable in his field, and that both he-who-must-
pronounce as well as he-who-must-bear-witness-to-the-
pronouncements together possess the wisdom of village elders,
although it may be obvious that both groups lack the humanistic
principles followed by elders in a village convocation.
Why African Sociologists Communicate Poorly to Each Other
These then are some of the major forces that act as constraints on
full and effective communication and diffusion of sociological work
in Africa, especially the work of university scholars. These forces
have also produced the phenomenon which Robert H. Thouless in
his book, Straight and Crooked Thinking7&dquo; calls habits of thought
and prejudices ,76 both of which work by force of suggestion, ac-
ting on the minds and individual habits of work of African
sociologists.
I am inclined to think that this is the case for Nigerian
sociologists, and I imagine it may be similar for those in other
African countries where such conditions also prevail. Because of
this, African social scientists may therefore be forced to develop
habits which discourage them from pursuing the highest and best in
their intellectual activities in their bid to meet the demands of pro-
motional expediency. In my judgement, this kind of expendiecy in
the affairs of knowledge building ensures the non-cultivation of a
proper perspective on social processes, social issues, social pro-
blems and other social phenomena which constitute the subject
matters of sociology. The pursuit of promotion qua promotion as
an end in itself in academic affairs may make us see the true worth
of our colleagues but it also inclines us to enthrone mediocrity by
choice. Indeed Syed Hussein Atalas is correct, when he said of the
Third World that the higher institutions of learning in fact pro-
mote the increasing influence of the captive mind. 7-1,
I

62
7
CONCLUSION
As I the end of this Report, I recall an observation made by

come to
Irving Louis Horowitz of Rutgers University, United States of

America, in a preface to a collection of papers, submitted by a
group of American colleagues, on Sociological Images, which he
edited for publication in a special issue of the American Behavioural
Scientist, a decade ago. He remarked that:
This set of papers on sociological self images has had a large scale impact on me.
Little did I know that in requesting a set of answers to a battery of biographical
questions the results would be as close to an informal methodological guide-
book as anything currently extant in the social science literature.78
The impact on me of this Report on sociology in Africa today

has been to leave me with a deep feeling of appreciation for the im-
mense efforts being made by African and non-African sociologists
all over Africa to establish the discipline as a natural element of our
intellectual life, in the face of many fundamental problems and str-
ingent constraints. Among these problems the main one is how to
make sociology reflect sufficient of the intellectual and social reali-
ty of Africa so that it can truly be called an African sociology.
African and non-African sociologists alike attempt to tackle this
problem according to their mental and emotional dispositions.
Some regardless of nationality, take a phenomenological-cum-
linguistic approach to the understanding, explanation, and
manipulation of social reality. Others, believing in the adequacy of
existing concepts and theories in sociology today seek their refine-
ment, whilst studying various social problems and issues of their
choice. Unlike Horowitz, very few, if any are giving a great deal of
thought to the question What do you consider to be the most uni-
quely defining characteristics of your way of doing sociology?,
although they are busy doing sociology in both the technical and in-
tellect ual senses .&dquo;9
At both levels of doing sociology, Africans show that they are
more influenced by North American sociologists for whom they
show far greater respect than they demonstrate towards their own
colleagues. In the substantive field of demography, British and
Australian sociologists command more of the admiration and

63
respect of African sociologists. Classical writers, like August Com-

te, Durkheim and Weber, continue to be relevant whenever African
sociologists seek clarify for others and for themselves their own
to
ideal of society. In this connection, certain contemporary writers
like Alvin Gouldner, Neil F. Smelser, 1. L. Horowitz, and A. Et-
zioni are frequently cited too. However, in relation to radical
sociology, it is Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao Tse Tsung, African revolu-
tionaries living or dead, such as Amilcar Cabral, Franz Fanon,
Agostino Neto, and to a less extent today Sekou Toure, who are ac-
corded recognition. Kwame Nkurumah is now receiving some at-
tention but probably not by very many writers. It is gratifying to
note that in Nigeria, at least, a few African sociologists are beginn-
ing to pay attention to the work of their own colleagues, such as K.
de Graft Johnson in Ghana and Ikenna Nzimiro in Nigeria, even if
it is only to register strong disagreement with them. Otherwise the
painful truth is that African sociologists are woefully ignorant of
the excellent work being done by their colleagues both inside and
outside their own countries. An important reason for this is the fact
that African sociologists are either anglophonic, arabophonic, or
francophonic in the language they use for professional communica-
tion. The seriousness of this problem does not yet seem to have
registered fully even at the Council of Vice-Chancellors of African
Universities, let alone at the level of national professional
sociological associations.
I, for one, previously aware of (or had insufficient time to
was not
pay proper attention to) the excellent studies in the sociology of

rural development produced in Tunisia, the diverse and exciting
writings of Zairean sociologists and the mine of ethnosociological
works accumulated at the University of Abidjan, or the problem of
being a sociologist in an extremely exploitative, capitalist and
racialist nation-state as is the Republic of South Africa. It has
taken the writing of this Report to bring me to understand the im-
portance of the sociology of civilizations, which Anouar Abdel-
Malek has, without much success it seems, been endeavouring to
develop within the International Sociological Association. I wonder
how many other African sociologists are in the same predicament
as I now find myself?
Another of the reasons for the mutual ignorance among African
sociologists is most probably due to the fact that the power elites of
African universities, in their obsession with acceptability and in-
ternational standards are forcing the creative minds of both

64
younger and older scholars away from their real calling. Unless
there is a change in the sociological perspective towards a looking-
from-within approach, present day African scholars will not
escape the indictment of future generations of social scientists. For
too long the power-elite among African academics has paid nothing
but lip-service to making knowledge relevant to African reality.
For the time being, giving lip-service has become the proper thing
to do, but we are slowly beginning to know ourselves by the fruits
of our individual works. In some African countries, especially
where education is under the control of central government, the in-
sistence that academics put their main emphasis on the applied
aspects of their discipline has led to a form of anti-intellectualism.
This denies Horowitzs useful tennet that a fruitful mind em-
powered by a complex culture can get on further than enculturated
mindlessness, lacking in rich preconceptions. 10 Consequently, as
Professor K. E. De Graft Johnson of Ghana, has discerned
there has developed even among the African intelligentsia a form of
fictive thinking, in the Comtean sense, which one would not nor-
mally expect to find among university-trained minds, and its effects
are strongly felt in university politics, especially in West Africa.12
There is a good lesson for us to learn, in this connection, from
the efforts of Polish sociologists. According to Christopher G. A.
Bryant, the Poles have had a continuing involvement in theoretical
sociology which enabled them to provide their own theoretical
framework for the conduct of research and the interpretation of its
findings.&dquo; By not allowing themselves to be disillusioned by anti-
intellectualism and party ideologues, they eventually succeeded in
producing a macro-sociology of Poland, i.e. an account of the
development of the national social structure [that not only] does not
correspond to party beliefs or policy [but also] amounts to an im-
plicit criticism of those beliefs and policies. 84
I must be careful to add here, knowing full well our readiness to
imitate what others have created, that in saying that the Polish
development of macro-sociology represents a good example to us, I
do not mean by this that we should wait until socialist states have
been created all over Africa before we begin the hard work of pro-
ducing macro-sociologies of our respective societies. What I mean
is that we must endeavour to cultivate a comparable attitude of
mind and devotion to the sociological enterprise which can even-
tually lead us to the formulation of various suitable concepts and
theories for understanding and explaining our societies, regardless

65
of the changing political climate and the prevailing social structure,

ideology, or absence of ideology.
As a prerequisite of this, however, we must fulfil a self-imposed
obligation to work on a conceptualization of human society (of the
nature of man and of human behaviour) that reflect African and
world views. But in doing so, I do not believe that we need to draw
our inspiration from the period of European Englightenment or
stage a drama of clashing philosophies as was the case in the

development of Positivism as a scientific philosophy in nineteenth
century Europe; nor do we need to wait for urbanization and in-
dustrialization to be fully established before we become acutely
sensitive to our society and the social ills which confront us all over
Africa today. There are social upheavals of one sort or another,
there is history in abundance, and rapid social change brought
about by interventionist economic planning. These are surely suffi-
cient to challenge our intellectual capabilities and humanistic con-
cerns to a point at which we will come up with African sociological
matrices, incorporating a distinctive constellation of values, ax-

ioms, concepts, methods, and basic theories. These will constitute
the object world of sociology in a particular way and point up the
work which still needs to be done. Here then is the principal
challenge.
The Opium of the African Intelligentsia

One extremely important consequence of this situation is that
African sociologists, particularly outside Southern Africa, find
themselves impelled by the traditions of their universities and the
policies of their governments, to ignore the essential unity amidst
diversity which is the sine qua non of scientific work - a fact which
African artists have long ago realized in their own milieux. Hence
the concentration on acceptance by and integration with Europe or
America, hence the absence of critical awareness in social science
writings and the corresponding amount of imitation found there.
African sociologists, as members of the intelligentsia, emerge
from this Report as being un-alienated from their respective
homelands, despite their opposition to the bourgeoisie and inclina-
tion to radicalism15 and despite the position of cultural symbiosis
in which Zygmunt Komorowski argues that the African intelligent-
sia finds itself. They possess to an amazing degree many of the

66
characteristics of the ideal type intelligentsia which Raymond

Aron 16 has identified; in particular their attitude toward politics,
their relationship to the ruling class, their readiness to engage in
criticism -
moral and technical of the social order, as well as

-
their tendency to resort to trade union tactics when their profes-

sional interests are threatened. However, African social scientists
differ essentially from their European counterparts in their inabili-
ty to demonstrate a capacity to construct African modes of ex-
planation, relevant to their daily preoccupations as social scientists
in their homelands, as sociologists in Europe and North America
have done for their own countries.
Nevertheless, sociology is not only a plant alive everywhere, to
borrow the vivid metaphor of the Spanish sociologist, Amendo de
Miguel of the University of Valencia,87 it is also a tree which, like
the eucalyptus that was transplanted to Nairobi in Kenya, will grow
in the years to come into a tall and strong tree of knowledge with a
sturdy trunk and roots which penetrate even the African soil. By
soil, here, I mean metaphorically the higher institutions of learn-
ing in Africa and the minds of the men and women who make
sociology their calling on this continent.
Meanwhile, African sociologists must assume and carry out the
responsibilities of tropicalizing the transplanted tree before it can
grow in this way. This means nurturing its survival so that it can
become acclimatized to the varied societies in which it has been in-
troduced. Nurturing involves actively investing the best of our
ideas, thought and theories, and working carefully and strenuously
to understand the discipline as a system of knowledge about mans
patterns of organized and purposeful living. Only thus can we en-
sure that sociology is truely universal and only thus can it be shown
to make sense to the rest of our non-westernized (or westernizing)
fellow men and fellow women. This is a two-way process in which
sociology in turn will benefit from the languages and concepts used
in African systems of thought.
At this stage of husbanding sociology, African sociologists ap-
pear, by and large, to be ignoring the sharply focussed and vital
images which emerge in their minds as they perceive, recognize and
explain the social realities that confront them daily, for they under-
take sociology in a much more intellectual and technical vein. In
their sociological work they give preference to the blurred images
brought to their minds by European languages and concepts which
they use for the study of social reality. It seems we can hardly help

67
but do so, because if we are to be accepted by the university power-

elite, who see the international standard as the hallmark of in-
tellectual achievement, we must be seen to be scientific, that is to
demonstrate, in the words of Robert A. Nisbet, the hard analysis
that rigorous thought requires .8&dquo;
Now hard analysis or rigorous analysis as it is sometimes call-
ed, is often nothing more than an ability to string sociological
jargon together to form what is then called a paradigm or model of
the social reality being studied; empiricism, as a methodology of in-
vestigation, then enables the sociologist to produce a logical and
linguistic analysis of the object of study and to advance such
postulates and propositions as are suggested by the paradigm or
model.
Finally, if true African sociologies, nurtured by African minds
in and outside the institutions of higher learning, are to emerge,
then those who profess sociology in Africa may have to re-orient
the discipline to African reality through an integrated system of
conceptual schemes, theories, and methodological techniques
drawn up in relation to both African and European thought-ways
and social practices.
I should like to bring this Report to a definite close by making
the following observations. Firstly, the essential aim throughout
has been to convey information, notwithstanding the fact that I
have deliberately permitted my own judgements to enter at certain
points. My basic concern has been to present verifiable facts about
the state of the sociological enterprise in certain parts of Africa.
However, in assessing the worth of this Report, factual criteria
should not be used alone because any such exercise must fall short
of them: it is utterly impossible to give a full and detailed account
of what transpires among sociologists at the official and unof-
ficial levels of the profession in any one country. What I have done
throughout, except perhaps in the case of my own country, Nigeria,
is to let my imagination work with the limited facts, to fill in the
gaps, and to employ verstehen in relation to my colleagues whose
work I may be reviewing at a given time.
Third, it is quite evident that for many years to come the fortunes
of the disciplines of sociology in African are very closely tied-up
with the future of the various universities of Africa where it is firm-
ly lodged. This is because as Alvin W. Gouldner has noted, in-
tellectual tendencies do not develop in a social vacuum.89 In this
context, Sir Eric Ashby has given a masterly description of the con-

68
ditions which will give rise to African academic sociologies in

statu nascendi. In summary these are (a) the inevitable change
which must come upon African universities in the same manner
that it came upon universities in the USA, when they changed
radically from their English beginnings in response to the social,

cultural, and political habits of the American people, namely an
adaptation of African university institutions to the cultural
climates of the societies in which they are located: (b) changes in
the government and administration of university institutions
which will involve a definite restructuring of the curriculum so that
African social thought, social organization, and history become
core subjects and are not merely listed as options. These internal
changes, Ashby maintained, will not be made whilst simultaneously
sustaining an unswerving loyalty to international standards of
scholarship, a continued responsibility for helping to provide the
men who build nations in West Africa, and an onging role as a
spearhead of change in the community.90

Sociology will have to meet some of the same conditions that Sir
Eric Ashby spelt out for the universities in general: indeed the
discipline itself is one of the agencies by which change in the cur-
riculum and response to the cultural climate will come about.
However, although one may agree with Sir Eric on the need to
maintain unswerving loyalty to international standards of
sociological scholarship, it should nevertheless be made very clear
that the means whereby this loyalty is maintained will never be such
that the elite among the university intelligentsia, who dominate the
reward systems, can use it to destroy true intellectual91 contribu-
tions which push forward new frontiers of knowledge and which do
not necessarily coincide with the tradition inherited from British,
French, American or other university systems.
Fourthly, the learned social science journals offer African
sociologists a very good opportunity to set their own editorial and
intellectual standards. A criterion for judging the worth of a learned
journal should not be where it is published, but whether it succeeds
in performing the difficult task of communicating and diffusing
social science throughout different parts of Africa, i.e. whether
those who come into contact with it are convinced that the articles
carried are worth the time spent in reading them. There is no reason
why African editors cannot be innovative by, for instance,
publishing articles in any of the written local languages alongside
those written in English or French.

69
Fifthly, and lastly, African sociologists only stand to gain from

and to contribute better by continuing in the intellectual tradition
of writers like Edward W. Blyden, S. P. Danquah, Henry Carr, J.
Sarbah to mention but a few of those who challenged the pron-
ouncements on man, culture, and society in Africa made by Euro-
pean writers of earlier decades or centuries. Furthermore, it will be
no loss to sociology if we perpetuate the different philosophical
spirits of African traditional thought and Islamic religion in our

quest for a more universal knowledge of the nature of man and of
the living human group.
Notes
1. Paul F. Lazarsfield, Main Trends in Sociology. London. Allen & Unwin,

1970.
2. Peter C. Ludz, Focus on Human Behavior, Bildung und Wissenschaft, No.
10-7(A): 151-156.
3. Pierre L. Van Den Berghe, Africa, Social Problems of Change and Conflict.
San Francisco, Chandler, 1965.
4. E. E. Evans-Pritchard et al., The Institutions of Primitive Society. Oxford,
Blackwell, 1954.
5. Ibid.
6. Christopher G. A. Bryant, Sociology in Action: A Critique of Selected Con-
ceptions of the Social Role of the Sociologist. London. Allen & Unwin, 1976.
7. E. E. Evans-Pricthard, et al., The Institutions of Primitive Society. Op. cit.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Howard W. Odum, American Sociology: The Story of Sociology in the
United States through 1950. New York. Longmans, Green and Co., 1951.
11. W. Cartey & M. Kilson, The African Reader: Independent Africa. New York.
Random House, 1970.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Syed Hussein Alatas, The Captive Mind and Creative Development, Inter-
national Social Science Journal (UNESCO, Paris) (4), 1974: 691-700.
18. W. Cartey & M. Kilson, The African Reader: Independent Africa. Op. cit.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.

70
22. Pierre Van Den Berghe, Africa, Social Problems of Change and Conflict. Op.
cit.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Andrew Boyd & Patrick Van Rensberg, An Atlas of African Affairs. New
York. Praeger, 1962.
27. Benjamin C. Ray, African Religions: Symbol , Ritual and Community.
Prentice-Hall, 1976. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
28. Ibid.
29. Zdenek Cesvenka, The Organization of African Unity & its Charter. London.
C. Hurst and Co., 1969.
30. M. Finagnon Oke, Personal Communication.
31. Banji Ogundele, Kerekou and his hot seat of politics, Sunday Times (Lagos,
Nigeria). 20 February 1977.
32. University of Abidjan, Rapport pour la Commission des programmes du
Ministre de la Recherche Scientifique de la République de la Côte dIvoire: Activités
et Programmes de lInstitut dEthnosociologie. March 1973.
33. Bulletin of African Universities 1 (1), 1974.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Zdenek Cervenka, The Organization of African Unity and its Charter. Op.
cit.
38. Ezzat Hegazy, Chapter 23 in: Ray P. Mohan and Don Martindale (eds.)
Handbook of Contemporary Developments in World Sociology. Illinois. Green-
wood, 1975: 379-390.
39. Tom Bottomore, Marxist Sociology. London. Macmillan, 1975.
40. Ibid.
41. Ezzat Hegazy, Chapter 23 in Ray P. Mohan and Don Martindale (eds.),
Handbook of Contemporary Developments in World Sociology. Op. cit: 388.
42. See Bibliography, item number 74.
44. K. K. Prah, The crisis in Ghananian Sociology continues a critique of
—
Social Science in Ghana. Paper presented at the Tenth Annual Conference of the
Ghana Sociological Association, 2-5 April 1976, Legon. 15pp.
45. See Bibliography, item No. 113.
46. Papers read at the Tenth Annual Conference of the Ghana Sociological
Association, 2-5 April 1976, Legon. (Unpublished.) Kofi Agyeman, Sociology of
Development and obstacles to the development of sociology, 8p. Ansa Asamoah,
Strategies in development and planning, 11 p. Max Assimeng, Sociology in
Ghana: Context and Institutionalization, 42p. K. N. Bame, Some sociological
variations which need attention in development support communications: examples
from a Ghanaian Family Planning Study, 11p. Eugenia Date-Bah, Professional
Drivers in Ghana: Preliminary findings, 10p. E. E. Ekong, Africanizing the
Sociological Enterprise A case for relevance, 16p. Inya A. Eteng, Africanist
—
"Nobel Savage" Model of West African Development: A Critical Evaluation",

38p. K. de Graft-Johnson, Fictive thinking and social development, 8p. E. H.
Mends, The Sociological relevance of a nineteenth century nationalist: J. M. Sar-
bah, 9p. Ebow Mensah, "On the evitability of instability, 21p. D. N. A. Nortey,

71
New Dimensions of crime, 10p. T. O. Odetola, Social Science Research: National

Development and public policy in Africa, 18p. O. Olorumtimehin, The Sociologist
and the national development plan the case of Nigeria, 16p.
—
47. See previous note.

48. H. K. Aryeampong (ed.), Journey to Independence and After C. J. B. Dan-
quahs letters (1947-48), Vol. 1. Accra. Presbyterian Press. 1970.
49. Personal communication from J. A. K. Kandawire, Department of Human
Behavior, University of Malawi.
50. Kofi Agyeman, Sociology of Development and obstacles to the develop-
ment of sociology. Op. cit.
51. University of Abidjan, Rapport pour la Commission de Programmes. Op.
cit.
52. Akinsola A. Akiwowo, Chapter 24 in Ray P. Mohan and Don Martindale
(eds.) Handbook of Contemporary Development in World Sociology. Illinois.
Greenwood, 1975: 391-407.
54. Ikenna Nazimiro, Studies in Ibo Political Systems: Chieftaincy and Politics in
Four Niger States. Berkeley. University of California Press, 1972.
59. Inya A. Eteng, Report of the Proceedings of the 1973 Nsukka Conference of
the Nigerian Anthropological and Sociological Association (NASA), 5-7 December
1973. 32p.
61. Anthony F. C. Wallace, The Psychic Unity of the Human Group. Evanston,
Illinois. Row Peterson, n.d.
62. Ibid.
63. Association for Sociologists in Southern Africa, ASSA Sociology Southern
Africa 1973; Papers from the First Congress of the ASSA. Durban. Printed by
University of Natal [1973].
64. Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism. London
and Edinburgh. Nelson, 1965.
65. Association for Sociologists in South Africa, ASSA Sociology Southern
Africa 1973; Papers. Op. cit.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid.
72. Kwame Nkrumah, Nen-Colonialism. Op. cit.
73. M. Abdel-Wahab of the Centre dEtudes et de Recherches Economiques et
Sociales, personal communication.
74. International Social Science Council, The draft programme of UNESCO for
1977-78. Paris.
75. Robert H. Thouless, Straight and Crooked Thinking. London and Sydney.
Pan Books, 1974.

72
76. According to Thouless, our habit of thoughts and prejudices are somewhat
similar: the first are those directions which our thoughts normally and habitually
take, while the second are those ways of thinking which are predetermined by
strong emotional forces in their favour, by self interest (real or supposed), by social
involvements with ones own or alien groups, and so on Robert H. Thouless,
—
ibid: 128. More relevant is the whole of Chapter 10, Habits of thought,
pp. 127-143. See also Syed Hussein Alatas, The Captive Mind and Creative
Development, op. cit: 694. Professor Alatas has a more detailed and thought-
provoking work on intellectuals in ex-colonial developing societies today in his new
book, Intellectuals in Developing Societies. London. Frank Cass, 1977. 139p. This
book is recommended to all African sociologists at home or overseas.
77. Syed Hussein Alatas, The Captive Mind and Creative Development. Op. cit.
78. Irving Louis Horowitz, Mind, Methodology and Macrosociology,
American Behavioural Scientist 12 (1), September-October 1968: 14-18.
79. Ibid.
80. Ibid.
81. In his short but closely argued eight page paper Fictive Thinking and Social
Development, delivered before the tenth Annual Conference of the Ghana
Sociological Society, Professor K. E. de Graft Johnson concludes thus: I have
sought somewhat sketchily to demonstrate that there are prevalent in our society
forms of thinking and conduct that are neither scientific nor logical, that such think-
ing influences significant areas of national life. Such fictive thinking is not restricted
to illiterate or untutored people. Indeed it is more glaring among highly educated
persons because the explanation for their conduct or thought cannot be attributed to
their ignorance of the underlying scientific facts (Page 7).
82. Ibid.
83. Christopher G. A. Bryant, Sociology in Action. Op. cit.
84. Ibid.
85. Aleksander Gella (ed.), The Intelligentsia and Intellectuals. London and
California. Sage for the ISA, 1976.
86. Raymond Aron, The Opium of the Intellectual. New York. Norton, 1962.
87. Tom Bottomore (ed.), Crisis and
Contention in Sociology. London and
California. Sage for the ISA, 1975.
88. Robert A. Nisbet, Social Change and History, Aspects of the Western Theory
of Development. Oxford and New York. OUP, 1969.
89. Alvin W. Gouldner, The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. London.
Heinemann, 1977.
90. I find in writing this conclusion, that the paper entitled The Functions of
West African Universities, as originally presented by Sir Eric Ashby, still contains,
after a decade and a half, some very pertinent ideas about the conditions which will
have to pertain if the prime task of making universities in West Africa into West
African Universities is to be achieved. This paper was presented at the seminar on
Inter-University co-operation in West Africa, held in Freetown, Sierra-Leone, 11-16
December 1961 and published in the volume entitled The West African Intellectual
Community, by Ibadan University Press, 1972. More recently two eminent West
Africans have updated Sir Erics points, in the light of their experiences after 1962,
in two public lectures delivered during the Tenth Anniversary Celebrations of the
University of Ife, October 1973. The first was a University Vice-Chancellor and the
second a top civil service administrator. Their ideas have subsequently been publish-

73
ed in expanded form: see Dr Alex A. Kwapong, Problems of University Administra-

tion in a Developing Society. Ibadan University of Ife Press, 1973; and Dr Peter T.
O. Odumosu, Government and University in a Developing Society, Ibadan, Univer-
sity of Ife Press.
91. Syed Hussein Alatas, Intellectuals in Developing Societies. Op. cit.

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Current Sociology http://csi.sagepub.

Trend Report : Sociology in Africa Today

The online version of this article can be found at:

International Sociological Association

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>> Version of Record - Jan 1, 1980

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Paul F. Lazarsfeld, in his introductory remarks to Main Trends in

complex warps and woofs of sociological work in African univer-

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careful survey of certain articles in learned journals. From these in-

The Concept of an African Sociology

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one of the foremost anthropologists of all times, himself put it, to

sociology today, these anthropologists divide human intellectual

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knowing, understanding, and explaining social phenomena in-

latter-day European thinkers who developed a new and specialized

natural or social study particular aspects of

the world, nature, or of society itself), then it remains to be seen

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tive elements in the disciplinary matrix of sociology? Lienhardt in

ing had boldly suggested:

As anthropologists, we have to give at least a temporary assent to such ways of

If one removes the objectionable word primitive (Lienhardts free

needs to be prepared to accept certain postulates con-

linguistic expressions or distinctions he must first find out how

correct such assumptions are rather than proceeding on the basis of

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, totally different set of assumptions be substituted and used as a

Sociology is one of those inventions of western civilization that was

organization and ways of life of the local communities under Home

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College, Sierra Leone, and the form of reasoning underpinning it

Having embraced, or at least assented to these errors and falsehoods about

In my judgement this passage by Blyden, written almost one hun-

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produce self-respect, a proper appreciation of our own power...a

Africa generally. But, Asika who is himself a Nigerian intellectual

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even were direct or indirect participants in the colonial systems,

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English-speaking sociologists, to label certain social phenomena,

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Jacques I. Maquet has defined the term African Sociology

I agree with Maquets view that it is no longer justifiable to call the

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Nowhere are these different colonial influences more evident than

equally jaundiced view points grew out of the application of evolu-

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thropological approaches, however, developed in different directions and

Unfortunately, this slanted field-work studies according to the na-

thropology with reference to religion. Among the chief con-

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observations on the British and French schools are intended to

The Republic of Benin formerly known as the Republic of

Dahomey. Its changed in November 1974 when its pre-

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