ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the issues in light of traditional and contemporary forms of patronage or, more accurately, by looking at patronage as distinct from "tribute" and "prebends." It discusses the transformation of African patronage systems seen from a political economy perspective. The chapter examines an attempt is made to show the relationship between systematic bureaucratic corruption and the emergence of parallel economies, and the impact of both on the reordering of rural dependency relationships. The exigencies of economic survival are motivating a growing number of rural Africans to enter into Franco-Gabonese nexus of dependency; the opportunities for material gain are causing the networks to penetrate into bureaucratic and governmental spheres. Where pricing and marketing policies have caused a sharp drop in producer prices and rural incomes—as is the dominant trend almost everywhere in Africa, with the qualified exception of Zimbabwe—the tendency has been to use the parallel economy against the state.
