ABSTRACT
The notion First and others have now constructed suggests a single, but fixed category people who are both peasants and workers simultaneously, who are 'peasant/workers' or even more adventurously members of a 'peasantariat' a designation used by a prominent scholar of Botswana. To some degree, this pure form did obtain for seasonal workers, for those on temporary contracts, or when (as in South Africa) labour recruitment was rigorously regulated by administrative means. Despite the absence of large numbers of plantation workers in Africa there has recently been a largely undocumented growth of a rural labour force working wholly or largely for wages. The author indicated that one of the major theoretical debates which now requires some attention is the notion, argued in its strongest version, that peasants are, in effect, if not in name, being transformed into proletarians.
