ABSTRACT
In Africa, to make use of class with any conviction one has to abandon both the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as master-classes; both classes exist today in Africa, but neither is strong or numerically dominant. To a specialist in African history, J. Pakulski and M. Waters's disinterest in the past and in the delineation of class outside of capitalist societies seems peculiar. A major feature of the society was the massive presence of slavery. Throughout most of Africa, large and diverse social units emerged along similar lines and typically overrode or masked the existence of potentially antagonistic class relations. In other parts of this diverse continent, inequality was less significant, the economy far less commodified, and class relations seem largely irrelevant before the nineteenth century. Literature from the late colonial period, and even after, took seriously the idea that independence for Africa would mean a major expansion of the working class and the continued growth of trade union power.
