Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The basic natural impulse of man is the preservation of his existence.
What this implies is that man tries to protect his existence foremost before
considerations are given to other needs. It means therefore, that he has to
live in the first instance, before his essence. This is the primacy of the
human existence which, for existentialist thinkers, is what should genuinely engage
philosophers. To live or to preserve his existence, man must keep his body
nourished by food; and to provide for food means that he must work. This means
that he must use his energy to convert what is given in nature to become useful
to him.
This work is therefore motivated by the fact that labour which should
serve as a human activity that allows man to sustain his very existence has
become a tool for self destruction arising from the class divisions,
antagonisms and conflicts the appropriation of the products of labour engenders
in modern society. This is more so because even though the prodigality of
nature has provided man with the basic materials to meet his existential needs,
however, the provident of nature rarely exists in forms directly suitable to
meet man’s needs. It is, therefore, required of human labour to make nature
suitable for his use. And in so doing, in modern terms, society is divided into
antagonistic and self destructive classes of those who own only their labour
power and those who own the means of production and so appropriate the product
of labour and even manipulate the labour power of others. Why is it so?
Labour is, therefore, what man does to provide food for the nourishment
of his bodily needs, to sustain his existence. For this reason, Claude Ake
asserts that economic productivity is the primary activity of man.3
If man must live, according to him, then he must work to provide food for
himself.
Ake avers that it is the importance of this that is amply reflected in
the consciousness of men that they give themselves appellations according to
the type of work they engage in: for instance, a teacher is one who engages in
teaching to earn a wage to provide for food; a doctor, for a medical
practitioner; an engineer; a trader etc. For him, although it is true that man
does not live by bread alone, but it is a more fundamental truth that man
cannot live without bread. The fact that one is no longer preoccupied by his
daily economic needs, he asserts, means that the needs are being met, but that
does not, for him, take away the urgency of this need.
It is through human ingenuity from his labour that discoveries are made
to provide for his other needs such as shelter, clothing, and so forth, to
protect man from the unfriendly conditions of his immediate environment. It is
so important and central to man that his life goes beyond just mere
subsistence:
Man creates and recreates his entire life. By work, he
builds Dams, irrigates deserts and fashions tools, which give him new
capacities and new opportunities, for acquiring knowledge. By creating and
recreating his economic and other material conditions man also creates culture,
history and civilization. Most importantly, he also creates his consciousness….4
Man has also
used his labour power to structure his society and establish culture and
patterns.
In the history of human society, labour has played the most vital determinant role in social relations. Adam Smith supports this view when he writes in his Wealth of Nations that society tends to benefit more when labour is social; when there is a division in the productive process where one performs functions he is best skilled. He states: “the greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, the greater part of skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour”.5
It is in this socialization of production that modern societies are
formed, and human relationships are fostered; hence labour shape the character
of all human societies. Society is often times polarized according to dynamics
arising from the relative importance placed on some aspects of labour over
others in the production process. Ake notes in the production process, some
appropriate the labour of others and benefit from the proceeds which cause the
major division between those who own the labour power and those who appropriate
the labour power of others. He adds
that:
Everyman is rich or poor
according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessities,
conveniences, and amusements of human life, but after the division of labour
has once thoroughly taken place, it is but a very small part of these with
which a man’s labour can supply him, the far greater part of them he must
derive from the labour of other people, and he must be rich or poor according
to the quantity of that labour which he can command, or which he can afford to
purchase.6
Societies
are thus made up of people classed into relations in view of those who sell
their labour power for self sustenance and those who use the labour of others
for production. This has become a major source of division and conflict in
modern societies. The study of the economic structure of society for Ake will
make it simpler to understand other aspects of society. He asserts that:
Once we understand what the
material assets and constrains of a society are, how the society produces goods
to meet its material needs, how the goods are distributed, and what types of
social relations arise from the organization, we have come a long way to
understanding the culture of that society, its laws, its religious system, its
political system and even its mode of thought.7
Ake therefore outlines that the primary cause of the problems in Africa
are products of labour relations owing largely to the introduction of capital
relations from the West.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
This study is motivated by the incessant conflicts in the Niger Delta
Area experienced by the researcher. These conflicts are even experienced in the
wider Nigerian society and in Africa in general. A closer survey of these
reveal that these conflicts are engendered by a lack of the basic necessities
of life relating to a poor state of social and economic development, in the midst
of an abundant resource base in almost all parts of Africa. Conflicts are
therefore, products of frustrations resulting from this lack and want of the
basic needs of man in Africa. The researcher sees Claude Ake’s conception of
labour and the class divisions it brings upon society, which in turn creates
constant antagonism and conflicts, relevant to the African experience, hence
the choice of this topic as a basis for an understanding of the causes of
conflicts in Africa and to proffer ways of resolving them.
Claude Ake defines labour as human effort applied in production for the
provision of food for the sustenance of his being. He notes that it is through
human labour that discoveries are made to provide for his other needs such as
shelter, clothing, tools, and so forth, to protect him from the unfriendly
conditions of his immediate environment. Apart from being a means towards the
provision of food for the sustenance of his being and the discovery of tools to
meet his other immediate needs, labour is also used for the creation and
recreation of his economic and other material conditions, he adds. However, Ake
notes that contemporary experience reveals that as societies develop and owing
to the complexities in the production process, social relations are formed in
relation to those who own the, means of production and so regulate the other
factors in the productive process, including the labour of others and those who
do not. This leads to antagonism between these social groups. While the class
of those who benefit from this arrangement attempt to maintain the status quo,
the other class struggles to change the existing system. For him therefore,
there is an intrinsic link between labour and social relations. Societies are
therefore plagued with conflicts and strife between these two antagonistic
classes. Ake therefore studies the prevalent social conflicts in Africa and
links these to the social relations of production introduced into Africa
through colonialism and imperialism.
The question is therefore, what is labour? Of what importance is labour
to man? How does labour engender social
divisions? How do these divisions create
conflicts in Africa, in Claude Ake’s conception? How does Ake address the
problems of ethnicity, wars, poverty, bad governance, poor infrastructural
development, corruption and so on, in Africa and what lesson can Africa learn?
The problems which this study sets to solve are,
- Ake
blames colonialism for some of the social problems in Africa; to what extent is
this assertion true?
- If
Africa’s problems are products of colonialism, what of other nations which were
colonized yet they are advancing?
- For
Ake, Africa’s problems are caused by foreign agents, what role would the
Africans play in tackling their problems?
- Are
there no possibilities of Africans contributing to their problems, considering
the fact that direct political control has ended a long time ago in most of
Africa?
- Is
there any possibility of African charting a new course for African development
based on the dignity of labour under a harmonious social relation?
1.3 Purpose
of the Study
The purpose of this study is to critically examine Claude Ake’s
conception of labour and social relations with a view to showing its
implications for Africa, especially Nigeria. It is an attempt to (a) identify
the meaning of labour in Ake’s social and political philosophy (b) place his
conception of labour within the context of social and economic conflicts in
Africa (c) argue that within Ake’s thought, the contradictions and conflicts
around labour are linked in a fundamental way to colonialism and its impact in
Africa, and (d) finally the papers argues that resolving the contradictions generated
by colonialism is possible within the context of genuine democratic
transformation in Africa.
1.4 Thesis
The study establishes that Ake’s theory of labour and social relations is
essentially Marxist in orientation with negative implications for Africa, given
the role of colonialism and imperialism in Africa’s socio-economic history.
1.5 Scope
of the Study
This work
will concentrate on Ake’s thought as it relates to labour and the dynamics of
social relations in Africa. While doing this, the contradictions and conflicts
of labour and social relations in Africa will be highlighted.
1.6 Significance
of the Work
This work will expose in a long way the major causes of social problems
and the attendant developmental malaise in Africa, especially, Nigeria,
highlighting how they can be addressed. It shall add to the library of existing
literature on the subject and also serve as a reference material to scholars
for further studies.
1.7 Methodology The qualitative research design was used for the study. The data for this work were sourced basically from the library, books and journal. The historical and expository methods were used to situate Claude Ake and his place in history while exposing his concepts of labour and social relations. These concepts were further subjected to critical analysis and evaluations.
THE CONCEPT OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL RELATIONS IN CLAUDE AKE’S PHILOSOPHY_ IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICA
