Socialism as a Middle Course

...As unique among Africa's literati as he is among its politicians, Senghor is supremely well equipped for this admirable but by no means easy task...

...It is clear that African Socialism as a political and economic theory and as a practical phenomenon in one form or another has captured the imagination of the Continent...

...Thus Senghor, like Guinea's Sékou Touré, internationalizes the class struggle...

...Rejecting Marx's rigid determinism and materialism, he nonetheless adopts the dialectical method, and argues that Africans are not Communists because they are neither materialists nor determinists...

...It is an all-embracing philosophical system, at once a set of goals, an ethical system, a theory of knowledge, a method of analysis, and a means of determining a plan of action...

...The social problem today," he writes, "is less a class struggle within a nation than a global struggle between the 'have' nations (including the Soviet Union) and the proletarian nations (including the Chinese People's Republic...

...If Africa is to have a spokesman for its own special kind of Socialism, Senghor is the right man for the assignment...

...In beautiful prose Senghor constructs a massive philosophical explanation for what is really an eclectic and pragmatic phenomenon...

...While Senghor is well aware of this, he has nevertheless undertaken to shape for African Socialism the philosophical foundations that an enduring theory needs...

...Marx's philosophy of humanism, rather than his economic interpretation of history, is taken to represent the basic character and contribution of Marxian thought...

...of Political Science, San Fernando Valley State College There are as many varieties of African Socialism as there are independent African states to proclaim them...

...For his book must be viewed as a determined effort to bring intellectual respectability to a nascent politicoeconomic formulation which deserves serious consideration...

...To avoid misunderstanding, he also promptly warns that Africans are equally critical of liberal capitalism and free enterprise...

...His poetic phrases often have little meaning, however, and are either irrelevant or inconsistent and imprecise...

...Thus Moslem Marabouts, indigenous Catholics, trade unionists, and African merchants and planters can all find comfort in Léopold Senghor's amorphous conception of Socialism...

...Even the generic designation "socialism" is inadequate for descriptive purposes...

...It is on the basis of this reaction against capitalist and Communist materialism that the "Civilization of the Universal" is to be constructed...

...But one wonders what all this has to do with politics and the practice of Socialism in Africa...

...He does not regard Marx primarily as an economist, but as "a sociologist, a philosopher...

...But he gives a provocative interpretation to the doctrine of the class struggle as it applies to the underdeveloped world...

...As a result, the term African Socialism has itself grown increasingly elusive...

...African Socialism is not doctrinal Socialism...

...Negro Africa must lead this "third revolution," creating a new civilization that will be a synthesis of European and African values, a civilization in which European scientific thought and technique will be used to achieve Africa's transcendant aims...

...He begins his analysis of modern Socialist thought with a probing examination of Marxian ideas, and he arrives at some extraordinary conclusions about Marx's contribution to contemporary philosophy...

...Senghor seems preoccupied with the largest philosophical issues—the nature of man, matter and knowledge—and displays an impressive erudition in dealing with them...

...Empirical accuracy, theoretical and logical consistency, and conceptual precision may be admired by the student of political thought, but history judges a theory by the ability of its advocates to manipulate people and power for the fulfillment of fundamental objectives...

...Viewed in this framework, African anti-colonialism assumes the character of class struggle in a different setting with the traditional "proletariat" and "capitalists" now played by different historical actors...

...His purpose in presenting the three essays in this book is to define the "African road to Socialism" and to set it in a proper philosophical context...

...Yet Senghor's style is not without merit for the task at hand...

...In some respects this is not unlike the current Chinese Communist position which shows signs of equating class struggle with racial conflict on a world-wide scale...

...It may therefore be unfair to take him to task for certain deficiencies...

...It comes as a surprise, therefore, that Leopold Sedar Senghor's volume On African Socialism strays far from the well-worn confines of the subject...

...For Senegal's President, African Socialism is more than an economic and political theory...

...Yet the term is widely used, and is generally understood to refer to certain key issues primarily concerned with the relationship of the state to the economic structure...

...It is pragmatic, eclectic experimental Socialism...

...Foremost among them are the degree of state involvement in the economy, the role of private investment in national development, trade policy, the merits of nationalizing foreignowned enterprises, and land reform...

...Scholars may spend years "destroying" or "defending" a particular set of ideas, but the final measure is taken in the political arena, not in abstract debate...

...We stand for a middle course," he writes, "for a democratic Socialism, which goes so far as to integrate spiritual values, a Socialism which ties in with the old ethical current of the French Socialists...

...The supreme test of every political theory is, of course, its success in promoting or defending political action...

...Like his counterparts throughout tropical Africa, Senghor denies the existence of class antagonism in his country...

...Each brand has its own distinctive features...

...Marx's second fundamental contribution, according to Senghor, is methodological...

...But it has done so for reasons other than those contained in Senghor's esoteric argument...

...It is popular because it represents the most favorable alternative for rapid and equitable economic development and political stability...

...In Senghor's mind, then, there is a distinctive, identifiable Africanstyle Socialism...

...To Senghor, the competing social and ideological systems of both East and West are species of the same poisonous fruit, materialism, and Africans are, by contrast, truly concerned for "human dignity" as well as for the "need for freedom...

...It serves to facilitate the formation of a national and Continental consensus, a common modernizing ideology, for new nations...