Production and Social Organization in Pre-colonial Africa
Pre-colonial African societies interacted with one another in various ways. The interactions enabled them to produce the basic needs and other necessities of their life. The interactions and production of their necessities influenced social and economic development. In this chapter, you will learn about the concepts used in social organisation and economic production.
You will also learn about communal, slave, and feudal modes of production in pre-colonial Africa and their characteristics. The competencies developed will enable you to differentiate pre-colonial social organisations from contemporary African social organisations so as to maintain good practices and discourage inhuman social relations.
Think
The ownership of the major means of production.
Concepts of social organisation and economic production
In order to explain the socio-economic development that Africa attained before colonialism, it is essential to understand some key concepts. Such concepts are:
i. Social Organisation
Social organisation, which is about how people and groups in the society interact in the process of material production. In this kind of organisation, people are assigned duties according to their positions in the society.
ii. Economic Production
Economic production refers to the process of producing goods and services to meet human needs. It also includes the creation of economic value from raw products. Examples of activities related to economic production are crop cultivation and cloth-making. Thus, with economic production, social organisation is how people are organised and related to each other in the process of producing goods or services.
Human beings need to produce various types of goods and services to survive. They use tools such as hand hoes, machetes, spears, axes, arrows, tractors and computers to produce goods and services. The tools are collectively called instruments of labour.
iii. Instruments of Labour
Instruments of labour mean all tools used by human beings in the production process. The tools range from simple to complex, depending on the level of technology a particular society attains. These instruments extend human’s natural organs, such as hands, legs, eyes and the brain. Means of labour help human beings to simplify work. Without them, work becomes difficult. Instruments of labour are organised around human labour.
iv. Human Labour
Human labour is people’s physical and mental energy to produce what they want. Physical labour refers to the energy people use to produce what they want. Mental labour is to do with the knowledge and skills that people utilise during production.
v. Productive Forces
When labour and instruments of labour have been combined, they are called productive forces. In production, productive forces act upon resources such as land and forests, These resources are called objects of labour.
vi. Object of Labour
An object of labour refers to anything on which human labour is applied in order to produce goods. Such resources are primarily found in natural environments, such as land, rivers and forests. That means human beings need objects of labour to work. Otherwise, work becomes impossible.
For example, one may have a good fishing instrument, but one will not fish unless there is a river, an ocean, a lake or a water pond in which fish are found. When human labour, instruments of labour and objects of labour have been combined, they are called means of production.
vii. Means of Production
Means of production comprises the combination of means of labour, human labour and objects of labour. They are necessary for the production of goods and services. They are capital and labour. When left alone, the means of labour have no value in life. Therefore, human labour must act on objects of labour to produce goods and services.
viii. Relations Of Production
People enter into certain kinds of relations in order to produce goods and services. Relations are either exploitative or non-exploitative, Relation is exploitive when the producers of goods and services are not paid accordingly and the vice versa.
ix. Mode of Production
A combination of productive forces and relations of production constitutes a mode of production. A mode of production of a particular society is meant to meet people’s needs.
Activity
Visit one of the economic production or service provision centres to study production relations, then write a report.
Production and Social Organization in Pre-colonial Africa
Pre-colonial modes of production
Pre-colonial African societies passed through three modes of production, namely communalism, slavery and feudalism. However, not all societies passed through all the three modes of production. The transition from one mode of production to another was largely influenced by the environment and the development of productive forces.
I. COMMUNALISM
Communalism was the first mode of production which all human societies passed through. This mode was also known as primitive communalism. It was called primitive communalism because of the low level of technological development attained by societies.
Communalism was based on collective ownership of the means of production and equal distribution of the gains. In Africa, communalism existed for a much longer time than any other mode of production. It developed when people began to live in communities many years ago.
Some African societies that are still practising communal life include hunter-gatherers such as the Mbuti of the Ituri Forest of Eastern Congo, the San of the Kalahari Desert, the Sandawe and Hadzabe of Northcentral Tanzania, and the Khoikhoi of South Africa.
Other examples include pastoralist communities like the Fulani of Northern Nigeria in West Africa, the Galla and Somali of north-eastern Africa, the Teso of Uganda and Kenya, the Karamojong of Uganda, and the Ndorobo of Tanzania and Kenya. Some of these societies have adopted new modes of production as a result of their interaction with other societies.
Characteristics of communalism
Communalism had a number of characteristics as follows:-
1. The major means of production such as land, forests and water bodies were owned by the whole society.
2. The production of goods was done by all people on the basis of gender and age. As a result, the products of labour were shared according to people’s needs.
3. There was no exploitation among people. This was because no one was allowed to own the resources individually since all people worked together for a common goal. For example, activities such as hunting, farming and fishing were done collectively.
4. Communalism did not produce classes of people. Instead, people respected each other and were equal in principle.
Production was for immediate consumption. This means that communal societies produced only for survival. That was because the tools of production were crude as a result of low level of technology and the small population that needed little food. For instance, communal hunters would kill animals and consume them, and then would go to hunt again.
5. Similarly, gatherers would collect food for a day’s consumption. After they had finished the food, they would go back to the forest to collect food again.
6. The division of labour was simple and based on gender. Gender is a social division of labour and responsibilities between men and women, especially when considered with reference to cultural perceptions and constructions.
7. The role a men and women play in the production process is an aspect of gender. For example, men hunted wild animals, looked after livestock and built huts while women gathered vegetables, fruits and edible insects. Women also cooked food and cared for children.
Transition from communalism to other modes of production
Communal societies were dynamic. The transition from communal to slave mode of production began when societies had improved in iron technology. Technology facilitated the increase in production, hence the rise of private ownership of properties, such as land.
This shift marked a significant step in human history from depending on hunting and gathering to depending on agriculture and animal domestication and from scattered dwellings of hunter-gatherers to permanent farming villages.
The ways of living were transformed as some people became pastoralists and others crop cultivators. For example, after people had discovered the use of iron tools, they began to produce surplus. The production of surplus wealth led to the development of trade and the rise of states. The states were characterised by the emergence of classes, namely slave masters and slaves in the slave mode of production. Later, land owners and peasants or serfs emerged as classes under the feudal mode of production.
Activity
Read various reliable online and library sources and identify features of primitive communalism that are still found in the present society.
II. SLAVE MODE OF PRODUCTION
Slavery was the second mode of production and the first exploitative mode of production in human history. It was a socio-economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, including slave labour.
African societies which experienced slavery included Ancient Egypt and some East African coastal societies as indicated in the map below. These societies owned slaves and used slave labour in income generating activities.
Ways by which people became slaves
1. People became slaves if they failed to pay their debts.
2. Involvement in criminal offences was also another way through which people became slaves. An individual could be sold into slavery after committing a serious crime such as stealing, beating a master or murdering.
3. War captives could also be turned into slaves. Some war captives were killed, some were turned into slaves, and some women were made wives of the warriors.
4. Inheritance of the slave status was another way through which a person could become a slave. A child could become a slave because the parents were slaves.
5. Entering into a contract between a slave and a slave master was another way through which a person became a slave. In this case, a person volunteered to be a slave for a certain period of time because of reasons such as poverty.
6. Sometimes, a person could sell a child into slavery in exchange for land, food or money.
Features of slavery
As a mode of production, slavery was characterised by the following features:
1. Under the slave mode of production, the population was divided into free and enslaved people. Free people had civil, property and political rights while the enslaved were deprived of all these rights and could not join the ranks of free people. Free people included large landowners who were also slave owners.
2. The existence of classes of slaves and slave owners characterised the slave mode of production. Slave labour became the main means of production where slave masters exploited slaves. The masters were economically powerful because they owned property, especially the slaves.
3. They also controlled the society’s economic, political and cultural institutions. The rise of the states also characterised this mode of production. In Africa, states emerged when societies could produce surplus.
4. People who were separated from the production processes at this stage became rulers. The elders and military clan leaders became kings and princes, while others, especially people with low income, were subjected to slavery.
5. Moreover, the slave mode of production was characterised by the improvement of productive forces, which later facilitated the production of surplus and the division of labour.
Exercise
What are the limitations of social classes in the society?
III. FEUDAL MODE OF PRODUCTION
Feudalism was the third mode of production based on land and cattle ownership. It was the second exploitative mode of production after the slave mode of production.
Under this, there were two classes of people. The first class consisted of feudal lords who owned the major means of production and appropriated the surplus. The other one comprised serfs and tenants who were given pieces of land to cultivate. In return, they paid rent to the feudal lords.
Origins and development of feudalism in pre-colonial Africa
Feudalism developed among the African societies which had undergone political centralisation. Powerful kings owned and controlled all the land. They gave some of it to chiefs. The chiefs provided services to the kings in return for the land.
They rented some of it to peasants for farming and grazing purposes. The peasants provided certain services to the chiefs in return for the land. They also gave part of their farm produce to the rulers so that they could be protected from all kinds of threats.
The nature of rent which tenants or peasants paid changed as feudalism developed.
Initially, peasants paid rent in the form of labour. Later, as feudalism evolved, landlords demanded rent in the form of products from peasants. This form of rent is called rent in kind.
Thus, peasants would give some of their produces to landlords as rent. As feudalism developed and the money economy took shape in the societies, landlords started to demand rent in the form of cash. This is also known as money rent.
Some of the feudal states which emerged in Africa included Egypt, Axum, Nubia and Ethiopia in north- eastern Africa, Mwenemutapa and Lunda in central Africa.
In the interlacustrine region there were Buganda, Karagwe, Buhaya, and Bunyoro kingdoms. In the East African coast, feudalism existed on the Zanzibar Island. In West Africa there were states such as Ghana, Mali and Songhay, Asante, Oyo, Benin
Areas that practised the feudal mode of production in pre-colonial Africa
The following are areas that practised the feudal mode of production in pre-colonial Africa.
The interlacustrine region
The interlacustrine region is the area located between the Great Lakes of East Africa. The lakes are Victoria, Tanganyika, Kivu, Albert, Edward and Kyoga. The kingdoms found in this region were Bunyoro, Busoga, Ankole, Buganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Buhaya and Karagwe.
In these areas feudalism started after the fall of Bunyoro-Kitara about 1500CE. The main economic activities were farming and livestock keeping. The people in these kingdoms grew various types of cereals and bananas. They mainly kept the long-horned cattle, goats and sheep.
The interlacustrine region developed feudal relations, which appeared in two main forms.
The first form of feudalism was based on land ownership. Land was needed for banana cultivation. The areas where this form of feudalism existed included Buganda, Buhaya, Uzinza and Ukerewe.
The second form was based on cattle keeping. The areas which developed feudal relations on the basis of cattle keeping were Burundi, Rwanda, Karagwe and Ankole.
Buganda
In Buganda, feudalism was connected with the coming into power of Kabaka in the 17t Century. Initially, Kabaka faced strong opposition from the indigenous clan rulers. In order to consolidate his political power in the kingdom, Kabaka decided to take a number of steps.
First, he confiscated and controlled all land. Being the controller of land and being in charge of politics in the kingdom, he distributed land to the nobilities, who were known as the Balangira, and to his own favourites known as the Batongore.
By appointing his own assistant chiefs. Kabaka gradually succeeded in weakening the powers of the clan heads. By controlling large tracts of arable land which was offered to a few people, Buganda developed feudalism.
At the same time, many people were landless. As a result, there were two classes of people in Buganda, the class of landowners and that of the landless.
The landless were tied to feudal relations, on the basis of which they had to pay feudal rent. Akasanvu was one of the types of rent they paid. This was a system which required the tenants to provide labour for government projects.
The other form of rent was Obusulu, which was paid in the form of labour or goods in return for protection by the chief. Envunjo was the third type of rent. This was a “gift” of one-tenth of a person’s produce given to the chief as a sign of respect for the chief. By the onset of colonialism in the late 19th century, Buganda had completely changed into a feudal society.
Buhaya
Buhaya developed feudal relations like those of the Buganda Kingdom. The feudal system of production that evolved in Buhaya was known as Nyarubanja, which was based on land ownership. The Bahaya society developed feudalism when it started to transform itself into elaborate political chiefdoms. The Bahaya called their king Omukama. The Omukama controlled all the land and used it as he wished.
He distributed land to the lesser kings called the Bakungu and the nobility called the Balangira. The peasants were the majority and possessed land on behalf of the Omukama. The new form of land ownership created two main classes in Buhaya, landowners and peasants.
The class of landowners consisted of the Omukama, the Bakungu and the Balangira. These formed the landed-ruling class called Batwazi. The peasants formed the class of serfs called Batwarwa.
The Batwazi imposed certain feudal obligations on the Batwarwa such as the payment of rent in the form of labour, kind and cash. Up to the time of establishing colonialism in the late 19 century, feudal relations were still quite evident in Buhaya.
Urundi and Ruanda
The feudal relations in Urundi and Ruanda, nowadays Burundi and Rwanda, were shaped by cattle ownership. Cattle owners formed the class of feudal lords. In the cattle culture, two dominant economies were practised, namely agricultural and pastoral economies.
In Urundi and Ruanda the Tutsi were pastoralists. The Hutu formed the class of peasants in both Urundi and Ruanda. The Tutsi pastoralists exploited the Hutu agriculturalists by imposing feudal obligations on them in the form of payment of rent in return for protection.
In Ruanda, two forms of feudal relations existed. These were known as Umuheto and Ubhuhake. In Urundi, the feudal relations were known as Ubugabire. Rent payment was established in both kingdoms. The payment of rent was known as Kutonja or Kugaba.
The Coast of East Africa
The feudal system that developed on the coast of East Africa was known as Umwinyi.
This system existed along the coast for many years. Umwinyi was largely practiced in Zanzibar, and it existed side by side with slavery.
In the hierarchical structure of coastal feudalism, the overall control of the feudal lords was exercised by Mwinyi Mkuu. He enjoyed unquestionable political, social and economic privileges.
The privileges included:
(a) Determining and imposing feudal obligations on his subjects;
(b) Exercising overall political power in his dominion;
(c) Owning and controlling land;
(d)Charging and controlling the fees paid by his subjects; and
(e) Allocating land and supervising production.
Under Mwinyi Mkuu were his vassals. The first group of the vassals was known as the Sheha or Diwani. They assisted Mwinyi Mkuu in administering the dominion. For example, they administered the villages and ensured law and order in their respective villages. The Sheha was also called Sheha wa Mji or Mjumbe. He ensured that all the people in his area paid their rent and fees. He retained part of the feudal fees paid and submitted the surplus to Mwinyi Mkuu.
He did that because he controlled the village fund known as Koba la Mji. The Sheha appointed officials who assisted him in collecting taxes in the village.
Under the Sheha or Diwani were tax collectors known as the Shakua. The taxes collected by the Shakua were usually in the form of millet and mangrove poles.
People also paid feudal rent in the form of labour. They worked for Mwinyi Mkuu for a number of days in return for food and protection. Below the Shakua were some religious leaders known as Wavyale or Wazale. They performed various religious functions and duties such as leading prayers and burials. They also functioned as traditional healers, countered witchcraft and presided over rituals.
Moreover, they blessed the land and economic activities in the villages. They survived by appropriating part of the surplus wealth produced by peasants.
Exercise
1. Rearrange the following sentences to make a logical flow of historical information.
(a) The improvement of productive forces facilitated the production of surplus and the division of labour.
(b) The first class consisted of the feudal lords who owned the major means of production and appropriated the surplus.
(c) People specialised in different activities like agriculture, fishing, pastoralism and industries.
(d) Feudalism was the third mode of production and the second exploitative mode after the slave mode.
(e) The feudal mode of production permitted private ownership of the major means of production, especially land.
(f) There were two classes under the feudal mode of production.
FEATURES OF FEUDALISM
As a mode of production, feudalism had the following features:
1. The feudal mode of production permitted private ownership of the major means of production especially land. Therefore, land was privately owned and controlled by feudal lords. Those who owned land were economically and politically powerful as they could do anything to get their interests without the consent of the landless (serfs).
However, in some societies like those of the Hutu and the Tutsi, livestock was owned privately and defined the feudal relations in the societies.
2. There were exploitative relations through which the feudal lords exploited the serfs and peasants who paid various kinds of rent such as labour rent and rent in kind. With respect to labour rent, for example, peasants and serfs were given plots of land by the landlords and were supposed to work on their plots and on those of their landlords using their own implements.
3. Feudalism was characterised by the presence of classes, namely landlords and serfs or tenants. The landlords were the ruling class. The ruling class in these states had political power and collected tributes from peasants. The feudal system also permitted the division of labour and specialisation.
4. People specialised in different activities like agriculture, fishing, pastoralism and industries. This division of labour and specialisation were the result of surplus production.
5. The productive forces in the feudal mode of production were more advanced than those in communal and slave modes of production. In the feudal mode iron tools were widely used. That is why there was relatively high production of grains and other items. Therefore, advancement in productive forces created surplus which supported other economic sectors such as trading, mining, agriculture and handcraft industries.
6. Although other economic activities were also carried out during feudalism, agriculture was the major activity. For example, in the westem Sudanic states yams and cassava were grown as major food crops. Likewise, in the Buganda Kingdom and in other parts of the interlacustrine region, banana and cassava were cultivated as food crops.
Activity
Your class is invited to participate in a debate with the motion “Social classes are necessary for the development of any society”. Prepare the points to support or oppose the motion.
Revision Exercise
1. Choose the correct words from the box and fill the space provided in the following passage.
……… was a mode of production that was practised in different parts of the world. There were a few societies that developed such a mode, while the majority of African societies did not. However, this mode did not emerge as a separate economic system in Africa since it co-existed with some elements of communalism or feudalism.
The major factors for the emergence of this mode in pre-colonial African societies were …… and ………… For example, during this period, societies learnt to use iron tools in ………. and other economic activities. Furthermore, pre-colonial African societies were not ……………… They varied from one place to another in terms of development. For example, some ethnic groups in slave-owning societies specialised in ………….. and ………….. , while others specialised in trade.
This division of labour caused ……………. , hence the rise of social stratification in societies. The earliest people to develop this mode of production in Africa were ………….. about 3500BCE. Those who controlled surplus wealth became ……..…… because such wealth gave them power over those without, who were termed as.
Slavery, technological development, social division of labour, farming, Mesopotamia, homogeneous, crafts and farming, Nyarubanja, inequality, land lords, Ancient Egyptians, slave masters, Slaves, tenants, animal keeping, Ancient Egypt, land, Kongo Kingdom, trade
2. All the three pre-colonial African modes of production had several features. Chose the mode of production that promoted justice, patriotism and human rights. Give reasons for your choice.
3. Imagine you lived in the pre-colonial feudal mode of production where the exploitation among people existed. How would you change the system so that exploitation does not continue?
