Class Formation in the Peasant Economy of Southern Ghana

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Periodical article

Title:	Class Formation in the Peasant Economy of Southern Ghana
Author:	Vercruijsse, Emile
Year:	1979
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy
Volume:	6
Issue:	15-16
Period:	May-December
Pages:	93-124
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	farmers class formation fishermen Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Economics and Trade
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056247908703399
Abstract:	Arguing for a class analysis which tries to discover the dynamic of a society's relations of exploitation rather than simply provide a classification of 'strata', the author analyses the forms (not modes) of production involved in canoe fishing as compared with peasant farming in Ghana. In the former case, the complexity of relations between boat, net owners, and fishermen-labourers and the system of remuneration in kind hide a silent class struggle between fishermen-labourers and boat and net owners. The basis for the open struggle is being laid by the expansion of large-scale fishing with the increasing separation of fishermen-labourers from the means of production. In comparison, class formation in the sense of the alienation of peasants form the land has scarcely begun though development of land tenancy and wage labour is well under way. Bibliographic, note, tab.