Revolutionary phenomena in stratified societies: Rwanda and Zanzibar

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Periodical article

Title:	Revolutionary phenomena in stratified societies: Rwanda and Zanzibar
Author:	Lemarchand, R.
Year:	1968
Periodical:	Civilisations
Volume:	18
Issue:	1
Pages:	16-51
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Rwanda Zanzibar
Subject:	revolutions
Abstract:	There is a curious imbalance between the volume of printed material devoted to the concept of revolution and the paucity of empirical studies dealing with the two countries of Africa where, in the A.'s opinion, revolution has any meaning - Rwanda and Zanzibar. Aim of this paper, a revised version of a paper submitted to the Second International Congress of Africanists, Dakar, 1967, is to set the balance right and to give a more empirical perspective to a phenomenon which seems to have suffered from an overdose of abstract theorizing. Attempted is to reduce a welter of empirical facts gleaned from the recent histories of Rwanda and Zanzibar to a body of general propositions about the roots and consequences of revolutionary change in contemporary Africa: The concept of revolution in contemporary Africa - The social context of revolutions caste, class and ethnicity - Varying patterns of asymmetry: the problem of external involvement - Varieties of revolutionary experience: rural insurgency vs. class conflict - Conclusions. Notes, French summary.