Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to discuss briefly: 1) the relevance and utility of class analysis in the study of African political affairs. 2) current African approaches to the class struggle, as represented by the views of the leaders and spokesmen of West Africa's ruling regimes; and 3) the Soviet view of the class struggle in tropical Africa. It does not seek to advance a systematic theory of class analysis that can be adapted to African conditions, but merely to provoke some thought about an approach that heretofore has been neglected by students of African politics and economics. The general discussion is restricted to an examination of West-African socio-political theories, suitably modified to meet local conditions, to other parts of Africa. Notes. |