page 624 - Long Walk Original Manuscript [LWOM_624.jpg]

Theories on African socialism suffer from this fatal defect. A full grasp of the entire historical process is the only basis for building a scientific system of ideas that will not only accurately express what has happened in history but that can be used as a realistic guide on what will happen in the future.

Advocates of African socialism have not explained why in Europe there has been one directional development of society from primitive communism to slave society, feudalism, capitalism and socialism. Many parts of Asia reached class society long before the advent of the imperialist era, on the flood plains of the Indus as early as 2,500 B.C. where the community consisted of peasants who bred animals and cultivated grain and where the monarch and a small priestly class prossessed vast concentrations of wealth. The Mayas and Incas had built civilisations far higher than most people in Africa ever reached and were in a stage of social development beyond primitive communism. If in all continents the historical process establishes beyond doubt that primitive communal society was not eternal why would it be so on our continent?

To be sure there have always been important differences in the social conditions of Europe and Africa. Europe is, comparatively speaking, a small continent with a large population whereas Africa is a large one with a small population. According to two issues in a 1974 UNESCO publication the population density in Western Europe that year was between 24 and 26 persons per square kilometer and in Africa it averaged 11 persons per square kilometer. This was so in spite of improved standards of living and increase in the birthrate.