STILL RELEVANT: CLAUDE AKE'S CHALLENGE TO MAINSTREAM DISCOURSE ON AFRICAN POLITICS AND DEVELOPMENT

Journal of Third World Studies, Fall 2005 by Harris, Kelly

INTRODUCTION

This paper is the result of conversations with a variety of people about the work of Claude Ake. A few were adamant that Ake shifted from a progressive position to a more conservative one in light of his work with the U.S.-based Brookings Institution. Defensively, I attempted to rationalize his involvement, but what became increasingly clear was that neither I nor his "critics" had read his body of work. While I do not claim to have read everything Ake ever wrote, this paper is a result of exploring a sizable portion of his work, which allows me to firmly comment on Ake's political thought.

The Nigerian born Claude Ake was arguably Africa's leading political thinker at the time of his death in 1996. Before his untimely death, Ake was developing the Center for Advanced Social Science in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and was a year away from resigning his seat on a Shell oil appointed commission to "study the ecology of the oil-producing Niger Delta region in Nigeria."1 Ake resigned in protest of the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Sani Abacha regime. Saro-Wiwa led the struggle of the Ogoni in Nigeria who were determined to resist the machinations of Shell and the Nigerian government on their land. In his own words Ake stated as follows:

It is with regret that I announce my resignation from the Steering Committee of the Niger Delta Environmental Survey (NDES) which took effect from November 16, 1995. I must confess that the decision to serve on that committee had been a difficult one to begin with, given the oil companies' past record of arrogance, insensitivity to the humanity of host communities and to environmental sustainability. But in the end I decided to serve, encouraged by Ken Saro-Wiwa, who argued that the NDES could be a window of opportunity for constructive engagement.

The involvement of Ake and his subsequent resignation is well known but less publicized is his role in organizing The Peoples Solidarity Party in Nigeria. His work as an organizer was undermined by the regime of General Ibrahim Babaginda, which abolished all political parties except those established by the military. Ake's work as a scholar and activist, given Nigeria's corrupt regimes, is the factor that some believe killed him (and not simply a plane crash).

The work of Claude Ake is significant, particularly in light of "the end of history" and "there is no alternative" crowds. Ake attempted to find an alternative path of development and critically engaged his own work and guided others in pursuit of that objective. It is difficult to find, even in the West, scholars of Third World development who have never heard of Ake or read his scholarship. He is without a doubt, the most thoughtful voice on African development over the last thirty years. These are not mere platitudes for the deceased. A survey of his major works should illuminate his importance to Africa and the African Diaspora.

FIRST PUBLICATION: A THEORY OF POLITICAL INTEGRATION

Published in 1967, A Theory of Political Integration is Ake's first major work. Oddly enough, one could not have predicted the path of Ake's scholarly development based on this work. He examines what he calls "the problem of political integration," ostensibly in light of the nominal independence won by Africans during the 1950s and 1960s. No less than thirty-five African nations had gained independence by the time of publication. With these newly independent states as the setting, Ake analyzes:

* How to elicit from subjects deference and devotion to the claims of the state; and

* How to increase normative consensus governing political behavior among members of the political system.2

The problematic then is regime stability and maintenance. The conceptual tools used to understand this phenomenon are equally conservative. Ake focuses on consensus theory, political integration, political democracy, political behavior, political system, identifie, charismatic legitimation and political stability; concepts utilized and promoted by Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell, David Apter, Samuel Huntington, and Lucian Pye. Ake was influenced by the dominant behavioral approach, which was dominant in political science throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that the dependency theorists and post-behavioralists began to offer significant challenges.

A Theory of Political Integration is an attempt to highlight the challenges encountered in the transition from colonial governance to independence. Ake admittedly believes the problem is complex and finds the current theories on political integration unmindful of this complexity.3 However, complexity as understood by Ake is reduced to regime maintenance. Ake argues that:

The crucial problem of the postcolonial situation is the integration of the new nation which is threatened by strong centrifugal forces. The nationalist movement. . . tends to disintegrate with the elimination of imperial control . .. The optimistic psychological atmosphere characteristic of revolutions raises expectations to heights that the new government cannot possibly satisfy with the meager means at its disposal.4