Editorial: Raison D'etre

The African Association of Political Science (AAPS) is launching this jour-
nal in pursuit of  its mission of  furthering  the development  of Africa  in the
fullest  sense. As social scientists, we study the human being and society, try-
ing to ascertain what they are, how they have come to be what they are and
what  they can be. So it  comes about  that  the  social  science  knowledge  of
society  is  the  summation  of  the  existential  realities  of  social  life  and  its
developmental  possibilities. One implication of  this is that  the social scien-
tist has an enormous responsibility, for his or her work defines in an impor-
tant  way,  the possibilities  of  progress.

This journal will, we hope, combat those pitfalls of consciousness and the
objective  factors  which have, in the past,  hampered  the  fulfillment  of  this
responsibility. For one thing, we want to confront  the whole question of our
own relevance as social scientists to the social and material progress of Africa.
For the most part, the social science we learned  and practise today  appears
to have rather limited relevance for the progress of Africa.  Nevertheless we
have continued to peddle it for  a variety of  reasons which include laziness,
self-interest  or  fascination  with  esoteric  irrelevances.

The African  Journal of Political Economy (AJOPE)  underlines the need
for the scientific enterprise and commitment to meet and merge. We believe
that as a social science community, we cannot contribute much to the develop-
ment of Africa  unless we identify  completely with the problems  and  strug-
gles of  our  people.

We worry that the orientations of social science practice in Africa  are fix-
ated on the metropolitan  countries. More often  than  not,  our  professional
standing as social scientists in our  countries  and  in Africa  depends  largely
on our standing in the metropole. Because the rewards of 'international' pro-
fessional  standing  seem  so irresistable  to  so  many  of  us,  the  locus  of  our
interests has moved inevitably to the  metropole. Thus  we strive to  publish
m metropolitan journals, to adopt the academic  fashions  of  the  metropole
to  the  marginalisation  of  the  concerns  of  our  people.

But  these  are  only  symptoms  of  the  elemental  realities  of  our  social ex-
istence.  We  are  still  struggling  out  of  colonialism,  still  heavily  dominated
and dependent. We are now formally independent politically, to be sure, and
that  has  made  some  difference.  For  one  thing,  our  domination  is  now
mediated in rather  complex ways. Nonetheless it is not substantially reduc-
ed.  We  are  yet  to  consolidate  the  gains  of  our  anti-colonial  struggles  and
to concretise and advance our self-determination.  With few exceptions,  the
general picture in Africa  is one of a continent which has settled into breeding
corrupt, inefficient  and violent oligarchies who militarise politics and socie-
ty in the cause of  disenfranchising  the masses. This applies also to the vast
majority  of  the  countries  which  have  opted  for  the  socialist  path.  A  wide
range of  factors  including insufficient  attention to historical  specifications,
lack of creativity, adverse economic conditions and insufficient  commitment
to the energising value of democracy has engendered a degenerate socialism.
The economic  picture  is just  as gloomy  if  not  worse.  In  over  two  decades
of  independence,  Africa  has  achieved  very  little  in  the  way  of  economic
growth,  and less still, of  development. The masses are threatened with ever
more material deprivation and ever more misery. Our development strategies
have failed  so dismally  that  nearly  all  our  economies  are  at  varying  stages
of  collapse  and  recolonisation.

Not  surprisingly,  the sphere of  knowledge expresses our dependence and
subordination.  There  has  been  very  little  endogenous  development  of  the
social sciences. Our social science largely reproduces the dependence of  our
economy and polity as we content ourselves with consuming what we do not
produce.

The African  Journal  of  Political  Economy  (AJOPE) is clear that  unless
we strive for  endogenous development of science and knowledge we cannot
fully emancipate ourselves. Why this development must be endegenous should
be clear  for  it  is not  a  question  of  parochialism  or  nationalism.  The  point
is that even though the principles of science are universal, its growth points,
applications  and  the particular  problems which  it solves are contingent  on
the historical circumstances of the society in which the science is produced.
So, it may very well be that scientific advances made in one part of the world
may have little or no relevance to the needs of another part. This is especial-
ly so  for  the  social  sciences  which  deal  with  social  life,  a sphere  in which
uniqueness  is  so  common-place  that  the  transnational  application  of
knowledge  is  all  the  more  hazardous.

It is very clear  to us that  if we do  not  take the endogenous  development
of  knowledge  and  science  seriously  we  can  neither  achieve  full  self-
determination  nor  compete effectively  in the international system.  Because
science and knowledge are such decisive power resources no people especial-

ly the weak and disadvantaged  can afford  to  neglect  their  production  in a
world which  is never  free  from  hostility  and  always  competitive.

As a community of African  scholars we have  established  this journal as
a  means  of  speaking  for  ourselves  and  taking  responsibility  for  our  own
development. That is not to say that we are retreating into  ourselves or de-
nying the legitimate interests of others in our concerns. Our particularity is
precisely the way in which we can engage the universal with any concreteness
and to any effect.  We are sure that all those who really care for the advance
of knowledge and human self-realization  will consider this project  a collec-
tive enterprise  and  help it to  fruition.

Harare
August,  1986.

Claude Ake
Editor-in-chief

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