Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-386) and index.

Revolution and the struggle for independence : capitalist development, class consciousness, and the state in world perspective. Contradiction, crisis, and class conflict : the state and capitalist development in Ghana prior to 1948 / Beverly Grier -- Anatomy of African class consciousness : agrarian populism in Ghana from 1915 to the 1940s and beyond / Martin Kilson -- Wars of liberation and the international system : Western Sahara-- a case in point / Jeffrey M. Schulman -- The consolidation of power : the fall of monarchy, the rise of absolutism, and the definition of the political arena. Absolutism, Bonapartism, and the formation of ruling classes : Zaire in comparative perspective / Thomas M. Callaghy -- The petite bourgeoisie in the Ethiopian revolution / Robert D. Grey.

(cont.) The consolidation of power : schisms, fractions, coalitions, and contradictions in postindependence dominant classes. Class, status, and power in postreunification Cameroon : the rise of an Anglophone bourgeoisie, 1961-1980 / Ndiva Kofele-Kale -- Religion, ideology, and property in northern Zambia / George C. Bond -- The consolidation of power : woman's role in political and economic transformations. Women's politics, the state, and capitalist transformation in Africa / Kathleen Staudt -- Algerian women's access to power : 1962-1985 / Anne Lippert -- The encadrement of the population : the social basis of ideology and planning. From nationalism to Marxism : the ideological history of FRELIMO, 1962-1977 / Sonia Kruks -- Power, class, and traditional knowledge in Sahel food production / Richard W. Franke.

(cont.) The encadrement of the population : the bureaucratic development and restructuring of labor and business in South Africa. Transnational corporations and the national bourgeoisie : regional expansion and party realignment in South Africa / Ronald T. Libby -- Managing class structures in South Africa : Bantustans and the underbelly of privilege / Stanley B. Greenberg, Hermann Giliomee.

Sheds light on the importance of state, religion, ideology, gender, ethnicity, language, and international relations in determining policy and understanding society in general.