Political Conflict ana Revolution in an African Town

The emerging patterns of life in contemporary Africa are most apparent in the often competing social and political groupings which have developed as basically rural populations have attempted to deal with the complexities of modern life. During the colonial period, these new groupings—whether rural or urban—were under the control of a dominant administration and seldom came into overt conflict. However, this is not now the case in most African towns. There, as in Ouagadougou, the capital of Upper Volta, a multiplicity of socio‐political factions and multiple governing bodies all claim rights to power and legitimacy. The result is more open competition and conflict. This suggests that the “stability” claimed for colonial African societies was more a function of exogenous political factors than of inherent structural features in the social systems described. Until new dominant political structures emerge in Africa and establish mediating linkages with other institutional forms, there may well be a period of conflict and revolution.