| AFRICA'S ELITE |
| AFRICA'S ELITES
An FAF Publication
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The elites are an amorphous group of "educated" Africans, within which three subclasses may be distinguished: the super elites, the professional elites, and the subelites. The super or ruling elites are the heads of state, ministers, chief justices, governors of central banks, and other personalities, such as chairmen of state-owned corporations and vice-chancellors of the universities, who wield considerable political power and influence. The professional elites are those for whom administrative and political power are just within grasp. This group, at the periphery of the administrative decision-making process, is composed largely of professionals: lawyers, medical doctors, university lecturers, military officers, university graduates, and secondary school principals and teachers. This group generally supplies the political leaders and candidates, both elected and defeated. The final group, the subelites, is composed of secondary school leavers, ordinary soldiers (staff sergeants), and office clerks and typists. The subelites generally outnumber the other two groups combined by far.
However, the most vociferous of the three are the professional elites, who at the fringes of political power, are most strident in their demands and criticisms of the ruling elites. These professional elites, perhaps because of their educational achievements, have an overrated sense of self-importance, believing that only they are best qualified to rule the country. Feeling shut off from power or denied its rewards, they constantly challenge the legitimacy of the regime in power and undermine its authority. Their primary objective is to remove the super elites and replace them with themselves. To accomplish this goal, they may establish "unholy alliances" with political leaders, other professionals, workers, or students. Indeed, much of the political instability that characterizes Africa emanates from internal power struggles within the elite class itself, in particular between the super and the professional elites. If they fail in their bid to unseat the ruling elites, the professional elites may sell off themselves to the ruling elites or engage in acts of sycophancy or collaboration, calculated to win the favor of the government in power. Such acts ensure that the professional elites also can partake of the fruits of power.
In most African countries, the elites as a group number less than 20 percent of the populaton. Yet they regard political power as their prerogative and government as their property. Political power is not to be shared with the "backward masses," who are too uneducated to understand such esoterica as "constitutional rights." The elites deem it the responsibility of the government to provide and care for themselves. The government must provide them not only jobs but also everything from houses, cars, refrigerators, television sets, to even their own funerals at subsidized rates. Naturally, to win their political support, African governments have been obliged to grant many of these demands. Moreover, governments themselves are run by the elites. Therefore, providing perks and subsidies to one section of the elite class enables the super elites to grab an even larger piece of the pie for themselves.
In all of this, the interests of the masses seldom count. What distinguishes the elites from the masses is the possession of pieces of academic paper: university degrees, diplomas, and army titles
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George Ayittey,
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