The concept of “native elites”
I didn’t find the conversation circle I went to as provocative as I wished it was, but it has opened me to a lot of concepts that we haven’t necessarily discussed and delved deeply enough. But it was just a couple of hours long for their defense.
Anyways. Growing up, I didn’t realize how comfortable I was and that I was part of a privileged group. My parents kept repeating it, but I think they went the wrong way about it. Explaining abstract concepts is difficult, even more so when explained to a child. I had a vague idea of what my parents meant, but I never fully understood it back then. Never realized it meant that people resorted to desperate measures such as drinking mud water and cactus fruit. That it meant people throwing their child in trash bins because they aren’t able to raise them, and couldn’t get an abortion because it’s illegal in Madagascar.
And in different circumstances, this would be a simple matter of social class. But it’s never that simple, mostly in a country where the decolonial process barely exists. How does one live comfortably in a country where around 80% of the population lives below the poverty line? How does this happen, mostly without being part of the population that benefited from colonisation? There is in my country a large minority of people thriving and enjoying the cracks created by the consequences of economic difficulties and political unrest. They stay among themselves and pass down the riches and the social status that they have accumulated since colonial times. They also belong to the same ethnic groups (the rivalry between ethnic groups got exacerbated by colonial times as well), and their wealth accumulates every generation. The concept is very close, if not almost the same, as the concept of the bourgeoisie, the only difference being the component added by the concept of colonization and the idea of a minority thriving despite, if not thanks to, the system imposed by an outside force. My goal is not to take away any of the blame that should be put on colonization and the consequences it has on language, culture, history, legacy, and economic development. But it is important to realize that the idea of a minority being able to thrive while a majority suffers to a great depth and for nothing to exist in between deserves to be thought of at the very least, and solved at best. The existence of native elites in ex-colonial territories is very often the consequence of colonial meddling. But it’s a relationship that also goes both ways. Those elites are the group that facilitates the grasp that the ruling class has on our societies and our economies. They are the bridge between the resources and the people who need to be exploited to maintain this system.
The existence and perpetuation of a native elite majorly belonging to the same ethnic, religious, and economic background shows the failure of the political and economic decisions made in my country. Those same people being in positions of power and belonging to circles that help keep the same system up results in its perpetuation and in the reproduction of this whole scheme. Power remains amongst the same group that remains closed to the rest of the population.
Jordan Humphreys, (2023) “Beware of the Black Bourgeoisie”: The growing role of Indigenous elites in Australian capitalism.From Marxist Left Review website: https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/beware-of-the-black-bourgeoisie-the-growing-role-of-indigenous-elites-in-australian-capitalism/
Razafindrakoto, M., Roubaud, F., & Rua, L. (2021). Hyper-elites and network: Capturing the powerful upper tail in Madagascar. World Development, 147, 105655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105655
Charlie. (2018, July 7). The Native Elite: A (Re)Introduction of Access & Power - Diné Aesthetics. Diné Aesthetics. https://dineaesthetics.com/native-elite-reintroduction/#:~:text=The%20central%20idea%20behind%20the,%2C%20sexism%2C%20and%20many%20more.
