This paper examines the relationship between the ethni.c and class elements in Africa, with particular reference to the working class . en this question there are two dominant viewpoints. The approach of the "modernization" school makes an absolute of the ethnic factor and ignores the class element.l It argues that non-class factors tend to detem.ine the social identities and behavior patterns of Africans, who tend to identify with different social groups in different circumstances. Thus, for

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... ample, both Harold Wolpe and Robert Mel sen point out that the Nigerian workers supported the working-class leaders during the 1964 general strike in Nigeria but voted for ethni.c parties in elections which took place the same year.2 In J(enya, G. Bennett observes that among the workers ethnic rather than workinq-class identities are doadnant in the political arena. 3 A. L. Epstein remarks that in the copperbelt of Zambia workers engage in class-oriented actions with regard to their employment, irrespective of ethnic differences. But in other areas of social life, such as marriage, housing and friendship, the ethnic element predCIIII.inates.