Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

2019 | Book | 1. edition

Why History Is Important in Africa’s Economic Development Narrative Read chapter Read first chapter

Economic Development in the Twenty-first Century

Lessons for Africa Throughout History

Author: Matthew Kofi Ocran

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Palgrave Studies in Economic History

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Login to get access
insite
SEARCH

About this book

This book uses lessons from history to help African countries take charge of their own economic development agenda. History is an important part of Africa’s economic development narrative, and Ocran investigates how the development outcomes between Africa and Western Europe became so divergent when in the early medieval period average income levels and economic development in the two regions differed only marginally. The sixteenth century marked a turning point, with the emergence of Western European mercantilism and capitalism and their associated exploitation of other countries. In understanding Africa’s economic development, it is crucial to recognise that Africa has not always been poor.

Examining 400 years of enslavement and colonisation, this book takes us to present day Africa and economic issues affecting the continent. With selected case studies from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore to South Korea and China, Ocran proposes ways to break out of the economic development quandary Africa currently faces.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

General Background and Governing Issues

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Why History Is Important in Africa’s Economic Development Narrative
Abstract
Ocran makes a compelling case for the consideration of Africa’s historical experiences, particularly before the arrival of the first Europeans, in the economic development discourse about the continent. He argues that the disruptive events that took place in Africa from the fifteenth century up until the twentieth century: slavery, colonisation, post-independence economic collapse, need to be understood in order to proffer suggestions regarding development policy options for Africa. Again, Ocran maintains that insights from economic thought and theory over the years, especially in Western Europe, do not appear to have provided useful direction for economic development in Africa. He suggests that the ideas from economic theory and the policies that flow from them have to be interrogated against the backdrop of Africa’s peculiar history and the changing dynamics of the world economic order.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Chapter 2. Economic Development: Facts, Theories and Evidence
Abstract
Ocran provides a comprehensive but succinct review of the evolution of economic thought regarding the notion of human progress, antecedent of the very idea of economic development in contemporary times. He sets the scene for the discussion on economic development by discussing the salient stylised facts about economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. The discussion reviews Adam Smith, Karl Marx and other classical economists’ view on development. He follows up with the review of neoclassical growth theories: exogenous and endogenous variants. Ocran also discusses other mainstream and heterodox theories that purport to remedy the flaws inherent in the dominant neoclassical approach. He discusses the old and new institutional economics ideas and coordination failure. Ocran also examines variants of the dependency, modernisation and world-systems approaches. He ends the review by pointing out that none of the ideas thus far in itself provides a complete theory that offers a silver bullet for addressing meaningfully Africa’s development challenges.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Chapter 3. Development Approaches from East Asia
Abstract
Over the last six decades, the economic development experiences of the East Asian countries: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and China have proven to be overwhelmingly exemplary. Ocran investigates the varied development experiences of these countries to offer lessons for Africa. The economic development strategies of the East Asian economies range from the laissez-faire approach of Hong Kong to state capitalism in China. Between the two extreme experiences from Hong Kong and China are various configurations of market-led and statist approaches. The differences between the experiences notwithstanding, Ocran identifies a number of common denominators across the experiences such as high capital accumulation: physical and human as well as relatively high initial conditions as compared to many African countries. He points out the use of medium-term development planning frameworks, except in the case of Hong Kong, to guide development as an instrument worthy of note. Ocran also argues that apart from China, the successful East Asian countries strategically aligned themselves with the West in the post-war ideological contest and by so doing were able to extract favourable market access in their early stages of industrialisation.
Matthew Kofi Ocran

European Growth and Development That Shaped Africa

Frontmatter
Chapter 4. Medieval European Economies, AD 400–1500
Abstract
Ocran provides an overview of the dominant European kingdoms in the middle ages, especially after the collapse of the Roman Empire. He also sheds light on the economic system in Europe at the time: manorialism and feudalism. Medieval Europe was often associated with weak central governments, even when they existed. The widespread fragmentation of sovereign power in medieval Europe at the time is notable. Ocran also describes how the emergence of the town economy hastened the gradual erosion of feudalism as an economic order in Western Europe. Before the resurgence of European empires between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, the Byzantium Empire and the Islamic Empires that were very prominent three centuries earlier were all in decline. It was around the thirteenth century that the foundations of capitalism began to be laid in Western Europe. He discusses the devastation of the bubonic plague in Europe and the Italian renaissance that emerged in the late Middle Ages.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Chapter 5. Mercantilism as a World Economic Order
Abstract
Ocran locates the Western European pursuance of trades in African slaves as chattel and colonisation within the framework of European mercantilist. He discusses the important aspects of mercantilism as a system of: statism, power, protection, monetarism and as a unique conception of society. While mercantilism did not necessarily represent a systematic body of economic thought, it encompassed a collection of policy prescriptions informed by a set of ideologies that were expected to direct economic life for the attainment of socio-economic progress. The eclectic nature of the ideals espoused by mercantilism often created contradictions within the body of mercantilist thought. Ocran suggests that, as part of the mercantilism ideology, Western European countries pursued very crude forms of protectionism, which was naturally carried over to their foreign trade practices and the colonies.
Matthew Kofi Ocran

African Experience in the Long Run

Frontmatter
Chapter 6. Medieval African Economies: AD 700–1500
Abstract
Africa is often associated with poverty and misery but Ocran demonstrates that on the eve of European adventure on the continent, Africans could hold their own in the comity of polities in the known world at the time. He reviews the historical facts regarding Africa’s medieval economies and provides evidence to the fact that the region was well endowed with rich mineral resources and was engaged in vibrant trade with her northern compatriots across the desert and with Arab traders to the East. Ocran shows that the Saharan desert was no barrier to trade. One cannot appreciate medieval Africa without considering the awe-inspiring states that existed on the continent, particularly those in Western Africa. The Ghana, Mali and Songhay Empires provide a glimpse of economic life of medieval Africa before the arrival of Europeans on the continent. He shows that there wasn’t much difference between the state of African economies and that of Europe in the medieval epoch.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Chapter 7. Emaciation of African Economies I: The Slave Trades, 1451–1830
Abstract
Ocran discusses the far reaching effects of the sixteenth to eighteenth century Atlantic slave trade on Africa’s development trajectory. He reviews the competing estimates of the volumes and trends on one hand and the impact on the economic fortunes of the continent on the other. Unlike colonialism, which in most instances lasted for less than one hundred years, the slave trade lasted for more than three hundred years, devastating local institutions with grave socio-economic distortions. Ocran also suggest that the slave trade underpinned world trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and supported capital accumulation in western European countries, particularly the United States, Great Britain and France. The cheap African labour in the plantations and mines in the America’s provided considerable economic surpluses for the western European countries involved in the trade. Among the negatives from the slave trade were: debilitating impact on population size, which discouraged the development of land markets; disincentivizing legitimate commodity trade with Europe and breeding mistrust among local African population.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Chapter 8. Emaciation of African Economies II: Colonisation 1880–1960
Abstract
Shortly after the official abolition of the slave trade, Western powers partitioned Africa among themselves and began to exploit the physical and human resources of the continent. Ocran highlights how colonisation further wrecked the economies in Africa. He identifies three kinds of colonisation in Africa: settler, non-settler and concessionary. He also characterises colonisation with large-scale land alienation, labour and resource exploitation as well as extractive institutions. The commodity market boards that exist in a number of African countries today, is another legacy of colonial extractive institutions. Ocran suggests that the existence of dual economies: formal and informal economies in most African countries are largely as a result of colonial economic policy. He draws a parallel between mercantilism and colonial economic policy in Africa. Ocran discusses how colonial powers discouraged industrialisation in the colonies and ensured these were markets and sources of raw materials. He concludes with the suggestion that economic development experiences in Africa have mostly been path dependent.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Chapter 9. Post-Independence African Economies: 1960–2015
Abstract
Ocran points out that the 1960s was momentous in the history of Africa. He intimates that the by the end of the 1960s, most African countries had attained political independence. The period was therefore characterised with the euphoria of independence after seventy-five years of Western European domination. Behind the veil of euphoria existed harsh realities of poignant developmental challenges: unskilled human resources, political fragility, inappropriate institutions, rapid population growth and the legacy of history. After a short spell of economic growth, the countries succumbed to the global economic difficulties following the oil crises of the 1970s. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which came to the rescue of the economies made financial support conditional on the adoption of stabilisation and structural adjustment policies. Ocran argues that after two decades of reforms, by the year 2000, the policies had failed to engender either sustained economic growth or considerable poverty reduction. He concludes by providing evidence to show development challenges still persist, even though the past two decades have witnessed a rebound of economic growth in many African countries.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Chapter 10. Lessons and Ideas for Charting a New Development Path in Africa
Abstract
Drawing on the theories of economic growth and development, facts and empirical evidence regarding economic growth in the long run, Africa’s legacy of history and lessons from the successful East Asian economies, Ocran put forward five ideas that African governments have to consider to hasten economic development. The rapid population growth rates in Africa have to be curbed. Domestic resource mobilisation has to be prioritised to generate resources for gross capital formation because no country has developed by relying solely on foreign capital. The fourth point is about the need to facilitate the transition of the informal economies into the mainstream economy and lastly, serious attention has to be paid to industrialisation by adopting “smart” industrial policies that provide some protection for selected local industries.
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Economic Development in the Twenty-first Century
Author
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-10770-3
Print ISBN
978-3-030-10769-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10770-3