No Colonial Working Class, No Post-Colonial Development: a Comparative-Historical Analysis of Two Oil-Rich Countries

Both countries pursued very limited import-substitution policies to increase manufacturing (GOG 1963:39; GOG 1966:298–300; GOG 1971:64; GOTT 1958:15–16; Yebe 1993:48). Still, manufacturing (% of GDP) remained very small throughout the 1960–1972 period (see Table 1).

Although Gabon was an OPEC member and T&T was not (see McGuire (1981:200–202) for details about T&T’s OPEC application), both nations experienced comparable increase in oil prices and production (Table 3 Appendix).

In 1960, whites as a proportion of the total population were approximately 1.9% in T&T (MacDonald 1986:146), and 0.9% in Gabon (McNamara 1989:138).

Some who distinguish between direct and indirect colonial rule (Lange 2009; Mamdani 1996) may argue that T&T outperformed Gabon because it experienced direct rule where the British established strong, centralized state institutions favorable to long-term development. Conversely, indirect rule in Gabon meant that French colonial officials collaborated with indigenous actors, which created a decentralized, weak, despotic state that impeded long-run development. While the direct/indirect distinction may accurately capture variations of rule within the British Empire where this difference was codified (Lange 2009), applying these categories to other European colonies proves difficult. Many argue that French rule in Africa was more direct because chiefs were more tightly integrated into the administrative apparatus (Crowder 1964) and still others find that Gabon experienced an entirely different form of rule that conformed to neither category (Coquery-Vidrovitch 1972). Even in T&T, the line between direct and indirect rule was blurred. The colonial state was nepotistic rather than meritocratic and many state structures were severely understaffed and under-resourced (Titus 2009; Trotman 1986). Moreover, unlike other directly ruled colonies (e.g., Mauritius), T&T inhabitants were not allowed to elect persons to legislative bodies (Ledgister 1998).

By 1921, Indians comprised 33% of the T&T population. The other largest group was people of African descent, and the rest came from Europe, China, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Indians and Africans were 35 and 47% of the population in 1947, respectively (Harewood 1975; Ryan 1972). Of Gabon’s present-day 52 ethnic groups, the Fang were the largest proportion of the population (about one third) (Jean-Baptiste 2014).

A two-party system emerged in both countries in the post-war 1946–1962 period: the People’s National Movement (PNM)—a middle-class nationalist party led by Eric Williams, with the unions’ support, became the first government of independent T&T (Bolland 2001:457–461), and the Comité mixte gabonaise (CMG) party led by Leon Mba formed the first government of Gabon (Yates 1996:103–105).

See Palmer (2006) for details.

See Barnes (1992) and Yates (1996) for details.

By the mid-1980s, both Gabon and T&T succumbed to severe debt crises and underwent IMF-imposed structural adjustment. See Yates (1996) and Keily (1996) for details of each government’s response to the subsequent public discontent, protests, and even attempted coup d’états.