The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa

The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa
Author: Claude Meillassoux
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2018-09-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429946279

Originally published in 1971 and written in English and French, with summaries in both languages, the essays in this volume dsicuss the effects of internal economic and political conditions and of external relations on the development of trade and markets in West Africa from the period of the slave trade to the growth in the 20th century in production for overseas markets and rapidly expanding urban centres. Other essays discuss various aspects of local and regional trade and markets from the nineteenth century onwards.

Indigenous African Institutions

Indigenous African Institutions
Author: George Ayittey
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 600
Release: 2006-09-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 904744003X

George Ayittey’s Indigenous African Institutions presents a detailed and convincing picture of pre-colonial and post-colonial Africa - its cultures, traditions, and indigenous institutions, including participatory democracy.

Morality and Economic Growth in Rural West Africa

Morality and Economic Growth in Rural West Africa
Author: Paul Clough
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2014-06-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1782382712

The land, labor, credit, and trading institutions of Marmara village, in Hausaland, northern Nigeria, are detailed in this study through fieldwork conducted in two national economic cycles - the petroleum-boom prosperity (in 1977-1979), and the macro-economic decline (in 1985, 1996 and 1998). The book unveils a new paradigm of economic change in the West African savannah, demonstrating how rural accumulation in a polygynous society actually limits the extent of inequality while at the same time promoting technical change. A uniquely African non-capitalist trajectory of accumulation subordinates the acquisition of capital to the expansion of polygynous families, clientage networks, and circles of trading friends. The whole trajectory is driven by an indigenous ethics of personal responsibility. This model disputes the validity of both Marxian theories of capitalist transformation in Africa and the New Institutional Economics.

An Economic History of West Africa

An Economic History of West Africa
Author: A. G. Hopkins
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2014-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317868935

This is the standard account of the economic history of the vast area conventionally known as West Africa. Ranging from prehistoric time to independence it covers the former French as well as British colonies.

African Markets and the Utu-Ubuntu Business Model. A perspective on economic informality in Nairobi

African Markets and the Utu-Ubuntu Business Model. A perspective on economic informality in Nairobi
Author: Njeri Kinyanjui
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2019-03-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1928331793

The persistence of indigenous African markets in the context of a hostile or neglectful business and policy environment makes them worthy of analysis. An investigation of Afrocentric business ethics is long overdue. Attempting to understand the actions and efforts of informal traders and artisans from their own points of view, and analysing how they organise and get by, allows for viable approaches to be identified to integrate them into global urban models and cultures. Using the utu-ubuntu model to understand the activities of traders and artisans in Nairobis markets, this book explores how, despite being consistently excluded and disadvantaged, they shape urban spaces in and around the city, and contribute to its development as a whole. With immense resilience, and without discarding their own socio-cultural or economic values, informal traders and artisans have created a territorial complex that can be described as the African metropolis. African Markets and the Utu-buntu Business Model sheds light on the ethics and values that underpin the work of traders and artisans in Nairobi, as well as their resilience and positive impact on urbanisation. This book makes an important contribution to the discourse on urban economics and planning in African cities.