POWER, POVERTY & WEALTH IN AFRICA FROM THE SLAVE TRADES TO THE PRESENT Gareth Austin 21/02/2013

1. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM TO BE EXPLAINED? Africa’s poverty: historic but also relative African economic history is also a story of development Neither wealth nor inequality nor economic growth, were purely 20th-century innovations Changing economic position relative to other major world regions over last 200 years

Insufficient development or active retardation? Latter suggested by Dependency writers, esp. in late 1960s-70s: ‘the development of underdevelopment’ (A.G. Frank) ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ (W. Rodney) And recently, in a different way, by growth economists: Acemoglu, Johnson & Robinson 2001, 2002, 2005 Specifically on Africa, Nunn 2007, 2008 (for a critical discussion, see Austin J of International Development 20:8, 2008)

Refine problem in terms of nature of capitalism in Africa? Too much capitalism or too little? But in which sense of ‘capitalism’? Markets (what is a market?) ‘Expanded reproduction’ Private property rights & proletarianization

2. THEORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY Trends since the decade of Independence: *‘Africanist’ historiography of late 1950s-early 1970s - Modernizing states & economic rationality *More recent trends: - Focus on identities and ethnicity - Pessimism re African states & economies - - Neglect of precolonial history (why??) - Beginning (in early 2000s) of historical approaches to postcolonial history

African economic history: 2 major traditions 1) Market/Rational Choice theories 2) Marxist and (or v.) Dependency theories

Complication: Scholars in each tradition have reached conclusions more in common with their ‘opponents’ than with their supposed intellectual kin: ‘Optimism’ of diffusionist tendency within market economics, AND of ‘orthodox’ marxists (Warren, Smith & Sender) ‘Pessimism’ of dependency/world systems AND of Acemoglu et al’s ‘Reversal of fortune’

What is the difference between orthodox marxism & dependency theory? ‘Tragic optimism’ (Sender) v. ‘radical pessimism’ i.e. capitalism as a bloody but progressive force v. as a bloody and poverty-perpetuating force - e.g. Marx on India v. Dependency & World Systems approaches (Rodney, Amin, Wallerstein)

Rational-choice tradition ‘Market’ economic historiography, from 1950s (K. O. Dike 1956), to A. G. Hopkins (1973) and to present ‘New Institutionalism’ (Robert Bates & others) in political science, economic history & economics: focus not on output and prices but on the rules (formal & informal) surrounding economic activity

3. ANOTHER WAY OF DEFINING THE ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS Resources: factor endowments Quantity & quality Static & dynamic perspectives Culture: Cultures hindering or favouring economic growth? Institutions: marxist & rational-choice perspectives external impact on these States weakness (e.g. Goody, Herbst) ‘extraversion’ (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Bayart)

4. ASYMETRIES IN AFRICAN STUDIES/AFRICAN HISTORY Majority of research in African history done by scholars based outside the region Ironically, more so now than when the subject was ‘new’, 1950s-60s Concepts used in the study of African history, societies, economies, polities, predominately derive from studies of other continents Though this less true than it was Why exactly is it a problem? Discuss…

5. THEMES OF THE COURSE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INCOME AND POWER Obstacles to and opportunities for increasing individual/family prosperity Obstacles to and opportunities for state-building Character of ‘capitalist’ development in SSA State and market in African history African agency in African economic history Paths of economic development in Africa