1 - A New Economic History for Africa?

Summary

What is “new” and what is “old” in the economic history of Africa? The chapter presents the “new African economic history” and summarizes and considers the emerging themes and contributions of the last two decades. Examining the differences in the approaches taken by economists and historians when interpreting social and economic change in the African past, the chapter identifies the central research questions, and seeks to bridge gaps in the use of methods. The chapter sets out an agenda for African economic history that goes beyond the divide of “causal history” and “compression of history” (Austin 2008, Fenske 2010). A decade of research, particularly using colonial records, has extended the quantitative boundary of investigation and allowed for a richer economic history of the twentieth century in Africa, which has hitherto focused on the persistent negative effect of institutions on economic performance and the persistence of economic failure. The recognition and substantiation of historical economic and institutional change are important, since a dismissal of both economic growth and state formation as failed projects in the twentieth century risks not learning from history: The key is to understand under what circumstances states developed, and under which they did not.