Africonomics - A History of Western Ignorance

We need to think differently about African economics. For centuries, Westerners have tried to ''fix'' African economies. From the abolition of slavery onwards, missionaries, philanthropists, development economists and NGOs have arrived on the continent, full of good intentions and bad ideas. Their experiments have invariably gone awry, to the great surprise of all involved. In this short, bold story of Western economic thought about Africa, historian Bronwen Everill argues that these interventions fail because they start from a misguided premise: that African economies just need to be more like the West. Ignoring Africa''s own traditions of economic thought, Europeans and Americans assumed a set of universal economic laws that could be applied anywhere. They enforced specifically Western ideas about growth, wealth, debt, unemployment, inflation, women''s work and more, and used Western metrics to find African countries wanting. The West does not know better than African nations how an economy should be run. By laying bare the myths and realities of our tangled economic history, Africonomics moves from Western ignorance to African knowledge.

About the author

Bronwen Everill is the author of Not Made by Slaves and Abolition and Empire in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She has held a Leverhulme Fellowship, is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and was the Director of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Cambridge. She now teaches at Princeton and is a Research Affiliate at the Laboratory for the Economics of Africa's Past in the Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Product details

• Authors: Bronwen Everill, Everill Bronwen
• Publisher: William Collins
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 10.10.2024
• EAN: 9780008581145
• ISBN: 978-0-00-858114-5
• Dimensions: 159 mm x 240 mm x 22 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Capitalism, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, HISTORY / Africa / General, Africa, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Economic Development, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Developing & Emerging Countries, Colonialism & imperialism, Economic history, Politics & government, International Economics, Economic systems & structures, Politics and government, Colonialism and imperialism, African History, Development economics & emerging economies, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / International / Economics & Trade