Sources and methods in African Economic History
Africa not only has a complex economic history, its sources and methods to analyse it are equally
complex. Where written sources have been unavailable for pre-colonial Africa archaeological
evidence and other sources have been used. Such sources include linguistic evidence, for example
in the histories of Bantu migrations. Rock art has also provided important information about
Africa’s (economic) way of life in the past. Some scholars have appropriated anthropometrics and
paleobiology in combination with archaeology to reconstruct Africa’s ancient (economic) past.
However, in some parts, written evidence has survived allowing to reconstruct some aspects of
Africa’s pre-colonial past. This evidence comes from the encounters that Africans had with the
outside world. For example, written sources from Africa’s early encounters with European and
Arab traders provide important information about Africa’s economic past. It is from such sources
that scholars have been able to quantitatively and qualitatively reconstruct and explore the histories
of the slave trades, slavery, legitimate commerce and Africa’s pre-colonial economic organisations.
For Africa’s more recent past colonial government and Christian missionary archives represent key
sources for scholars studying Africa’s colonial era. Written evidence produced by colonial
institutions and individuals have provided important information about colonial tax extraction,
living standards, demography, external trade and education etc. Colonial archives have been
criticised for their own biases shaped by racial and class prejudices. In other instances it has been
possible to access sources produced by Africans which have helped counterbalance potentially
Eurocentric colonial narratives. Colonial archives have produced evidence which includes statistics
and narrative texts and these have helped build qualitative and quantitative economic histories. In
more recent times, the volumes of data available as well as expanding computer technology have
allowed for the creation large datasets that reconstruct Africa’s past. The chapters of this online
textbook reflect these evolving methods in the writing and research of African economic history.
We have chosen to combine three approaches for teaching history and development. First, we adopt
a historical approach because the development of states, economies and societies can only be
thoroughly understood from a long-term perspective. People, families, communities or countries
do not originate from one day to another, nor do they grow rich or become powerful in a split
second. Societies that have grown wealthy have achieved this as a result of centuries of change and
current levels of global inequality are the outcome of a long-term historical process of socioeconomic and political divergence.
Second, we adopt a comparative approach. Conducting comparisons is valuable because it helps
us to identify similarities and differences that form the basis for drawing lessons from history. One
of these lessons, for instance, is that societies who manage to diversify their exports are less
vulnerable to sudden changes of commodity prices in the world market. African history is full of
lessons that can be used to inform current economic policies. Comparisons can be made on various
levels. Some chapters place African countries in the context of global economic developments.
Others compare development within Africa or do both. Comparisons are essential to develop a
broader spatial and temporal framework in which to explore the determinants of development.
Third, we adopt a thematic approach. Each book chapter discusses a specific theme that is
connected to the encompassing question of long-term African development. This can be a historical
theme, such as the African slave trades, the partition of Africa or Africa’s colonial history, but it
can also be a more contemporary theme, for instance about the causes and consequences of African
population growth, Africa’s rise of mass-education and great strides towards democratization or
the explosive growth of African cities.
Chapters use some important breakdowns in time, which we call temporal demarcations. The most
common breakdown is threefold: the pre-colonial, the colonial and the post-colonial era. These are
very crude temporal distinctions and do not equally apply to all African societies. Whereas one
could argue that the colonial period in some parts of West Africa, such as Senegal started around
the mid-19th Century, in other parts of Central Africa we would locate such a ‘start’ somewhere in
the early 20th Century. Periodisation is also open to criticism because it raise the impression of a
clear break in development path whereas in reality, such breaks can often not clearly be pinpointed
to a particular moment in time. For instance, while many Africans celebrate a day of formal
political independence, which was in the majority of countries obtained around the year 1960,
economic independence may not have been obtained until present. Nor did formal independence
mean that external political influences became irrelevant.
Still we have good reasons to structure the analysis of African development into a period before,
during and after European colonial rule. First, most of current African countries are the result of
territorial borders that were drawn during the colonial era.
Second, the era of
independence did eventually alter the foundations for the governance of African societies, as nearly
all African countries became ruled by local African politicians replacing European officials.
The geographical demarcation of this book also poses a major challenge. Throughout this book we
will discuss development in Africa, thus suggesting that there are patterns that are common to a
large uniform geographic entity. In reality we know that Africa is an extremely diverse continent,
with very different social, political and economic structures. How can we justify the term ‘African
development’, if the historical experience of development has been so varied? This is a difficult
question. One way to cope with this complicating factor is that most of the chapters focus on SubSaharan Africa, excluding North Africa. A second way of dealing with variety is that we try to
indicate, whenever possible, to which areas certain ‘general patterns of development’ do apply, and
which areas form the exception