This panel explores aspects of the industrial history of Africa during the twentieth century.
This panel explores aspects of the industrial history of Africa during the twentieth century. Dede Amanor Wilks compares the consequences of the ‘settler colony’ and ‘peasant colony’ paths for the industrial prospects of Zimbabwe and Ghana respectively. Miatta Fahnbulleh focuses on post-colonial industrialization strategies in Kenya and Ghana, arguing that industrialization, widely considered to be discredited as a policy objective for African countries, has actually become increasingly realistic. Ayowa Afrifa considers Ashanti Goldfields Corporation’s transition from a standalone direct foreign investment to an ‘African’ multinational. The first three papers proposed for the panel are all from PhD candidates in the Economic History department at LSE (who are expected to be very well advanced in their doctoral research by the time of the conference). It is hoped that there will be a fourth paper, from outside LSE.
A comparison of these two countries provides a natural laboratory for viewing the outcome of divergent growth trajectories in two distinct types of former British colony (peasant and settler respectively). The paper outlines the challenges of late industrialisation and assesses how far industrial performance was a function of differences underpinning the peasant-settler dichotomy.
This paper tests theories of multinational corporations against the experience of AGC. The case study reveals the failure of existing theories to consider the causal role of international finance - the roles of borrower reputation, shareholder expectation, and the innovative use of financial instruments in the growth of a multinational.
Africa has failed to engender the rates of industrial growth and subsequent development to which many newly-independent states aspired. This paper compares the experience of industrial development in post-colonial Ghana and Kenya. Through an exploration of the dynamics of policy evolution in this period, it seeks to evaluate the efficacy of an industrialisation strategy in the region.