Decolonizing with Data: the Cliometric Turn in African Economic History
Decolonizing with data: The cliometric turn in African economic history JOHAN FOURIE NONSO OBIKILI Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers: WP02/2019 www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2019/wp022019 March 2019 KEYWORDS: Africa, history, poverty, reversal of fortunes, sub-Saharan, trade, slavery, colonialism, missionaries, independence JEL: N01, N37, O10 Laboratory for the Economics of Africa’s Past (LEAP) http://leapstellenbosch.org.za/ DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH SOUTH AFRICA A WORKING PAPER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND THE BUREAU FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers Decolonizing with data: The cliometric turn in African economic history∗ Johan Fouriey and Nonso Obikiliz Abstract Our understanding of Africa's economic past { the causes and con- sequences of precolonial polities, the slave trade, state formation, the Scramble for Africa, European settlement, and independence { has im- proved markedly over the last two decades. Much of this is the result of the cliometric turn in African economic history, what some have called a `renaissance'. Whilst acknowledging that cliometrics is not new to African history, this chapter examines the major recent contributions, noting their methodological advances and dividing them into four broad themes: persistence of deep traits, slavery, colonialism and independence. We conclude with a brief bibliometric exercise, noting the lack of Africans working at the frontier of African cliometrics. Keywords. Africa, history, poverty, reversal of fortunes, sub-Saharan, trade, slavery, colonialism, missionaries, independence ∗This paper is prepared for the Handbook of Cliometrics. The authors would like to thank Michiel de Haas and Felix Meier zu Selhausen for extensive comments, the editors Claude Diebolt and Michael Haupert for helpful advice, and Tim Ngalande for excellent research support.
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