An Historical Assessment and Analysis of Economic Imperialism in West Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale ◽  
Natewinde Sawadogo
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
National Development ◽  
West African ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Economic Imperialism

Abstract The West African political economy has been shaped by the policies, decisions and actions of dominant European imperialist countries since about over 500 years. Starting with imperial merchant capitalism along the West African coast in the 16th Century and French gradual acquisition of Senegal as a colony as from 1677, West Africa has remained under the imperialist hold. West Africa remains economically dependent on its former colonial masters despite more than 60 years since the countries started gaining independence. The consequences of economic imperialism on West Africa have included exploitative resource extraction, proxy and resource influenced civil wars, illegal trade in natural resources, mass poverty, and external migration of skilled workers necessary for national development. The world sees and broadcasts poverty, starvation, conflict and Saharan migration in the West African sub-continent, but hardly reports the exploitative imperialistic processes that have produced poverty and misery in West Africa in particular and across sub-Saharan Africa in general.

A New Lautoconus Species Radiation from Gambia, West Africa

The Festivus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-172
Author(s):  
Edward Petuch ◽  
David Berschauer
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
West Africa ◽  
River Mouth ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
Species Radiation ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
African Coast ◽  
Reef Fauna

Six sympatric species of the cone shell genus Lautoconus Monterosato, 1923 have been discovered on an isolated rock reef near the Gambia River Mouth, Gambia, West Africa. Of these, four were found to be new to science and, together, they represent a previously unknown Gambian endemic species radiation. These include: Lautoconus fernandi new species, L. gambiensis new species, L. rikae new species, and L. wolof new species. The poorly-known Gambian endemic cone, Lautoconus orri (Ninomiya and da Motta, 1982) was also found to be a component of the rock reef fauna, as was the wide-ranging L. guinaicus (Hwass, 1792) (Senegal to Ghana). The Gambian cluster of sibling species represents the farthest-south separate radiation of Lautoconus known from the West African coast.

The Royal Navy and West Africa, 1843-1857

2008 ◽  
pp. 133-168
Author(s):  
Mark C. Hunter
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
West African ◽  
Economic Interest ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
African Coast ◽  
American Diplomacy

This chapter analyses the British naval policies concerning West Africa between 1843 and 1857. During this period, Britain sought to encourage legitimate commerce and curtail slavery for its own economic interest, while domestically America feared the British domination of the West African coast. As such, suspicion and mistrust was rife between the two nations, and is in great detail via the abolitionist activity in the North of England; the actions of free traders and slavers; Royal Navy operations; the competition for trade between Britain and France; Commodore Charles Hotham’s slavery suppressing naval strategy; British free trade treaties; and the naval methods of enforcing British goals. It concludes in 1857, with British interests torn between strategic naval aims and domestic pressures, and British and American diplomacy still tense over West African policies.

Beyond Jihad: The Pacifist Tradition in West African Islam

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-369
Author(s):  
John Azumah
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
West African ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Sub Saharan

Lamin Sanneh’s book Beyond Jihad deals with the peaceful transmission of Islam in West Africa by a pacifist clerical group. The author challenges the claim that the old African kingdom of Ghana was conquered by the militant Berber Almoravids in the eleventh century. Islam was not introduced into sub-Saharan Africa through militant jihad, as generally believed. The principal agents for the dissemination of Islam in West Africa were local clerics, who used the peaceful means of accommodation and adaptation. The clerical tradition was pacifist, emphasizing learning and teaching, not war and political office.

Slow reform may hurt West African monetary bloc's rise

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
West African ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Economic And Monetary Union ◽  
The West ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Income Status ◽  
Sub Saharan

Subject Prospects for the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) Significance Economic growth in WAEMU reached 6.1% in 2016, outperforming peer regional blocs including its closest rival, the East Africa Community (EAC), which (excluding South Sudan) grew by 5.8%. However, business environment reforms lag those of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, which could dampen longer-term growth. Impacts Despite recent progress, growth rates need to increase above 7% for at least 20 years for the zone to reach middle-income status. The structural depreciation of Nigeria's naira could erode regional integration as importing within the zone becomes more expensive. Security fears in Ivory Coast could shift investors' focus to Senegal -- despite Yamoussoukro's recent eurobond success.

Conclusion

1999 ◽  
pp. 231-232
Author(s):  
Diane Frost
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Second World War ◽  
West African ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
The Face ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The Kru communities of Freetown and Liverpool emerged in response to, and as a consequence of, British maritime interests. Kru were actively encouraged to leave their Liberian homeland and migrate to Freetown, where they came to constitute an important part of its maritime trade. The Kru formed a significant nucleus of Freetown’s seafarers, as well as the majority of ships’ labourers or ‘Krooboys’ that were recruited to work the West African coast. The occupational niche that the Kru eventually came to occupy in Britain’s colonial trade with West Africa had important social repercussions. The Kru were labelled as unusually competent maritime workers by shipowners and colonial administrators, and the Kru encouraged this label for obvious expedient reasons. The gradual build-up of the Kru’s dominance in shipping during the nineteenth century and until the Second World War contrasts sharply with their position in the post-war period. The breaking down of their occupational niche due to circumstances beyond their control had direct social consequences on the nature of their community. Whilst many Kru clubs and societies depended on seafaring for their very existence, the demise of shipping undermined such societies’ ability to survive in the face of increasing unemployment and poverty....

Roaming About For God's Sake: The Upsurge of the Tablīgh Jamā'at in the Gambia

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 450-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marloes Janson
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
West African ◽  
The Gambia ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Missionary Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Islamic Resurgence ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
And Gender

AbstractThe proliferation of the Tablīgh Jamā'at, an Islamic missionary movement that strictly observes the fundamentals of the faith, is a manifestation of the recent Islamic resurgence in West Africa. The movement originated in South Asia, but has expanded to Africa. Despite the Jamā'at's great influence on the lives of many West African Muslims, sub-Saharan Africa is a region that has been ignored almost completely in studies of the movement. This article focuses on The Gambia, which appears to be a booming centre of Tablīgh activities in West Africa. On the basis of the conversion stories of a male and a female Tablīgh activist, the central themes in the Gambian branch of the Tablīgh Jamā'at will be explored. These themes result from local factors such as the socio-economic crisis and gender relations. Nevertheless, they also bear similarities with recurrent subjects in other 'fundamentalist' movements throughout the world.

scholarly journals An Economic Rationale for the West African Scramble? The Commercial Transition and the Commodity Price Boom of 1835–1885

2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewout Frankema ◽  
Jeffrey Williamson ◽  
Pieter Woltjer
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Commodity Price ◽  
West African ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Export Markets ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Export Prices ◽  
Economic Rationale ◽  
Price Boom ◽  
Sub Saharan

We use a new trade dataset showing that nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa experienced a terms of trade boom comparable to other parts of the “global periphery.” A sharp rise in export prices in the five decades before the scramble (1835–1885) was followed by an equally impressive decline during the colonial era. This study revises the view that the scramble for West Africa occurred when its major export markets were in decline and argues that the larger weight of West Africa in French imperial trade strengthened the rationale for French instead of British initiative in the conquest of the interior.

Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre Coleman
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
West Indies ◽  
West African ◽  
Middle Passage ◽  
The West ◽  
Plantation Slavery ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
The World ◽  
African Coast

In 1771 Joseph Banks, John Fothergill and other wealthy collectors sent a talented, self-taught naturalist to Sierra Leone to collect all things rare and curious, from moths to monkeys. The name of this collector was Henry Smeathman, an ingenious and enterprising Yorkshireman keen on improving his position in the world. His expedition to the West African coast, which coincided with a steep rise in British slave trading in this area, lasted four years during which time he built a house on the Banana Islands, married several times into the coast’s ruling dynasties, and managed to negotiate the tricky life of a ‘stranger’ bound to landlords and local customs. In this book, which draws on a rich and little-known archive of journals and letters, Coleman retraces Smeathman’s life and his attitudes to slavery, both African and European, as he shuttled between his home on the Bananas and two key Liverpool trading forts—Bunce Island and the Isles de Los. In the logistical challenges of tropical collecting and the dispatch of specimens across the middle passage we see the close connection forged in this period between science, collecting, and slavery. The book also reproduces and discusses Smeathman’s essay describing his journey on a fully slaved ship from West Africa to Barbados, a unique account because it is written by a passenger unconnected to the slave trade. After four years in the West Indies observing plantation slavery Smeathman returned to England to write his ‘Voyages and Travels’.

Memorandum of Sundry Occurrences During a Passage from Liverpool to Fernando Po in the Schooner Maria of Liverpool, and Whilst Trading on the West African Coast

1993 ◽  
pp. 137-190
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Valuable Resource ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
African Coast ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
Insight Into

This diary details the life of John Holt during a voyage across West Africa for the purposes of trade. Several entries included detailed accounts of the sale and purchase of goods and provide a valuable resource and insight into his career as a maritime merchant. His travels span the Kroo Coast; Bimbia; Bata; Gaboon; Fernando Po; Georges Bay; the Brass River; Loango Bay; and Mayumba. A small, ten-day voyage to the Krou coast, and Holt’s family tree have been included as supplementary material.

scholarly journals Bushmeat consumption in large urban centres in West Africa

Oryx ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 731-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Luiselli ◽  
Emmanuel M. Hema ◽  
Gabriel Hoinsoudé Segniagbeto ◽  
Valy Ouattara ◽  
Edem A. Eniang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
West African ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Age And Sex

AbstractThere is an unprecedented demand for bushmeat in large cities in sub-Saharan Africa, and this is a major threat to many species. We conducted 2,040 interviews in six cities in four West African countries, in forest and savannah settings. We analysed age- and sex-related differences in the frequency of bushmeat consumption. Overall, we found similar patterns in all cities: 62.2% of men and 72.1% of women said they would never eat bushmeat, whereas 12.8% of men and 8.8% of women said they liked bushmeat and ate it regularly. Younger generations of both sexes tended not to eat bushmeat, regardless of their city of origin. This study of the effects of age, gender and geographical location on bushmeat consumption in African cities provides insights regarding which population groups to target in campaigns to change behaviours.

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