Page 24 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

Economy

first and foremost, food, shelter, They are sovereign states in name. social services were minimal (largely
clothing, etc. Empower them In reality, many of them remain coming from missionaries). The
to assure themselves of these under the economic and political state (colonial government) deter-
immediate needs; by so doing, control of their former rulers. mined what should be produced for
you unleash the enormously vast exports, in what quantities, and also
creative, entrepreneurial skills and The alternative to both of these dis- determined producer prices. There
imagination of ordinary men and credited experiments in centralized was minimal private participation
women. The recent economic ex- power is an economic system that outside agriculture, and hardly any
perience of China, whose growth roots power in people and commu- processing took place.
rate has been spectacular, is quite nities of place and that unleashes
suggestive. What has been the our innate human capacities for In the settler economy, plantation
source of this spectacular growth? cooperation and creativity. We have agriculture was controlled by Euro-
Most students of the Chinese a historic opportunity to bring such pean settlers that confiscated land
economy note that almost half an economy into being. and marginalized indigenous people.
of the acceleration in the growth Investment was much more signif-
rate during the first reform phase Africa needs to uproot the colonial icant as the owners of the capital
(1978-83) came from improved economy within her self, and replace also lived in those colonies. While
agriculture and rural development it with an economic model that has exporting mainly primary commodi-
(Vilakazi, 2011). a human face. ties also, the role of the government
was minimal, hence influencing
The important point here is that The nefarious decision, by Europe, largely the incentive structure.
the empowerment of ordinary to colonize large parts of Africa was
Chinese men and women in the driven by (1) a need to support the In the chartered economies, the
countryside unleashed enormous industrial revolution with undis- main characteristic was the involve-
creative, entrepreneurial talents, rupted flows of raw materials in ment in mining by those chartered
which resulted in the formation of large quantities, cheap labor, and the companies, the little regard for agri-
village and township firms, owned need for new markets for industrial culture and associated labor, and in-
co-operatively or privately, right up goods, (2) strategic competition frastructure only to support mining
to the formation of banks! among European powers, both and related activities. There was little
politically and militarily, and (3) indi- attempt to develop domestic gover-
It is this level of development of vidual hot heads (adventurers) that nance structures and no investment
the ordinary Chinese man and sought to achieve fame. in human capital development and
woman, of the ordinary Chinese social services.
household, which has created an Therefore, there were basically three
enormous potential market for the types of colonial economies in In many economies there were
goods produced and sold by West- Africa: reforms in some colonies, largely in
ern corporations, which has made (a) “peasant-statist” regimes known response to growing nationalist ag-
China so attractive an economic all over West Africa and parts of itation. Reforms brought in greater
prospect for the West. East Africa, (b) The settler econ- participation by the indigenous peo-
omies that developed plantations ple in the running of the colonies
Africa, in general, inherited a colo- using huge labor reserves in eastern and hence greater attention paid to
nial economy that was structured and southern Africa, and social services. The structures of the
to improve the rapacious econo- (c) Economy organized around economies remained the same.
mies of the colonizing or metro- chartered companies as in Congo.
politan powers. In the scheme of The peasant-statist regimes were The United Nations Statistical
things, what mattered was how the basically primary commodity export Commission is talking, therefore,
colonial economy could benefit enclaves. The colonial government largely here, about the inherent
the colonizers (Shokpeka and provided the minimum of infra- Nigerian and inherent South African
Nwaokocha, 2009 and Yunusa, structure to ensure that export colonial economies. In other words,
2009). The ending of colonial rule crops would be produced by peasant it is talking about the 1st economy
in most countries in Africa has not farmers and shipped to Europe. rather than the 2nd economy. It is
resulted in a complete control of Taxation was intended to make the not talking about the millions of
their economic or political affairs. administration self-sufficient, and unemployed and sometimes unem-

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