African socialism; or, the search for an indigenous model of economic development?

ABSTRACT

Ralph Austen in African Economic History (1987) noted how few African countries explicitly choose capitalism on independence, and for those who did it was a default model or a residual pattern. ‘African socialism’ was popular in the early decades of independence and pursued by several countries, including Ghana, Guinea, Senegal and Tanzania, the cases considered in this paper. The term had multiple meanings, and its advocates were quick to stress that they were not communist, and some said they were not even Marxist. This paper explores the argument that African socialism was a search for an indigenous model of economic development for a generation that was justifiably ambivalent about capitalism, but wary of being put in the communist camp in the Cold War era. Importantly, advocates of African socialism often proposed bold and transformative visions for their countries. These visions might be worth revisiting, devoid of the paradigm of socialism.

Keywords:

• African socialism
• political independence
• economic development

JEL Code:

• B24
• N47
• O55

The author acknowledges the invaluable contributions of his research assistants, Shae Omonijo, University of Chicago, and Serges Saidi, Harvard University. This paper is based on the LEAP (Laboratory for the Economics of Africa's Past) Lecture presented by the author at the University of Stellenbosch on 25 October 2017.

Notes

2 There are important exceptions. See, for example, from an earlier period, Friedland & Rosberg 1964 and Mohiddin 1981, and more recently Assensoh 1998, though an interrogation of African socialism was not Assensoh’s explicit agenda.

3 A question asked in the case of Nkrumah and Ghana by Asamoah 2014, 79.

4 Interview with former President Kikwete, Cambridge, MA, 29 March 2017. In an interview published in 1994, Nyerere provided different figures of 13 medical doctors and 2 trained engineers: Meldrum 1994, 70–72.

5 CIA Files, OCI No. 1359/63. Current Intelligence Memorandum. Subject: Orientation of Nkrumah Regime, April 17, 1963. Approved for release March 7, 2007.

6 Nyerere was known by the Swahili honorific mwalimu (‘teacher’), his profession before he entered politics.

7 Nkrumah obtained two Bachelors degrees from Lincoln University, in Economics and Sociology (1939) and Theology (1942), and two Masters degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, in Education (1942) and Philosophy (1943).

8 CIA Files, OCI No. 1359/63. Current Intelligence Memorandum. Subject: Orientation of Nkrumah Regime, April 17, 1963.

9 CIA Files, CIA Office of National Estimates. Memorandum for the Director. Subject: The Situation in Ghana. July 24, 1961.