Why inequality persists in Africa

SUMMARY

How to explain persistent inequality in Africa and its widespread consequences of uncertainty and social costs continues to be the focus of heated debate. In this debate piece, I argue that the contending orthodox, heterodox and political economy explanations are not satisfactory. Instead, stratification economics, centred on property and institutions, offers a more compelling elucidation of why stratification and inequality persist in Africa.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ilona Steiler and the other members of the African Studies Network at the University of Helsinki for helpful feedback when they invited this paper in their seminar series. Comments from Tom Gillespie and the other organisers of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series improved the paper, especially Tom’s which came after the lecture at the University of Manchester. Leo Zeilig of ROAPE provided encouragement and detailed feedback, and both Jörg Wiegratz and the ROAPE reviewer offered additional critical, but constructive, feedback. In expressing my appreciation for their excellent feedback, I must also thank William Sandy Darity Jr of Duke University for his unflinching support, guidance and inspiration in developing the book based on which I wrote this piece.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Franklin Obeng-Odoom is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science with Development Studies and the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, both at the University of Helsinki in Finland. His books include Property, institutions and social stratification in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which develops the arguments in this debate piece.

Notes

1 Stratification economics is an emerging branch of economics, or political economy, pioneered by black economists, notably William Sandy Darity Jr (see Darity and Hamilton 2015; Obeng-Odoom 2018a, 2018b, 2020a). Stratification economics is most distinctive based on its ontological and methodological approaches to explaining inequality. These approaches share a common feature of explaining inequalities by focusing not only on incomes but also wealth and power. Stressing structural, institutional and evolutionary explanations for inequalities that recognise intricate relations of race, gender and class – in contrast to the existing emphases on genetic, cultural, behavioural, market-based and mere class-/gender-based approaches only – this new field of economics is both historical and holistic in its approaches, and transdisciplinary in its sources of influence.