ECONOMIC HISTORY OF AFRICA
The exchange of economic goods appears with the transition from the economy of collection (or predation) to the economy of production, at the time of the Neolithic revolution and sedentarization.
As early as 3000 BC, ancient Egypt saw the birth of a powerful state. The head of this state was the Pharaoh, who controlled trade and mining. Wood, rare in the region, was an important element of trade.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the exchange of goods is attested in the late Neolithic and early Iron Age. During the 1st millennium BC, trade encompassed iron and stone (for tools and weapons), leather, salt, cereals, dried fish, fabrics, ceramics, worked wood, kola nuts, and stone and iron ornaments.
During the first millennium BC and the first centuries of the Christian era, North Africa with the Phoenician, Greek, and Roman trading posts and sub-Saharan Africa prospered at both ends of the trans-Saharan trade routes. On the other hand, trade continued towards the Near East. Before the beginning of the Christian era, North Africa, particularly Cyrenaica, was the granary of the ancient world. At the beginning of the Christian era, the kingdom of Aksum was a leading power in world trade; the texts allude to a wide range of exported products: obsidian, ivory, rhinoceros horns, hippopotamus skins, monkeys, turtles, gold dust, perfumes, live animals and slaves.
From the 5th century, sub-Saharan Africa was called the "land of gold". From the 7th century, Arab-Muslim expansion in Africa was accompanied by an intensification of intra- and intercontinental trade in gold, salt and slaves. Thanks to this, the Ghana Empire became a major continental power from the 8th century. Muslims gained control of the African gold and the Arab slave trade was organized. The major trade centers of the time, Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt, Oualata, Djenné, Gao, Timbuktu, Ségou, Mopti, etc., were located in the Sahelian zone, a contact zone between the Africa of the Arabs and the country of the Blacks. The Mali Empire, from the 11th century, the Kingdom of Kanem-Bornu and the Songhai Empire, from the 14th century, developed on the same economic bases.
With the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century, the slave trade economy (exports of agricultural goods and mining products), the plantation economy (use of slave labor on plantations intended for export) and the Atlantic slave trade began. Gradually, the centers of activity moved from the Sahel to the coastal areas. The coastal kingdoms traded with the Europeans and the economy became one of raiding. This, continued by colonization, led to a demographic collapse that started to recover only in the 20th and 21 centuries.
The continent, colonized in the 19th century and until the end of the 20th century, saw its agricultural and mining wealth flow towards the metropolises, to the almost exclusive benefit of the latter. Since Africa did not generally experience settlement colonization, the number of settlers was tiny compared to that of the natives. Internal economic development and local accumulation of capital were therefore not on the agenda. Consequently, the colonial African economy was essentially extroverted and, in a logic of taking advantage of comparative advantages, each colony became highly specialized. These two characteristics persist to this day.
The new states, independent from the 1960s, taking over the colonial borders, are mostly rentier states where oligarchies capture the rent (oil and/or mining) set up at the time of colonization. African wealth allowed the accumulation of capital in Europe, prior to its industrialization, but the African continent was deprived of it. The African economy therefore remains rentier, extroverted and the logic of redistribution prevails over that of accumulation.
For more information:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portail:Afrique
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa
https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/
https://etudes-africaines.cnrs.fr/
https://www.afdb.org/fr/documents-publications/economic-perspectives-en-afrique-2024
