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Wed 12 April
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Thu 13 April
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Fri 14 April
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Sat 15 April
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Thursday 13 April 2023 11.00 - 13.00
C-6 AFR03 Studies in African Economic History
B21
Network: Africa Chair: Stefano Bellucci
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Valeria Lukkari, Maria Mwaipopo Fibaek : Income Inequality in Colonial Kenya, 1914-1960
Studies of long-term economic inequality trends in the Sub-Saharan Africa have in recent years experienced a revival through the implementation of the social tables approach, which is especially apt when little is known about the societies’ historical income structures. The current study aims at employing this approach for the study ... (Show more)
Studies of long-term economic inequality trends in the Sub-Saharan Africa have in recent years experienced a revival through the implementation of the social tables approach, which is especially apt when little is known about the societies’ historical income structures. The current study aims at employing this approach for the study of historical inequalities in colonial Kenya from the early decades of the 20th century until independence. It builds on and revises the pioneering work of Arne Bigsten, who previously constructed social tables for Kenya in 1987. Bigsten covers the period between 1914-1976, and the benchmark years set by him will be followed when data is available until 1960.

In his research, Bigsten uncovers the relative increasing role of the wage-earning sector over time. Inequality also increased throughout the entire period of the study, except for the short stretches in 1950-55, 1960-64 and 1971-76, when it declined. In 1950-55 the Gini dropped from 0.7 to 0.63, and Bigsten attributes this to the gains of the smallholders. Another interesting finding is the increasing intra-racial inequality, which motivates the closer investigation and breaking down of the European, African, and Asian populations. The objective of the current study is to examine these trends with the help of newly gathered data from the colonial sources.

This study contributes to the understanding of the different aspects of historical inequality in Kenya in several ways. It breaks down the racial income groups in a more comprehensive manner and provides a detailed analysis of the earnings of each group. Moreover, it provides a more thorough assessment of the rural sector and adds qualitative understanding of the drivers of inequalities as well as the rural-urban gaps. Finally, in addition to providing inequality measures such as the Gini and Theil index, it also incorporates more novel measures, such as the Inequality Extraction Ratio. (Show less)

Fernando Mouta : Commerce, Cooperation and Conflict in the Atlantic Coast of Africa (1435-1622)
The arrival of Europeans, mostly Portuguese, along the shores south of the Saharan desert in the 1440s, is a milestone in the history of both continents. What can we infer from the first interactions between Europeans and Africans and how they evolved over time? Due to centuries of struggles against ... (Show more)
The arrival of Europeans, mostly Portuguese, along the shores south of the Saharan desert in the 1440s, is a milestone in the history of both continents. What can we infer from the first interactions between Europeans and Africans and how they evolved over time? Due to centuries of struggles against Muslim polities, the Portuguese arrived war-bent and with a crusader mentality. Defeats by Senegambian warriors and their poisoned arrows forced key decision-makers, namely Prince Henry, to issue orders that, from 1448 onwards, all expeditions had to sail with peaceful and commercial intentions. How did everyone involved adapt to the new circumstances in an apparently disparate cultural environment? What was the importance of commerce in the European expansion along the Atlantic coast of Africa, from Arguin to Luanda? Considering that commerce also means social dealings between people, what was the specific role of Africans and their contribution to the definition of the rules of social interaction between all parties involved?
Based on data collected from all types of European narratives and documents produced in the first two centuries of Euro-African relations, we propose a new methodology. It is centered around an original typology of interactions and the use of a website created from scratch (to be online in a near future), that allows for a different approach to a well-known documentary library. More than an information repository, this website can also be used as an analysis tool, accepting the incorporation of data by other researchers, from different time periods, and from new geographic regions, if relevant and desired. This methodology facilitates the identification of possible trends in these interactions and helps contextualize their pertinence and evolution. It also allows a quantitative approach to a set of data to which qualitative analysis tools are normally applied. This research is conducted under a PhD project (SFRH/BD/139662/2018) funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
This presentation thoroughly explains this methodology and brings forth preliminary results of this research project, shedding a different light on the connection between Europe and Africa. It becomes evident that initially bellicose Europeans quickly adapted to profit from trade opportunities and Africans easily accommodated these newcomers to their age-long social, political, and economic structures, setting the stage for relationships with repercussions until today. Clearly the connecting variable between such different civilizations, commerce fostered mutual understandings and shared goals. This helped build trust, fueling an environment of mutual exchange that led to cultural pluralism and multiculturalism. Adaptation and incorporation are the key-concepts in these processes. The focus on African agency helped us understand that all this was not new, and that Europeans were just another piece that rapidly fitted into place in centuries-old puzzles of local connections and relationships of power. (Show less)



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