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Paper short abstract:

Capitalism, introduced to Africa through historical violence, shapes contemporary Nigeria. This study delves into mining, oil, environment, gas, and trade, examining its impact through the lens of racial capitalism, exploring its potential for development.

Paper long abstract:

Capitalism as an economic, social and ideological system is not indigenous to Africa. Its appearance in much of the African continent was accompanied with violence and other subtle means systematically through the engagement of European traders with African communities in slave trade, colonial enterprise and post-colonial economic, ideological and social structures. This history provides a reflection of the connection between yesterday and today. However, the focus of this study is not the history but the contemporary manifestations of capitalist means of production and its mode of accumulation in Nigeria. Capitalism is a global system that manifest peculiarly in different national sub-systems. The empirical dimension will focus on mining, oil, gas, the environment, industry and trade. This paper seeks to explore this particular social and economic manifestation of the system in Nigeria and the potential it nurtures for development. Through the anti-capitalist framework of racial capitalism propounded by Cedric Robinson, the prospect of development through modern capitalist logic is critically examined.

Keywords- racial capitalism, environment, accumulation, means of production, and Nigeria

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Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on captains of commerce and industry of African origins' attempts to decolonize/deracialize capitalism in the context of Black Business. It looks at how they have struggled, against ideological and racial odds, to Africanize capital for their own benefit and that of Global Africa.

Paper long abstract:

This paper revisits the intertwined processes of deracialization and decolonization as they unfolded in the context of capitalism and colonialism in the long 20th century. It argues that, although both capitalism and colonialism are racial systems, dismantling them through deracialization, as luring as it is, has been marred with limitations stemming from their colonial coupling. As such, colonial racial capitalism remains intact globally in the 21st century. One of the conspicuous areas in which racial capitalist coloniality continues is that of Black business, despite various attempts by captains of commerce and industry in Africa and its Diaspora across the centuries to Africanize capital and labor relations. Employing radical Black political economy, therefore, enables one to make sense of why and how, historically and contemporarily, ‘Black entrepreneurs of African descent’ worldwide have generally not fared well in establishing and sustaining big business relative to those of ‘Euro-American’ origins.

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Paper short abstract:

The paper highlights how black capitalism originates in the ancient African chiefless states in which the pre-colonial African constitution and other institutional arrangements including lineage and age-grade systems engineered social wealth.

Paper long abstract:

Several black scholars such as Walter Rodney, Kwame Nkrumah, and Chancellor Williams, among others, have highlighted how major historical events such as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, colonization, and neo-colonialism have contributed significantly to the development of Western states and underdevelopment of modern African states. Widespread unemployment, corruption, mass migrations, military coups, resource-based conflicts, and insurgency movements, among other ills, demonstrate the extent of underdevelopment in modern African states. In turn, racism and discrimination across different fields including police brutalities targeted at blacks and black communities outside Africa underline the unequal power relations between the African diaspora and the societies in which they live. Against this backdrop, the idea of black capitalism has been questioned as the existential threats facing Africans at home and abroad have partly fuelled the thought that capitalism is a Western phenomenon, which was brought into black communities by Europeans. In contrast, the paper argues that black capitalism originates in the ancient African chiefless states in which the pre-colonial African constitution and other institutional arrangements including lineage and age-grade systems engineered social wealth. The analysis also shows how ancient black capitalism in which social wealth was emphasised is in stark contrast to the current capitalist ideas in black societies that mostly celebrate individual wealth. The policy implication is that modern African states and black communities in general need to revisit the capitalist ideals that governed the pre-colonial chiefless states to effectively address contemporary problems.

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Paper short abstract:

Using a case study on Black traders in apartheid-era Namibia, I argue that capitalism often provides the means for individual ascent while simultaneously precluding more radical change. While new groups can find new niches, they rarely have a chance to radically transform production processes.

Paper long abstract:

One of the defining features of capitalism is capital owners' ability to structure social and economic relations by organizing the process of production. When asking “whether Black capitalism is a track for the economic emancipation of the African masses”, a good place to start is to ask if Black-owned capital can re-organize processes of production. I take up this question using the case of Black traders in apartheid-era Northern Namibia. Under the conditions of ‘separate development’ since roughly 1950, a substantial group of Black men and women were able to establish themselves as successful traders. Many shops were successful enough to provide traders with the means to build up capital, branch out into different enterprises and form extensive patronage networks. After independence in 1990, however, trade liberalization caused many of these enterprises to crumble. Only in rare cases were successful traders able to transfer their earlier success into other sectors. Far from lastingly transforming production processes, they suffered from changes in capitalist organization over which they had no control. I use this case study to address the panel’s central questions. I argue that, while capital is not per se anti-Black, the long history of capitalist organization of productive relations typically channels the economic success of new groups into niches that rather depend on existing structures than establishing new ones. Capitalist economy as it has historically been institutionalized often provides the means for individual emancipation, but it severely limits possibilities of collective emancipation from existing structures of a racialized economy.

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Paper short abstract:

Using a multi-ethnography (West Africa and South Afric), I will show how the Lions Club is in the footsteps of historical leaders Du Bois and Booker T Washington to create an entrepreneurial elite. Lions Club's freedom of association can be seen as a counter-point to the professional dependence.

Paper long abstract:

W. E. B Du Bois said in The Souls of Black Folks, 1903: "Is it possible that nine million men can make real economic progress if they are deprived of political rights, if they are reduced to a servile caste? For twenty years, the African branch of the Lions Club has been fighting this situation by recruiting African members to create the exclusive group of 30,000 Lions of Africa. These are very talented industrialists who are becoming pan-African political players, to "restore pride to the continent".

The multi-sited ethnography in West ans South Africa will offer a look at the pan-African ethos of the possessing. I will show how the Lions Club follows in the footsteps of historical leaders Du Bois and Booker T Washington to create an entrepreneurial elite. From a critical point of view, freedom of association can be seen as a counterpoint to the professional dependence suffered by individual members. The associative struggle is a prelude to a desire to win back the economy, and the club is a collective offering black empowerment (Tangri and Southal 2008). The wealthy members would forget for a moment to take advantage of their extraversion (Bayart 1999) as industrialists to practise an intra version, an opposite principle.

They show that a liberal dynamic cannot be built in a globalised context, which is always asymmetrical for the South. The continental autochthony they practise at the Lions Club shows that all entrepreneurs must first and foremost be political and therefore pan-African.

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Paper short abstract:

Capitalism opposes Black interests, establishing a class society within African communitarian or socialist structures. Black underdevelopment stems from capitalism. This work explores capitalist tactics perpetuating Africa's ongoing underdevelopment and subjugation in the homeland and diaspora.

Paper long abstract:

The intrinsic nature of capital and capitalism inherently manifests as antithetical to the interests of Africa and the Black community. The term 'Black capitalism,' introduced by Richard Nixon, gained prominence, particularly post-Obama's election, as the black elite rose in global politics, business, academia, and sports. Hutchinson's 1970 work, "The Myth of Black Capitalism," critically challenges the assumption that capitalism can rectify injustices faced by African Americans. His historical analysis shows that a cadre of Black capitalists failed to alleviate inequalities. This analysis asserts that Black capitalism opposes the interests of the Black community and Africa and the belief in its potential to improve socio-economic conditions for Africans is considered illusory, serving to subjugate Africans, perpetuating imperialism and neo-colonialism. This dynamic is exemplified by entities like Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga in Nigeria and Strive Masiyiwa (Zimbabwe), highlighting the prevalence of black capitalism. This research advocates for the tenets of African socialism and communitarianism, aiming to counter the influence of 'Black Capitalism.' Through an epistemological exploration, the study elucidates the stratagems and rationale employed by capitalist entities to perpetuate Africa's enduring state of underdevelopment and subjugation, both within its borders and across the diaspora. Aligned with the tenets of radical socialism as articulated by Karl Marx, the imperative for 21st-century Africans is to transition from theoretical discourse to tangible action, effectuating practical and revolutionary transformations.

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Paper long abstract:

The ‘Africa Rising’ narrative and the 2007-2008 land rush have been a fertile ground for building new cities from scratch. Smart cities are conceived as viable, resilient, inclusive and affluent environments that promote a people-centric approach based. According to Mboup (2019), there are three foundational elements to smart cities: their urban planning and design, land tenure and basic infrastructure. Black capitalists’ investments in these new cities, and related discourse have often been made with the view to ‘reframe Africa’.

This article argues that despite their impeccable rationale and design inspired by afro-futurism and Wakandism, and promises for more social and spatial justice, these smart cities also hold the potential to exacerbate social differentiation and reinforce exclusions especially through land grabbing. Based on evidence from peri-urban Senegal and desk research, this article analyses two historical and two contemporary new cities. The two contemporary cities focus on international actor Idris Elba's eco-city project prioritising environmental conservation, economic opportunity, and community engagement in Sierra Leone, and international singer and entrepreneur Akon’s Crypto Cities which are futuristic urban development projects seeking to promote African-led and diaspora-inclusive investments centred around Akoin, a crypto-currency, in Senegal (and Uganda). The article revisits the Black radical tradition for understanding the promises of and discontents with Black capitalism and its implications for postcolonial economic development and transatlantic/diasporic engagement.