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Paper short abstract:

We analyse histories of accumulation, and its relation to political power in Africa. Who controlled land and wealth. Of what economic import was the King's court? What role did the spiritual play in economic and in disaster mitigation? And of middle men in trade?

Paper long abstract:

The 1970s saw a flurry of studies seeking to understand the making of African political order and colonial African economic conditions. This developed since the 1980s into increased interest in detailing the social conditions of poor rural and urban Africans. With the collapse of communism as an ideology that was supposedly pitted against capitalism, African studies focussed largely on African social conditions. Thus arose agrarian studies, NGOs and studies of vulnerability, agency, and resilience among the poor. In these studies lay fundamental assumptions about the African condition – the notion of victimhood, the politics of a permanent crisis, with strong Afro-pessimist flair that filters sometimes subtly, and sometimes virulently. TSome of these studies were dominated by economists; political scientists; sociologists, and anthropologists. They were very presentist in their approach and did not examine economic continuities and discontinuities that could have unravelled the extent to which Africans have accumulated wealth and power even when conditions did not enable them. We do not seek to focus on the colonial ills, but on the ways in which African entrepreneurship developed. We offer tentative thoughts on land and its control, departing from assumptions that control over people was more than the control over land (Donald Wright, 1999). We examine the role of moral and political capital and its economic ramifications – for instance, the King’s court not only as political space, but as a site for negotiating contracts to control resources, to trade and to mine; the office of the spirit men and women (traditional healers, nángas, spirit mediums, etc) as protecting the people from shangwa (disasters) that could potentially wipe away their wealth, for instance, cattle wealth. We evaluate too, the rise of middle men in facilitating trade in Africa and abroad since the middle ages and how that built wealthy dynasties, so was the control of banana plantation agriculture (Itandala) and monopoly over cattle and how that impacted relations with those who had none. We believe that Africans had a history of accumulation that predated colonialism and the ills that such a colonial model created. there is potential to argue for a different model of economic development for Africa.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the gendered aspects of household debt in Kenya, focusing on its relationship with social reproduction and financial care value extraction. I proposes a feminist materialist theoretical framework for understanding this conflict in the capitalist accumulation system.

Paper long abstract:

With regard to the changing debt architecture on the African continent, both the financialization of debt, its feminization, and its links to gender inequality and social reproduction have been under-researched. This includes in particular the gendered aspects of intra-household debt. This paper proposes to understand household debt through the feminist IPE lens of social reproduction in the capitalist accumulation regime in order to unravel its gendered dimension: What is the gendered component of household debt in Kenya and how is this relevant to the social reproduction of the household since Covid-19? I argue that private debt brings Kenyan women into the financial system for the profit of the financial institution. Debt related to social reproduction, care-related debt, thus functions as a form of financial care value extraction. I link this to a general crisis tendency of the capitalist accumulation system and summarize that financial care value extraction feeds the ongoing need for value accumulation via dispossession. To fill the above mentioned research gap on the gendered aspects of household debt for social reproduction in a Kenyan context, I propose to operationalize a feminist historical materialist theoretical framework on a qualitative case study in the rural Taita-Taveta region. The concept of social reproduction is used as an interpretive framework to consider the complex relationship between the state and the private household in the age of neoliberal austerity.

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The paper interrogates the Nigeria's cash transfer programme in addressing the plight of the most economically vulnerable Nigerians. It concludes that it has suffered a setback due to the narrow value orientation of the political elites.

Paper long abstract:

Addressing the issue of unjust and unequal distribution of resources which euphemistically is referred to as inequalities in the society requires policy redirection towards finding the cause and its remedy. Inequality in income and assets, access to health care services and basic infrastructure have been the key drivers of poverty and vulnerability in Nigeria. Given the prebendal nature of the Nigerian state and the accumulative tendencies of the political elites, the urgent task is to assess the effectiveness of government’s response to the problems of inequality. It has been said that progress in the field of distributive politics depends on the ability of researchers to ascertain empirically who benefits from government decisions on allocation. It is only by collecting empirical evidence on the changing fortunes of various social groups and weighing this evidence against theoretical expectations about who should benefit from government policies that theories of distributive politics can be tested and the understanding of the phenomenon deepened. The seeming failure of the Nigerian government to address the issue of deepening poverty and vulnerabilities is a manifestation of accumulative tendencies of the elite. Empirically, this study seeks to contribute to the growing literature on social provisioning policy in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. It interrogates the cash transfer programme of the Federal Government in addressing the plight of the most economically vulnerable Nigerians. It concludes that it has suffered a setback due to the narrow value orientation of the political elites which led to the poor conception and implementation of the programme

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Paper short abstract:

This paper will critically analyse different kinds of visual media from the time of the German colonialism in Cameroon showing cocoa plantations. The space of the colonial plantation was characterised by an inequality in wealth accumulation and by the extraction of land and labour.

Paper long abstract:

For the German colonial project in Cameroon, plantations were a critical resource for accumulating wealth by cultivating plants which could be processed into colonial commodities. One of these plants that was cultivated for colonial wealth was cocoa. This paper will critically analyse historical material from the time of the German colonialism in Cameroon showing the places of cocoa cultivation, the cocoa plantations. One kind of material that will be analysed is a published collection of images including images of German plantations in Cameroon by the agriculturalist Ferdinand Wohltmann, another kind of material is a series of postcards by the German company Reichhardt Kakaowerk including images of the Victoria plantation in Cameroon and the Reichhardt factory in Wandsbek. The different kinds of visual media promote the German colonial project and its inequal accumulation dynamics. In the case of cocoa / chocolate production, the accumulation of wealth was (and still is until today) distributed unequally between the places of cocoa cultivation and chocolate processing which was (and still is) mostly done in countries of the Global North. The space of the colonial plantation was characterised by the inequality in wealth accumulation, by the extraction of land and labour and by monocultures which are a significant part of today’s climate crisis. This paper argues that for an understanding of the (German colonial) plantation as a space – partly – responsible for today’s climatological crisis, it is interesting to take a close look at the representation of plantations in the time they were established.

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Paper short abstract:

This study focuses on the linkage between financial inclusion and climate change adaptation in Nigeria. Given the poor financial inclusion of women in the country, they find it difficult to recover from loss and damage and adapt the effects of climate change.

Paper long abstract:

Employed largely in the informal sector, women, the largest participants in indigenous economies are arguably shut out of financial systems across Nigeria. The situation resonates in the context of climate change which affects women disproportionately in comparison to their male counterparts. The dynamics of climate change adaptation on the continent are dominantly patriarchal, stifling the ability of women to live with new realities wrought by the menace. This paper argues that the absence of financial inclusion for women typifies climate change response. In the instances of environmental hazards that have become more regular across the continent, women lack funds to put their livelihoods back on track. Their high unbanked status means that they cannot draw credit to restart their businesses most of which are fledgling before climate disasters. This study dwells on the theory of feminist political ecology, qualitatively analyzing data drawn from existing works, government publications, CSO/NGO bulletins, etc.

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This paper focuses on the oil economy in Nigeria as situated in the Niger Delta region. It examines the impact of capital accumulation on the region's population, particularly the youths. This provides the context for understanding the prevalent crisis in the region.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on Nigeria’s oil economy as situated in the Niger Delta region. Based on the Marxian strand of political economy, the context of the exploration of crude oil in Nigeria’s Niger Delta is examined, including the role of capital and the consequent accumulation by the owners of capital in the economy. The resultant crisis of capital accumulation particularly as it concerns the youths in the Niger Delta region who constitute a significant demography of the region’s population is interrogated. A variety of violent and non-violent actions by the youths in the Niger Delta have over the years been the consequences of the circumstances of accumulation in the Niger Delta. These responses by the youth population include militancy, oil bunkering, kidnapping, forming pressure groups, among others. The questions that arise from the contradictions of the crisis of accumulation include the following? What is the nature of capitalist accumulation in the Niger Delta? How has this mode of accumulation affected the nature of the state in terms of their relations with the youth of the Niger Delta? How can a new state-society relation be constructed to include and empower the youths, rather marginalize them? The paper argues that the lack of embeddedness of the state in the society in a postcolonial state like Nigeria, its location within the global capitalist economy and the prebendal nature of its elites create conditions that continue to disempower rather than empower the youths of the Niger Delta.

Keywords: Niger Delta, Youths, Accumulation, Exploitation, Crisis

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Paper short abstract:

Supply chains often continue colonial models of extraction. The introduction of blockchain technology to manage supply chains poses risks of increasing inequality in Africa, under the guise of sustainable development, with monetization and technology remaining in the hands of foreign companies.

Paper long abstract:

As the climate crisis deepens, the reliance of Global North countries on global supply chains exposes vulnerabilities within our trade system, and deepens rifts between the Global North and Global South. This paper explores climate colonialism and the intersection of racial capitalism and sustainable development in the current climate crisis through the lens of trade facilitation and supply chains in Africa.

Supply chains, particularly those involving raw materials, often continue colonial models of extraction. The introduction of blockchain technology to manage supply chains poses risks of increasing inequality in Africa, with monetization and technology remaining in the hands of foreign companies. Western and Chinese corporations use the language of economic development and emphasize the benefits that technological development can pose for laborers and farmers in Africa, while technological advancements largely benefit manufacturers/distributors at the end of the supply chain without providing material benefits for African producers.

As Cedric Robinson theorized, racial capitalism has defined the development of capitalism, which we see reflected in environmental racism on a global scale. Reframing the struggle as between those who wield economic power and those who do not, while accounting for the intentional creation of inequality along racial and ethnic lines, allows for a more inclusive framing that simultaneously centers local communities while internationalizing the problems and creating a basis for more effective global action. A radical shift in power is necessary, into the hands of those at the beginnings of supply chains, reframing priorities away from the commodification of land and resources.

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Paper short abstract:

This discussion looks at engagement in e-fraud as an ambivalent resistance to neoliberal inequality. While it is positioned as a recipe for reduced inequalities, e-fraud however encourages predatory pro-capitalist practices and behaviours that upset the attainment of a sustainable economic growth.

Paper long abstract:

Among the United Nations’ SDGs are inclusive and sustainable economic growth through decent work for all, and reduction of inequality within and among countries. During the roundtable, I will discuss e-fraud economy, not only as a contemporary iteration of the multiple crises of modernity that threaten the global economy, but also a category that complicates these SDGs. From Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief and Petina Gappah’s “Our Man in Geneva Wins a Millions Euros” to Nkem Owoh’s “I Go Chop Your Dollar,” I argue that every critical reading of e-fraud literature invites us to consider the costs of economic growth when modelled along Western capitalist prototypes which have shaped the well-meaning yet sometimes misguided agendas of the UN in the Global South. Rather than simply moralize away portrayals of e-fraud in African literature or ignore them as an uncomfortable wrinkle in African experience in a postmodern world, the phenomenon of e-fraud can be appreciated as an intimation of agency in the face of disenfranchisement exacerbated by inequalities that have resulted from neoliberal structural adjustment. I will therefore discuss engagement in e-fraud to show how individual subjects ambivalently resist the structures of exclusion and inequality by adjusting to the perverse ideas of work and self-advancement that constitute these structures. While it is positioned as a recipe for reduced inequalities, however, this ambivalent resistance encourages predatory pro-capitalist practices and behaviours that both upset the attainment of a sustainable economic growth and accentuate the enforced continuity of imperial hegemony.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how the state reinforces neoliberal interests at the expense of minorities' livelihoods and belonging in Sub-Saharan Africa. It draws from insights from Zimbabwe using the case of an ongoing threat of displacement in Matabeleland North Province in Zimbabwe.

Paper long abstract:

This paper underscores the role African governments play in reinforcing accumulation at the expense of local land rights, impacting the affected communities' sense of belonging, livelihoods, and socio-economic activities. It uses insights from Zimbabwe to explore displacement caused by conflicts, mining, agriculture, forced migration, and land acquisitions within a neoliberal framework. The paper acknowledges arguments proposing that resettlement resulting from displacement might enhance or restore the income and livelihoods of affected individuals through resource exploitation, exploitative labour practices, and environmental degradation. However, it also considers critics' perspectives emphasizing negative psychological and socio-cultural outcomes, including the dismantling of traditional production systems and the desecration of sacred areas. Furthermore, the paper analyses how land acquisition affects agricultural activities, leading to income loss and reduced food security for local farmers. It assesses environmental consequences, such as water pollution from foreign mining operations, impacting the health and well-being of local communities. Additionally, it highlights the broader implications of uncompensated resource extraction on affected communities' well-being and socio-economic conditions. By delving into these issues, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how foreign investments impact Sub-Saharan African communities, contributing to existing knowledge on this topic.

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Paper short abstract:

The Maputo protocol notes that ‘…women in Africa still continue to be victims of discrimination and harmful practices". This paper describes which countries have translated the Maputo Protocol into advances of gender rights in the continent.

Paper long abstract:

The preamble of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (henceforth referred to as the Maputo Protocol) notes that despite the ratification by African countries of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other international human rights instruments, ‘…women in Africa still continue to be victims of discrimination and harmful practices". July 2023 marked the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Maputo Protocol by African Heads of State and Government; however, Africa has made slow progress in in improving gender equality.

This paper describes which countries have translated the Maputo Protocol into national laws in the domains of 1. economic and social welfare rights, 2. rights related to child marriage and 3. special protection for women with disabilities. For this, it describes countries by using an index that measures how comprehensively national laws have enacted mandates that provide protection to women’s rights.

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Paper short abstract:

Studies on Traditional Orthopaedic Healthcare (TOH) have accorded scanty attention to the commodification of TOH, and its gendered context of practice in rural sub-saharan Africa. Guided by political economy, this study filled the gap by addressing the foregoing vis-à-vis sustainability imperatives.

Paper long abstract:

Traditional Orthopaedic Healthcare (TOH) is an altruistic, family-based and male-dominated practice that provides more than 70% of treatment for Musculo-skeletal conditions in rural sub-saharan Africa. Extant studies have focused on belief systems, cultural, social and political economy factors, in the persistent utilization of TOH - despite advances in biomedical sciences. There is paucity of knowledge on the commodification of TOH as a socio-economic activity – contrary to its traditionally altruistic orientation. Similarly, the gendered context of TOH, the role of women, and unequal reward systems have received little scholarly attention. Using the qualitative research approach, and guided by the political economy perspective, this study filled the observed gap by interrogating the commodification of TOH vis-à-vis the gendered nature of its reward system, focusing on the socio-cultural context of the Nupe of Nigeria. Data was collected in 12 communities, using Life Histories (4 women members of practitioner families, aged 60 and above), Key Informant Interviews (5 leaders of TOH practice communities), In-depth Interviews (5 male heads of TOH practice families), and Focus Group Discussions (4 groups of 7-9 women, aged 18-59, who are TOH practitioners). The study revealed that commodification conflicts with traditional tenets of TOH practice, while undermining quality service, widening existing reward gaps between rural men and women, and threatening environmental sustainability. Government and relevant stakeholders need to pay greater attention to TOH and traditional medicine generally – with proper recourse to gender and environment, as important components of the SDGs, and WHO’s “Health for All”.

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Paper short abstract:

The social cadets’ work considered as the corner stone of rural dynamics through their livelihoods which reveal agency in the rice farming context. From socio-economical perspectives we focus on their “freedom” and capabilities despite various constraints of large scale farming project.

Paper long abstract:

In the post-structural adjustment context, characterized by crises (withdrawal of state subsidies, farming taxes increasing etc.), rice farmers are struggling to make a living solely from their main activity as well as developing livelihoods (Chambers & Conway1991). How do social cadets, despite socio-economic considerations, position themselves in the local dynamic to become “agents” of their own well-being through political and economic resistance?

In this study, we emphasize on the activities farmers are conducting to earn their living and contribute to their family needs. Moreover we question the way they are developing “capabilities” as “non passive agent” in reference to Amartya Sen approach, through “assets” like protestation, community work, local entrepreneurship, petty commodities, “tontines” etc in a context where large scale agro industrie own the major farming lands. However, these forms of agency are not without constraints, it often involves “capitalization” and “de-capitalization” in the social cadet trajectories.

To conduct this study, we are using ethnographic survey with households, intra-households and local associations by using the livelihoods perspective as ‘an integrated, holistic, bottom-up perspective centred on the understanding of what people do to make a living in diverse social contexts and circumstances’ (Scoones 2015: 1).

Bibliography

Chambers R., Conway G.R. (1991), Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st century, IDS Discussion. Paper 296, December.

Scoones I., (2015), Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development. UK: Practical Action and Winnipeg, CA: Fernwood Publishing.

Sen A., (1999), Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.