African Capitalism: The Struggle for Ascendency

by Paul Kennedy

For many years, the prevailing view of African capitalism stressed its dependence on state and foreign capital and therefore its inability to make a significant contribution to African development. Drawing upon material from a number of countries and a range of academic disciplines, this 1988 book provides an analysis of African capitalism which offers a much more positive view of its role. The book suggests that a number of major constraints have combined to obstruct the emergence of dynamic African capitalist bourgeoisies: foreign competition, the cultural climate, the dependency factor in African economic life, the evolving class structure, the quality of indigenous enterprise and the nature of politics, ideology and state power. All these are assessed and found to be significant, but in the final analysis, it has been in the arena of politics and ideology, centred on the struggle to exercise state power, that the fate of private indigenous capitalism has so often been determined.

244 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1988

About the author

Paul Michael Kennedy is a British historian specialising in the history of international relations, economic power and grand strategy. He has published prominent books on the history of British foreign policy and Great Power struggles.