Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa

by Maha Ben Gadha (Editor), Fadhel Kaboub (Editor), Kai Koddenbrock (Editor)

Over forty years after the formal end of colonialism, suffocating ties to Western financial systems continue to prevent African countries from achieving any meaningful monetary sovereignty.

Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa traces the recent history of African monetary and financial dependencies, looking at the ways African nations are resisting colonial legacies. Using a comparative, multi-disciplinary approach, this book uncovers what went wrong after the Pan-African approaches that defined the early stages of independence, and how most African economies fell into the firm grip of the IMF, World Bank, and the EU’s strict neoliberal policies.

This collection is the first to offer a wide-ranging, comparative and historical look at how African societies have attempted to increase their policy influence and move beyond neoliberal orthodoxy and US-dollar dependency.  Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa is essential reading for anyone interested in the African quest for self-determination in a turbulent world of recurring economic and financial crises.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

Published December 20, 2021

Reviews

[csillagkohó · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was difficult. Some chapters were too dense and jargon-loaded to really get much out of them. But that's on me reading it without the needed background. Give me any amount of political history, philosophy, sociology or even socio-economic history (hence my love for Braudel) and I will eat it up, but outright monetary theory remains a final frontier. Still, some chapters were both readable and extremely interesting. Would highly recommend #2 (Harry Cross on the history of banking in Sudan), #5 (Carla Coburger on the CFA zone), #7 (Thomas Fazi on the Eurozone as a cautionary tale for monetary unions) and #10 (Max Ajl on food sovereignty).

What this book does very well is not to show that there exists an easy way out for the Global South (on the contrary), but rather that the alternative – maintaining the same subservient position in the global economic order – can hardly be better than at least trying to break with that order. The optimal way to break with it is obviously a sweeping reform of the monetary system as a whole to become more fair and balanced towards poorer countries. Hence some chapters hint at Keynes' vision for such an order which was never fully implemented. But given real-world power politics, and given the fact that a radical break in the imperial core seems further away than ever, I am sure national projects to attain sovereignty in the South itself will remain front and center.

[Theory4brains · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you want to hear some of the leading socialist economists from Africa give their ideas on the economic future of the continent, then read this.

it's mostly easy to read too, if you're not an econ major. but this is info everyone should be reading about and thinking about. economic sovereignty is powerful.

[KT · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and informative collection of essays that seek to challenge the neoliberal economic and monetary status quo

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im Zeitalter globaler Wirtschaftsblöcke wirkt die Forderung nach nationaler Souveränität oft wie die Jagd nach einem Phantom, das in den Träumen postkolonialer Ökonomen spukt.