Morality and Economic Growth in Rural West Africa: Indigenous Accumulation in Hausaland

Clough, Paul

ISBN 10: 1782382704 ISBN 13: 9781782382706

Publisher: Berghahn Books, 2014

Synopsis

The land, labor, credit, and trading institutions of Marmara village, in Hausaland, northern Nigeria, are detailed in this study through fieldwork conducted in two national economic cycles - the petroleum-boom prosperity (in 1977-1979), and the macro-economic decline (in 1985, 1996 and 1998). The book unveils a new paradigm of economic change in the West African savannah, demonstrating how rural accumulation in a polygynous society actually limits the extent of inequality while at the same time promoting technical change. A uniquely African non-capitalist trajectory of accumulation subordinates the acquisition of capital to the expansion of polygynous families, clientage networks, and circles of trading friends. The whole trajectory is driven by an indigenous ethics of personal responsibility. This model disputes the validity of both Marxian theories of capitalist transformation in Africa and the New Institutional Economics.

Paul Clough is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Malta. His D.Phil. from Oxford University was runner-up for the Audrey Richards Prize in 1996, awarded by the International African Institute every two years for the best thesis in any branch of African studies.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Clough (1949-2019) was Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Malta. His D.Phil. from Oxford University was runner-up for the Audrey Richards Prize in 1996, awarded by the International African Institute every two years for the best thesis in any branch of African studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1782382704
• ISBN 13: 9781782382706
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 468