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Industrialising Africa

Unlocking the Economic Potential of the Continent

by Horman Chitonge (Author)
©2019 Monographs XX, 448 Pages

Summary

Industrialising Africa examines the prospect of industrial development on the African continent from a structural transformation perspective. The book demonstrates that industrial development in Africa remains elusive due to an incomplete decolonization of African economies. Through a detailed discussion of the current status of industrial development and the past industrialisation strategies implemented on the continent, Industrialising Africa clearly shows that sustained industrial growth will remain unattainable as long as African economies continue to operate under the colonial economic structure and logic, in which African countries have specialised in supplying raw materials to industrial centres. Industrialising Africa argues that if Africa is to have a chance to significantly grow its industrial sector, it must decentre the colonial economic logic and learn to build industrial capabilities through an aggressive industrial strategy.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Tables
  • List of Figures
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • Chapter 1. Industrialising Africa: The Key Arguments
  • Chapter 2. Industrialisation, Economic Growth and the Transformation of Society
  • Chapter 3. Industrial Development in Africa: An Overview
  • Chapter 4. Industrialisation and Development Planning in Africa
  • Chapter 5. Industrial Development Strategy in National Development Plans
  • Chapter 6. Industrialisation and Structural Transformation in Africa
  • Chapter 7. The State and Industrialisation in Africa
  • Chapter 8. Industrialisation and the Agrarian Question in Africa
  • Chapter 9. Entrepreneurship and Industrialisation in Africa: Can the Cheetah Generation Deliver?
  • Chapter 10. Constructing Pillars for Africa’s Industrialisation in the 21st Century
  • Appendixes
  • Index

Horman Chitonge

Industrialising Africa

Unlocking the Economic Potential
of the Continent


PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Names: Chitonge, Horman, author.

Title: Industrialising Africa: unlocking the economic potential of the continent / Horman Chitonge

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018054670 | ISBN 978-1-4331-6558-0 (hardback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4331-6559-7 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-6560-3 (epub)

ISBN 978-1-4331-6561-0 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Industrialization—Africa. | Africa—Economic conditions—21st century.

Africa—Economic policy. | Economic development—Africa.

Classification: LCC HC800.Z9 I533 2019 | DDC 338.96—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018054670

DOI 10.3726/b15988

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

© 2019 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006

www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the author

Horman Chitonge is Associate Professor of African Studies at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town. He has published extensively on economic growth and development in Africa, agrarian political economy, poverty, and social welfare. His recent publications include Social Welfare Policy in South Africa: From the Poor White Problem to a “Digitised Social Contract” (Peter Lang, 2018).

About the book

Industrialising Africa examines the prospect of industrial development on the African continent from a structural transformation perspective. The book demonstrates that industrial development in Africa remains elusive due to an incomplete decolonization of African economies. Through a detailed discussion of the current status of industrial development and the past industrialisation strategies implemented on the continent, Industrialising Africa clearly shows that sustained industrial growth will remain unattainable as long as African economies continue to operate under the colonial economic structure and logic, in which African countries have specialised in supplying raw materials to industrial centres. Industrialising Africa argues that if Africa is to have a chance to significantly grow its industrial sector, it must decentre the colonial economic logic and learn to build industrial capabilities through an aggressive industrial strategy.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Tables

Table 2.1: Labour Productivity per Worker (in 2011 USD) by World Regions, 2000–2018.

Table 2.2: Labour Productivity in Africa by National Income Category (in 2010 USD), 2000–2017.

Table 2.3: Labour Productivity Growth (%) by World Region, 2000–2018.

Table 3.1: Country Classification by Income Group and HDI, 2016.

Table 3.2: Trends in Industrial Sector’s Share in Total Output (%), 1980–2015.

Table 3.3: Manufacturing Share in GDP (%), 2000–2017.

Table 3.4: Trends in Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) per Capita (in 2010 USD), 2000–2015.

Table 3.5: Trends in Manufacturing Share in Total Employment (%), 2000–2013.

Table 3.6: Trends in Manufacturing Export by Regions of the World, 1995–2013.←vii | viii→

Table 3.7: Trends in the Share of Food in Total MVA for Selected African Countries (%), 1990–2015.

Table 3.8: Use of Technology in Manufacturing for Selected African Countries.

Table 3.9: Share of Manufacturing in Total Export and MVA Per Capita by Region, 2009–2013.

Table 4.1: National Development Plans (NDPs) in Selected African Countries, 1960–1990.

Table 5.1: MVA-to-GDP Ratio for Selected African Countries, 1973–1981 (%).

Table 6.1: Sectoral Share of Output (%), 1980–2015.

Table 6.2: Labour Composition Trends by Sector by Region, 1960–2015.

Table 6.3: Employment and Productivity Trends by Sector, 1960–2017.

Table 6.4: Trends in Productivity per Worker by Sector, 2000–2015 (in 2005 USD).

Table 6.5: Ratio of Vulnerable Employment by Region (2000–2016).

Table 10.1: Poverty Headcount Trends by Region (% @1.90/day/capita).

Appendix 1: Trends in Output Composition by Sector (Resource-rich Countries), 1980–2015.

Appendix 2: Trends in Output Composition by Sector (Non-resource-rich Countries), 1980–2015.←viii | ix→

Preface

In 2011 The Economist magazine published a volume with a cover page entitled, Africa Rising: A Hopeful Continent (https://www.economist.com/leaders/2011/12/03/africa-rising). Although this article cautioned against inflated optimism about the prospects of sustained economic growth in Africa, it argued that “some fundamental numbers are moving in the right direction.” Of of these fundamental numbers cited was that six out of the ten fastest growing economies between 2000 and 2010 were in Africa. The article further argued that foreign direct investment flows grew significantly over the same period, that the arrival of China improved the state of infrastructure in many African countries and that the appetite for technology grew in leaps and bounds. What caught my attention in the article was the line that, “Africa could break into the global market for light manufacturing and services such as call centres.” When I finished reading this article I decided to look at the manufacturing profile of different African countries. My interest in this was to find out if the manufacturing activities in African countries were contributing to the growth that The Economist article highlighted. So, I started looking at the sectoral composition of output for African countries, which is reported in the African Statistical Year Book, published annually by the African Development Bank. I particularly focused on the industrial sector because manufac←xi | xii→turing is reported under this sector. I then discovered that the industrial sector performance was actually not that bad in most countries.

When I closely looked at the manufacturing sector, it became apparent that this sector in many African countries was actually declining or stagnating, during the time when most countries were reporting GDP growth rates of over 5 percent. The decline of the manufacturing sector was occurring even in countries listed by The Economist magazine as among the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world. Figures on employment ratio in the industrial sector as a whole reflected a similar trend of either declining or remaining stagnant at the time when the continent was reporting high growth rates. This made me to pause and ask the question, where is the growth coming from? Is it agriculture or services?

When I explored this question further, it then became apparent that the growth reported in most of the countries on the African continent was largely buoyed by higher commodity prices on the global market. In other words, the continent is still specialising in the supply of raw materials to the industrial centres of the world. For those who are familiar with the colonial history of Africa, Africa’s specialisation in the exporting of raw materials was a part of the colonial plan, designed specifically to keep the colonies from competing with the industrialised countries in manufactures. While this made sense during colonial rule because African economies at that time were controlled by colonial regimes, it does not make sense now when African countries have officially attained independence. Why should African countries, after attaining independence, continue to operate under the same structure which was not meant to benefit Africa and its peoples? It could either be that the post-colonial African states are in fact not yet independent in the true sense of the word, or that African leaders do not see anything wrong with operating under the colonial economic structures, even if these structures do not serve Africa’s interests. With all these questions in mind, I decided to explore the issues further and this book draws from that research.

I started this research by looking at what African countries did immediately after attaining independence. My frustration with this work was that I could not find any documents on the industrial strategies which African countries adopted after independence. Online resources could not help because the documents I was looking for were not available. To understand why industrialisation has been so elusive on the continent as a whole, I started to focus on the strategies for industrial development, particularly manufacturing, which most of the African countries adopted after independence. After inquiring←xii | xiii→ from many people where I could find documents on the industrial policies and strategies, I was told that the only place where you can find this kind of material is the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in Uppsala, Sweden. So, I decided to go to the NAI and I was impressed by what I found there. I decided to spend a full month in the library going through the documents, particularly the industrial development sections of the National Development Plans (NDPs). My other challenge in this regard was that I could not read the NDPs for African countries colonised by France, Portugal or Spain. So, I ended up focusing on the NDPs of former British colonies. Here also we have an example of an incomplete decolonial project, with Africa still separated by not only the colonial borders, but language as well.

In the NAI library, every African country has a dedicated section with different types of literature from government reports, academic books, research reports, media articles, videos, documentaries, etc. For my research, the basement, where they keep all the materials on Africa before the year 2000, proved to be an invaluable resource. Although I could not find the industrial policy documents on every African country, I found the different volumes of the NDPs for all African countries from the first NDPs to the last ones, before development planning was interrupted by the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) during the 1980s.

In each NDP I looked at, there was a section on industrial development, clearly stating the objectives and targets for various industrial activities. After a review of the NDPs for several countries, I realised that most African countries prior to the onset of SAPs were in principle determined to decentre the colonial economic logic and structure by seeking earnestly to build industrial capabilities in their respective countries. Reading through these documents, particularly the preface to the NDPs, I got the sense that the African leaders of that time understood clearly that they had to defy the colonial economic logic in order to give Africa the chance to grow its industrial sector and economies. And many African countries made a good start, with significant progress in the first ten years.

On the basis of what is articulated in the NDPs, it is apparent that the leaders of that time realised that one of the ways through which African countries could defy the colonial economic logic and re-orient their economies was by implementing an aggressive industrial development strategy. In other words, industrialisation was a central component of the decolonisation project in Africa during the 1960s. So, what I have done in this book is to examine the past and present state of industrial development strategies, and on the←xiii | xiv→ basis of this, identify a few prerequisites for industrialising the continent. One of my major conclusions is that industrialising Africa today should be treated as a decolonial project, which requires the dismantling of the colonial economic structures and defying the colonial economic logic. The book argues that African states will have to play a central role in initiating the process of re-orienting African economies from the colonial designs to a structure where Africa can reap the benefits of the abundant natural and human resources. The book acknowledges that undoing the colonial economic structure is not an easy thing as the past experience has shown, but it can be done, and the pressure is on African leaders to take bold decisions and actions. Through the analysis of the key themes on industrial development in Africa, the book offers a new and critical perspective on what it will take Africa to attain significant levels of industrial development.←xiv | xv→

Details

Pages
XX, 448
Year
2019
ISBN (PDF)
9781433165597
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433165603
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433165610
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433165580
DOI
10.3726/b15988
Language
English
Publication date
2019 (September)
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Vienna, Oxford, Wien, 2019. XX, 448 pp., 4 b/w ill., 22 tbl.

Biographical notes

Horman Chitonge (Author)

Horman Chitonge is Associate Professor of African Studies at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town. He has published extensively on economic growth and development in Africa, agrarian political economy, poverty, and social welfare. His recent publications include Social Welfare Policy in South Africa: From the Poor White Problem to a "Digitised Social Contract" (Peter Lang, 2018).

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