Towards a history of the economies of sub-Saharan Africa, from the Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century
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Haut de pageCoordinated by Samuel F. Sanchez (Université Paris-1 Panthéon Sorbonne, IMAF), Natalie Swanepoel (University of South Africa) and Anaïs Wion (CNRS, IMAF).
Call for contributions for issue 17 of Afriques. Débats, Méthodes et Terrains d'Histoire, to be published in 2026
The historiography of African economies was very dynamic from the 1950s until the end of the 1980s. The approaches developed at that time were marked by Marxist analyses, emphasising the notion of dependence and using quantitative methods. From the 1960s onwards, the success of economic anthropology opened up new perspectives. It influenced the topics of historical research on Africa and led to the production of major monographs on the formation of political structures and their economies (Pankhurst 1961; Meillassoux 1964; Polanyi 1966; Hopkins 1973; Meillassoux & Godelier 1975; Law 1977; Lovejoy 1980). From the 1980s onwards, this field began to run out of steam, particularly in French-language historiography. The history of culture, migration and identity experienced a boom, which tended to weaken the previous interests in economic situations.
Nevertheless, the interplay of scales derived from economic analyses persisted in the 1990s. The analysis of mobility, diasporas, identities and cultural history gave prominence to the relationship between African societies and the global world. They incorporated the paradigm of globalisation, in a geopolitical context marked by the dissolution of the blocs and the collapse of socialism. Maintaining the history of the slave trade, particularly the Atlantic slave trade, is a continuation of the major theses of the 1960s and 1970s. This was achieved in particular through the quantitative analysis of the slave trade. One of the best contemporary examples of this approach is the work carried out by the Slave Voyages Consortium.
The history of slavery and the slave trade is undergoing a profound overhaul, which is gradually empowering this field of research, as it moves away from quantitative approaches towards approaches that focus more on actors and the notion of agency (Médard, Derat, Vernet & Ballarin, 2013; Bonacci & Meckelburg 2017; Green 2018; Peabody 2019). An important part of that field is also shifting towards anthropological analysis of memories of the slave trade and slavery in contemporary societies.
The 2000s also witnessed a renewed focus on market mechanisms. The sociology of market networks and their social organisation is given priority, particularly in the Sahel and societies of East Africa and the Indian Ocean (Alpers 1975; Lovejoy 1980; Rockel 2006; Lydon 2009), but also by considering relations with other areas, whether Western or Asian (Kobayashi 2019; Collet and Houssaye 2021). The materiality of exchanges and the modes of consumption are also studied in their own right (Dubois 2003; Prestholdt 2008; Chastanet, Chouin, de Lima and Guindeuil 2014; Machado, Fee, Campbell 2018; Chaiklin, Gooding, Campbell 2020).
The revival of African economic history is also part of the history of colonisation and imperial operations. This is reflected in research that examines colonial statistics, capital transfers, the history of monetarisation, the commodification of ecosystems and agricultural production, and changes in public policy in colonial empires (Ittmann & Cordell 2010; Maddox 2010; Pallaver 2022; Touchelay and Sibeud 2024).
Alongside the work of historians, economists have been paying increasing attention to Africa's economic past over the last twenty years, particularly in the field of comparative development analysis (Acemoglu & Robinson 2001, 2010; Jerven 2022; Cogneau 2024). Economists are looking for historical elements to understand contemporary African economies. This presentist approach has generated important debates between historians and economists and offers intellectually stimulating aspects (Jerven et alii 2012; Cogneau & Dupraz 2015; Frankema & van Waijenburg 2023).
This overview of the state of the art shows that the periods preceding colonisation are currently much less studied than they were in the 1960s-80s. The temptation to use history to understand the present (also labelled "presentism") is very strong today, often in response to a demand for social, memorial and economic utility emanating from outside the strictly academic sphere. However, studying the history of the pre-colonial economies of African societies makes it possible, above all, to shed light on many aspects of these societies' past, without necessarily giving rise to continuist analyses.
In this issue, we wish to focus on historical approaches - in the broadest sense of the term - which aim to understand economic mechanisms in relation to political, cultural and social phenomena within African societies and in the context of their times, without necessarily addressing their potential links with the present. We wish authors to focus on economic processes that were internal to societies, including interactions with external institutions (and especially imperial institutions), provided that these interactions shed light on the workings of African societies.
Our goal is also to consider the documentary challenges facing historians. The period covered by this call for papers excludes that of colonial administration, in keeping with the editorial policy of the journal Afriques. Nevertheless, colonial administrations may have preserved evidence of previous political and economic systems in the initial stages of their establishment. The documentation produced during these early periods can therefore prove useful in understanding pre-existing fiscal and economic systems. Equally, scholars who draw on alternative archives such as the oral and material culture record can also make valuable contributions.
In addition, this special issue aims to promote discussion between scholars who work in different geographic areas (West Africa, Sahel, Horn of Africa, Central Africa, East Coast, Madagascar and Indian Ocean islands, and so on).
We invite authors submitting proposals to be explicit about their sources, which may be of a varied nature (documentation from archaeological excavations, oral traditions and oral histories, archives produced in sub-Saharan Africa or elsewhere, linguistic data, material culture, iconography, etc.). Their methods of analysis must also be described. Proposals exploring less documented and less known periods and/or cultural areas are encouraged, and the exploratory aspect will be retained as a positive criterion in the selection of proposals.
Contributions may tackle the following themes:
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tributary and fiscal systems and the relationship between political structuring, territorial definition and economic exchange
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land tenure and property issues
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the role of currencies (in the broadest sense)
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commercial exchanges and markets
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ritual and non-market exchanges
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modes of production (in the primary and pragmatic sense of the term)
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concepts and representations of economic value
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the economic impact of the circulation, as a result of participation in long-distance trade networks, of new ideas, technologies and material culture
The objects of study may be considered on a micro-, macro- or global scale. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are welcome, as are presentations of new or revisited sources.
Schedule
Proposals for articles should be sent in the form of an abstract, in French or English, of around 500 words, to samuel.sanchez@univ-paris1.fr, anais.wion@univ-paris1.fr and Swanenj@unisa.ac.za by 15 March 2025. An answer will be sent on April 1st. Final papers should be submitted by 15 July 2025 for publication at the end of 2026 and should be no longer than 10 000 words.