Rethinking Africa's Economies: Lessons from Africonomics
Feb 22nd 2026
Bronwen Everill argues that Western economic ideas have long treated African economies as blank slates, producing persistent misconceptions. New work in economic history and gatherings like the African Economic History Network use historical evidence to show African economic agency and existing institutions.
- Western economic practice often assumed African economies needed Western solutions rather than reflecting local histories and institutions.
- European observers misinterpreted women's central roles in agriculture as evidence of backwardness instead of contextual economic logic.
- The 1840s Niger Expedition sought to teach cotton cultivation but encountered established cotton and textile production in Sokoto and Kano.
- Economic history supplies data and cultural context that can overturn entrenched myths and the tendency to read African stories as inevitable tragedy.
- African-trained economic historians and regional networks are positioned to reshape policy thinking using local economic rationality.