Economic Systems in Africa

Authors

Michael Kevane, Santa Clara UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Publisher

Gale

Abstract

An enormous variety of experiences and possibilities characterized African economic systems at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Small village communities continued to till the soil and raise goats, sheep, cows, and chickens using the same techniques of their grandfathers, renewing all the while traditions of social solidarity and hospitality that have characterized rural Africa for centuries.Overhead, however,multinational corporations owned and operated by African nationals organized transcontinental air travel, microwave and satellite transmissions, and cell phone networks. Africa globalized with the rest of the world, though in different ways. Exports of goods and services stagnated even as migration generated new diaspora communities (often illegal as Europe and the United States erected obstacles to legal migration). Imports of new technologies failed to surprise jaded villagers who realized that MP3 files had already replaced their still-fresh compact disc collections.

Chapter of

New Encyclopedia of Africa, 2nd Edition

Editor

John Middleton
Joseph C. Miller

Comments

From JOHN MIDDLETON & JOSEPH M. New Encyclopedia of Africa, 1E. © 2008 Gale, a part of Cengage, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions

Recommended Citation

Kevane, M. (2008). Economic Systems in J. Middleton & J. C. Miller (Eds.) New Encyclopedia of Africa, 2nd ed., vol. 2, Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 174-179.