Can Africans Do Economics? examines the intersection of economic development and freedom across the Africa. Drawing on the powerful ideas of former African leaders such as Thomas Sankara and Julius Nyerere, this book explores their belief in the inseparable link between political independence and economic progress.

Informed by the scholarship of leading economists Grieve Chelwa, Marion Ouma, Redge Nkosi, Cleopas Sambo and Ndongo Samba Sylla, Can Africans Do Economics? redefines development as a process of emancipation, not simply economic growth. Combining historical context with forward-thinking policy proposals this book presents an urgent case for transformative policies grounded in African realities, and rejecting foreign-led interventions on the continent.

Contents

Introduction: Africa is Rich, Not Poor by Vijay Prashad

Development as Emancipation by Grieve Chelwa

Re-defining Social Policy in the Era of Cash Transfers by Marion Ouma

Framing Poverty in Zambia’s Neoliberal Context by Cleopas Gabriel Sambo

Monetary Policy for Africa by Redge Nkosi

‘Live as African’: Thomas Sankara’s Agenda for Economic Liberation by Ndongo Samba Sylla

About the authors

Grieve Chelwa is associate professor of Political Economy and Chair of the Social Sciences Department at the Africa Institute. He is also a senior fellow at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. His current research focuses on the political economy of development in Africa. Chelwa has previously held academic and administrative positions at The New School, the University of Cape Town and Harvard University. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Cape Town.

Marion Ouma is a research associate with the South Africa Research Chair Initiative (SARChl) on Social Policy at the University of South Africa, where she also completed her doctorate. Her research interests include social policy, social protection, policymaking and the political economy of Africa’s development. She has been published in Critical Social Policy and Africa Development, with book chapters in The Handbook of African Political Economy and Social Policy in an African Context. She has written several op-eds including for The Daily Nation and Africa Is a Country.

Cleopas Gabriel Sambo is a post-doctoral fellow at Oslo Metropolitan University where his research focuses on the gendered dimensions of social assistance programmes. He is also a lecturer in Social Work & Sociology at the University of Zambia. Samba was a co-editor of The Politics of Welfare in the Global South.

Redge Nkosi is a senior economic advisor to the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA). He is the founding director of Monetary Reform International, an organisation aimed at reforming the global monetary and banking system and also the head of research for Firstsource Money – a money, banking and macroeconomic research and advisory group. He holds a master’s in economics. Find him on X @redgenkosi.

Ndongo Samba Sylla is a Senegalese development economist. He was a senior research and program manager at the West African office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Dakar. Sylla is the author of The Fair Trade Scandal: Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich and co-authored Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story. He is also a co-editor of Economic and Monetary Sovereignty for 21st Century Africa and Revolutionary Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Untold Story as well as the sole editor of Imperialism and the Political Economy of Global South’s Debt. Find him on X @nssylla.

Read an excerpt