African Trade Research Articles

Sub-Saharan Africa and the World: History of Connections

Today, the attention of the public, businessmen, politicians, scientists is increasingly attracted to Africa, including Tropical (Sub-Saharan) Africa. However, these areas have never been isolated and always occupied a special place in the global economic and cultural ties. This paper, based on the research of a wide range of written sources of ancient, classical, and medieval periods, is devoted to the historical analysis of the relations of the peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa with the outside world. The work highlights the depth and long history of economic, cultural, and trade contacts going back several thousand years. It explores the directions of trade routes that facilitated the spread of goods, cultural ideas, and technologies, as well as the types of goods that were of particular value to participants in international trade. The author describes in detail such phenomena as the slave trade and the book trade, the money, and the exchange values that were circulating on the continent. It is known that African traders entered into transactions with merchants from China, India, the Roman Empire, Byzantium, and European countries, were involved in world trade, and had a good command of the market trends. Africa became part of the world economy many centuries ago, and this fact is evidenced by written and material sources from different parts of the world. Nevertheless, this area of African studies remains understudied, creating lacunas in understanding the pre-colonial history of the region. This article is, in a way, an appeal to contemporary Africanists to pay more attention to the study of Africa’s pre-colonial history, without knowledge of which it is often difficult to explain some current conflicts and contribute to their resolution.

Governance and information technology for female labour force participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area

The motivation of the present study is to complement the extant literature by assessing the relevance of governance and information technology in how African trade affects female labour force participation. The study focuses on 48 African countries using data for the period 1996–2021. An adopted empirical strategy is the fixed effects regressions that are designed to address concerns for simultaneity and the unobserved heterogeneity. The fractional probit model based on the pooled Bernoulli quasi-maximum likelihood method is also employed. The following main findings are established. First, governance moderates intra-African trade to engender positive synergies on female labour force participation. The positive synergies are apparent from the overall quality of institutions, government effectiveness and the rule of law. Second, information technology does not significantly moderate intra-African trade to affect female labour force participation. The established findings from fixed effects regressions are robust to fractional probit model estimations. The findings are relevant in informing policy makers on how governance can be used to moderate the influence of African trade in promoting female labour force participation. Policy implications are discussed.

O bill Palmerston e o Império do Brasil

On August 24, 1839, the British Parliament passed the Palmerston Act as part of its global crusade against the smuggling of Africans to America. The measure, which signaled a radicalization of Britain's anti slave trade policy, classified the trade of Africans as trafficking, authorizing the country's navy to seize Portuguese vessels suspected of engaging in this activity. Based on the premise that the dispute between Portugal and Great Britain did not solely influence the fate of these countries, this article aims to analyze how the Brazilian press reacted to the Palmerston Act, especially in Rio de Janeiro. Additionally, the text intends to examine the consequences of this act for the future of the slave trade to the Empire of Brazil, particularly in its political dimension.

Evaluating the influence of information and communication technology and the BRICS in South African trade dynamics: a gravity model approach

PurposeThis study aims to assess how South African membership to the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) has influenced its traded sector. It also evaluated information and communication technology (ICT) as an instrument for enhancing bilateral trade.Design/methodology/approachICT was captured from three perspectives: mobile technology, internet usage and fixed telephones. It was integrated into an augmented gravity equation as a trade cost. The study covered 27 years and 181 South African trading partners. Estimation was done using the Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimation technique and the implementation of exporter-year and importer-year fixed effects.FindingsIt was revealed that mobile phone and fixed telephone subscriptions improve import and export by 4.66% and 1.79%, respectively, while the internet penetration rate negates export and import by 13.4% and 5.89%, respectively. However, it further demonstrates that the internet penetration rate and fixed telephone subscription reduced the negative impact of distance by 7.26% and 1.15% for export. ICT performed better when South Africa only traded with the BRICS countries. The report also shows an encouraging BRICS effect on South African bilateral trade with the bloc.Practical implicationsThe study highlights that BRICS membership significantly boosts South Africa’s bilateral trade, which encourages new African memberships, while also emphasising the role of ICT in mitigating the negative impact of distance. Policymakers should enhance mobile phone and fixed telephone infrastructures to improve imports and exports, respectively, and strategically manage internet penetration to maximise the benefits of BRICS economic cooperation.Originality/valueThe study evaluated the influence of South Africa’s BRICS membership and how ICT variables interact with distance to mitigate its effects on trade. This provides a nuanced understanding of ICT’s unique impact on South Africa’s bilateral trade, offering valuable insights for policymakers to enhance trade performance and leverage BRICS economic cooperation effectively.

Barriers and Challenges Faced by Women Shop Stewards in Two Major South African Trade Unions

There are fewer women shop stewards than men shop stewards in South Africa, which can be attributed to existing barriers and challenges. A need arose to investigate these obstacles. The study was qualitative and exploratory. Two themes emerged from the interviews we conducted, each with various sub-themes. The findings revealed barriers such as existing relationships, lack of nomination and not being elected if nominated as well as challenges such as the negative perception of women’s emotionality and a desire to become mothers, a general lack of support and victimisation. These barriers and challenges make it difficult for women to become shop stewards and, if they do, to be effective. According to South African labour legislation, equality should be encouraged in all roles. Women should be motivated to become shop stewards and offered support, not only by the trade unions through policies such as reserved seats for women in union leadership, women-only conferences and workshops and the funding of women’s initiatives, but also by employers, fellow women members and society. This study provides valuable information for industrial relations in South Africa and worldwide.

African Entrepreneurship in urban colonial Zimbabwe: The case of Highfield, 1953–1965

Abstract This paper examines the importance of Highfield to the African entrepreneurship history of colonial Zimbabwe, then known as Southern Rhodesia. The Southern Rhodesia colonial state established the township of Highfield in its capital city, Salisbury (now Harare), in 1936 as part of its spatial and racial segregation policy. The policy made Africans temporary residents in the urban areas. However, the post-Second World War industrial growth forced the colonial state to revisit its stance on African urbanisation. Seen as critical for the expanding manufacturing sector, African labour now had to be accommodated in the urban areas, which triggered the colonial state to expand the township of Highfield in 1956. That very year, enterprising Africans responded by taking up the expanded township’s entrepreneurial opportunities. This response and the subsequent evolution of African entrepreneurship in Highfield township are the focus of this paper. The paper provides a historical kaleidoscope of Highfield as a place of African entrepreneurship, which thus far has been occluded and separated from the dominant literature on the township’s role in the rise of African nationalism and anti-colonial struggles. Highfield emerged as a cultural milieu hosting an African Renaissance in food, fashion and lifestyle inspired by a mix of modernity and indigenous ethos. Thus, the paper argues that Highfield was the entrepreneurial centre of various businesses and startups. These colourful stories of African entrepreneurship are gleaned from handwritten business stand applications by African traders, archival documents, and newspapers in piecing together an urban history of African entrepreneurship in the township of Highfield in colonial Zimbabwe.

The Prospects of AfCFTA in Promoting Industrialization and Economic Diversification in Africa

African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) functions as a boost for Africa's economic development by enhancing intra-African trade. This is because trade is an engine of growth and development. For the fact that most African nations that are located within the same region engage in similar and competitive production, the ensuing economic cooperation and trade exchanges not only have the promise of increasing trade but also stimulating other ancillary economic activities, creating new job opportunities, speeding up economic growth, promote the standard of living, and promote economic development. However, AfCFTA's record has not been very impressive. The main obstacles to intra- regional commerce among African countries include heavy reliance on trade in primary goods, high product and market concentration of exports, and inadequate regional manufacturing networks. This study therefore examines continental economic trends and Intra African Trade: Prospects for African Continental Free Trade Area. The study adopted qualitative methods of data collection and analysis and the comparative theory of integration. The study found that the low level of trade diversification implicated the capacity of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to achieve improved intra-regional trade performances in Africa. African countries maintain as much as 77% export specialization, with higher external/world trade at 84.6 percent of their total import and export trade. The study recommended that Governments should invest in infrastructure development, including building roads, railways, ports, and airports, as well as improving access to electricity and broadband. Governments should adopt modern trade facilitation measures such as electronic customs systems, single window platforms, and risk management techniques and should align their technical regulations and norms with global best practices and standards, as those created by appropriate international standard-setting organisations like the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

From South Africa to the World: The Political and Legal Legacies of Chinese Indenture in the Transvaal

ABSTRACT This article examines the term ‘new slavery’, short for ‘a new form of slavery’, as used by Liberal British Parliament members and white South African trade unionists in opposition to the recruitment of Chinese indentured labourers to work in the Transvaal gold mines. The recruitment of Chinese indentured labourers emerged following the South Africa War (1899-1902) in response to African ‘native’ labourers’ refusal to return to the mines. This article explores how the Transvaal’s distinct indentured labour system, characterized by coercive features akin to those in the Indian indentured labour system, and further defined by mandatory repatriation, fines for assisting labourers in contract violation and the establishment of a Chinese consulate for fair treatment, set a precedent for global labour programmes. These specific conditions of the Transvaal system influenced the development of subsequent labour initiatives, particularly the Chinese Labour Corps during World War I. The article provides an overview of the overlaps between these programmes and highlights the enduring impact of the Transvaal system on the evolution of global labour practices including modern guest worker programmes.

Impacts of Regional Integration and Market Liberalization on Bilateral Trade Balances of Selected East African Countries: Potential Implications of the African Continental Free Trade Area

This study examined the effect of free trade on intra-African bilateral trade balances for Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania to assess the potential implications of the African Continental Free Trade area. The four countries have experienced persistent trade deficits. Whether free trade within Africa can improve the national trade balances, and the drivers of bilateral trade balances are important questions for policy and strategic programmes for the countries to make the most gains from free trade area. The econometric model estimated for each country is an extension of the standard Keynesian model of trade balance to include determinants of bilateral trade flows from the gravity model. Quantitative analysis using panel regression was augmented with qualitative data from interviews with trade policy experts and trade officials from various African countries and focus group discussions with small-scale cross-border traders at the Busia and Namanga border posts in East Africa. Findings show that complete tariff elimination on intra–African trade may not impact the bilateral trade balances of Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania but could improve bilateral trade balances for Uganda by 6 percent. Within the free trade areas, Uganda’s bilateral trade balances were higher within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa but lower within the East African Community, than outside these areas. Kenya’s trade balances were lower in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, than otherwise. On the contrary, no significant difference in trade balances is established for the membership of Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania in the East African Community; Rwanda in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa; and Tanzania in the Southern African Development Community, when compared to trade balances with non-members. The importance of macroeconomic factors is demonstrated by the increase in bilateral trade balances with higher relative price levels of trade partners; the reduction with increase in relative production and expenditure capacities of trade partners; and improvements following a depreciation of home currency for Tanzania and Uganda, yet a worsening of trade balances in Kenya. A lack of harmony in documents required for cross-border movements within the free trade areas is reported as counterproductive. All African countries should therefore fully implement protocols and cooperate in the harmonization of trade procedures for the free movement of people and goods across borders. Country policies and trade programmes should pursue increased productivity in the leading intra-African export sectors and diversify exports via foreign direct investment in strategic sectors to substitute imports from outside Africa; reduce costs of production; increase the quality of products; and improve transport infrastructure.

A political economy analysis of changes and continuities in Iran–Africa trade relations: a case of South–South dependency?

This paper provides a political economy analysis of the bilateral trade relations and patterns of exchange that existed between Iran and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from 1962 to 2021. The paper contributes to the growing literature on Iran–Africa relations by empirically delineating not just the changes, but also the continuities between Iran and its African trading partners before and after the Iranian Revolution. It also adds nuance to the broader scholarship on South–South cooperation by showing the disparity between the rhetoric of South–South solidarity and reciprocity between Iran and SSA, on one side, and their low and fluctuating trade volumes, on the other. These volumes resulted from historical inertia or path dependency and structural factors, including trade complementarities and geopolitical conditions, more than demographic, cultural, or religious realities. They were also shaped by the agency and decision-making of Iranian and African leaders and officials regarding the extent to economically engage with each other.

Layers of Lexical Borrowing in Long-Term Contact Rooted among Ancient Crops from Mali’s Bandiagara Region

Abstract In this research, the People and Plants method illuminates language interactions in Eastern Mali’s Bandiagara Region. Home to six linguistic groups, the Bandiagara Escarpment has sheltered two populations for at least 800 years, though their pre-cliff origins are unclear. Historical empires might have driven them to this defensible terrain, with fertile lands anchoring them. Notably, evidence points to early pearl millet domestication not far from here, a Sahelian staple, around 5,000 years ago. Examining current plant-related lexemes across local languages and contrasting with distant, unrelated languages offers insights into older forms. Merging these findings with external data depicts language contact layers. Modern Bandiagara residents, likely with pre-existing botanical knowledge, may have been influenced by the ‘Mande Expansion’ and its vast West African trade routes.

Cross-border Product Payments in Sub-Saharan Africa! How MSMEs React to PAPSS as E-payment Innovation: Moderating Role of Experience

Cross-border Product Payments in Sub-Saharan Africa! How MSMEs React to PAPSS as E-payment Innovation: Moderating Role of Experience

An Enemy from the East or Friends with Benefits: An Evaluation of Africa’s Trade Relations with China under BRICS

Over the past decade, Africa’s trading relationship with China has been growing exponentially. Most African countries have welcomed the trading policies and opportunities offered by China over other Western superpowers. With the emergence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc, and South Africa leading other African countries to join this grouping, Africa’s trading relationship will be greatly influenced by China and BRICS. Consequently, the key issue now is whether China and BRICS are re-scrambling for Africa’s untapped resources or whether the relationship will create mutual benefits for both sides. Using a qualitative research approach, this article examined China’s interest in Africa and engages the critical question of whether such a relationship will benefit the people of Africa, or it is just another form of neo-colonisation. The study used a desk research approach with data collected from secondary sources such as articles, literature surveys, the internet and other electronic sources dealing with Africa’s trade relations with China. The article concludes that the future of African trade will be dominated by China and BRICS given their continuously growing influence and participation in development projects in the continent, despite accusations of exploitation and abuse by Chinese companies in some parts of Africa. This paper adds to existing literature on enhancing Africa’s trading relationship with China and BRICS. Keywords: African trading with China, Africa and BRICS, South Africa leading Africa into BRICS, Colonisation, Re-scramble for Africa

Literary Condemnation of the Slave Trade and Wealth as the Cause of Corruption Represented in the Light of English Literature

This article has illustrated how, within the framework of English literature, the slave trade and money are both literarily condemned as the root causes of corruption. When the slave trade was prohibited in the British Empire in 1807, the idea of equating labourers with slaves was highly controversial. That had happened very swiftly after a campaign that had only really begun 20 years before. Both slavery and the trade in Africans have already been condemned on occasion and in literature. The social objective of imitating the great landed nobility was examined and criticised by Adam Smith. The literature of the eighteenth century was also afflicted by the contradiction between the social and moral hierarchy. It is significantly more focused on the landed classes than the corporate sector, even though it is sometimes considered a bourgeois art form. Contrary to popular belief, writers of the late eighteenth century did not promote bourgeois principles in opposition to those of the aristocracy. Conversely, in the last decades of the century, they favoured a rural way of life and resisted urbanisation. They tended to side with the underclass against their new rulers, the industrial bourgeoisie, in the class struggle that industrialization sparked.

Does governance matter? Comparing the determinants of Chinese and Western trade with Africa

AbstractIn recent decades, China has risen to prominence in the global economy with breakneck speed. Many have hypothesised that Chinese economic actors undermine the global drive to promote good governance in developing countries, and in Africa in particular, by disproportionately engaging economically with countries that suffer from poor governance outcomes. Using bilateral trade data, this paper explicitly compares how different aspects of African countries' governance levels impact their trade patterns with China and the West. It finds that African countries with better corruption controls and improved democratic development levels export more to the Western countries sampled, though the opposite is true with regard to their exports to China. Interestingly, democratic development is associated with greater imports from both the West and China, but the opposite holds with regard to respect for human rights. Finally, political stability has no significant impact on African trade—with either the West or China. However, when oil exporters are excluded from the sample, the relationship between political stability and African exports strengthens dramatically, which suggests that both Western and Chinese importers are willing to tolerate political instability to secure oil.

South African trade union positions on Universal Basic Income

South African trade union positions on Universal Basic Income

Global China and everyday mediation in the Global South: Selling Chinese fashion in Mozambique via WhatsApp

Combining online and offline data collection during six months of ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Mozambique in early 2021, this paper explores how media and its everyday use in the Global South are impacting on, and are in turn being transformed by China. It specifically looks into the creative and personalised ways in which Chinese-made garments are sold and promoted in Mozambique via the messenger service WhatsApp. Examining how Mozambican and West African traders use WhatsApp groups and status updates to mediate the fashionability of these Chinese goods, this paper shows that the consequences of Chinese interactions with the Global South on the global media landscape transcend the mere spread of Chinese hardware and software. Going beyond dominant, state-centred narratives of Chinese influence abroad, this paper demonstrates the key role of individuals and their agency in shaping the digital impact of Global China. By doing so, it also highlights the importance of analysing media practices in their specific local contexts.

The African Continental Free Trade Area and Financial Development for Female Labour Force Participation in Africa

The study assesses how financial development dynamics can moderate the incidence of African trade integration on female labour force participation. The focus is on 47 African countries for the period 1995 to 2019 and the empirical evidence is based on Fixed Effects regressions. The findings show that financial development moderates African trade integration to engender an overall positive effect on female labour force participation. Moreover, financial depth proxied by liquid liabilities should reach a threshold of approximately 14.304 (% of GDP) in order to completely dampen an initial negative incidence of intra-African trade integration on female labor force participation. It follows that financial development becomes a necessary and sufficient condition to moderate intra-African trade integration in order to positively affect female labor force participation only when the established threshold of financial depth is attained. Other policy implications are discussed.

Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank

Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank

Divergent governance over African communities in two Chinese cities

ABSTRACT This article examines the different approaches to governing sub-Saharan African traders in urban China due to varying urban growth strategies. Over the past two decades, an increasing number of African migrants have settled in Chinese cities, primarily Guangzhou and Yiwu, to run businesses focused on exports. However, they have been treated differently by local governments. The Guangzhou government's goal of attaining global city status has resulted in the mobilization of racial ideologies to create a socio-spatial hierarchy that marginalizes Africans, categorizing them as “undesirable” for the globalizing city and its “advanced” industries. Conversely, the Yiwu government's objective of becoming an international trading hub for Global South markets has led to a greater emphasis on African communities and a heightened sensitivity towards racial dynamics. This comparative analysis highlights how a city's position in the global economy and its corresponding growth strategies shape its interactions with migrant populations.