This article is the third in a series of historical reviews on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA),
exploring why agricultural production and irrigation schemes are underperforming, and how …

Cash-crop diffusion in colonial Africa was uneven and defied colonizers' expectations and
efforts, especially for cotton. This study investigates how agricultural seasonality affected …

How is it that rural poverty in southern Tanzania appears both easy to explain and yet also
mystifying? Why is it that'development'is such a touchstone, when actual attempts at …

Africa's economic past is far from static, but rather characterised by spatially and temporally
dispersed booms and busts. The colonial era “cash-crop revolution” is a prime case of an …

After experiencing a period of spectacular growth during the late nineteenth century, the
Egyptian cotton sector underwent a phase of stagnation, which was followed by a gradual …

European colonizers sought to extract cotton from sub-Saharan Africa. However, while some
African farmers generated substantial cotton output, most others did not. I revisit a thesis …

The effects of colonial policies on the living standards of smallholder farmers have been
widely debated. The 'dependency'view of local farmers becoming increasingly vulnerable …

This thesis examines the fundamental role of natural resources in African state-building and
development. I show how the economic organization of the colonial state around a limited …