Indigenous Solutions: The Free Market, Free Trade and Free Enterprise Traditions

George B.N. Ayittey

The Free Market, Free Trade and Free Enterprise Traditions

Africa's indigenous economic system is probably the area least understood. The myth of "hunters and gatherers" persists; giving the impression that Africa had no economic institutions or culture before contact with the Europeans. Trade and exchange were supposedly unknown, since self-sufficiency and subsistence farming were the operative commands. Books on precolonial Africa dwelt excessively on the "backwardness" of African technology. But Africa did have economic institutions.
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