Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Indigenous Solutions: The Free Market, Free Trade and Free Enterprise Traditions
Share: 
by beninmw | April 30, 2008 at 09:37 pm
308 views | 0 Recommendations | 2 comments
Photos
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.
Continue reading
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 11:21 on August 11th, 2008
The idea of indigenous ideas, posted in a modern way is excellent.--
What about using some of the academic standards,(Forex tests) banking,
even though European? The idea of making rules---
very above average site for ideas and usage.-- Have a nice day.--
at 06:49 on August 27th, 2008
Good Point, Brett. In fact, I think that the point you are making in terms of standardization is the same point that Ayittey is getting at. It is that standard ways of measuring or dealing with new situations or recurring ones did exist in pre-colonial Africa.
Take for instance, the area that Dr. Ayittey is from-Ghana. Well the Akan culture that is so prevalent in Ghana has a legal constitution that predates America's constitution. They also had a monetary system that used a gold measurement process to assign monetary value to commonly sold items.