The book is intended primarily to provide a critical introduction to large and controversial issues. Few of the questions it poses can yet be answered with any confidence since no primary sources are open after the mid-1950s and insufficient research has yet been published on economic...

More than 50 years after independence, the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa remain poor with limited rates of economic growth. One of the most striking features of economic development on the sub-Saharan subcontinent is the remarkably poor performance of French colonies relative to...