Few subjects in African Studies have proven more controversial than the role of capitalism in Africa. Recalling the debates about capitalism in Africa inevitably leads to revisiting the history of African Studies in their entirety. Debates revolved around a myriad of topics, ranging from the abolition of slavery to the history of independence movements, and from the social changes brought about by the "introduction" and "enforcement" of capitalism to creative forms of "autochthonous" Africapitalisms. While highly controversial, these debates turned out to be stimulating in equal measure. Capitalism kept Africanists busy throughout the 20th century, not least through the contributions by Marxist scholars and the pervasiveness of the development paradigm.

Leaving the age of the Cold War behind, it was the purpose of the Vereinigung Deutscher Afrikanisten (VAD) young scholars’ conference held from July 20 to 21, 2016 at Humboldt University to explore the value that research on capitalism can add to African Studies in the 21st century. The interdisciplinary conference demonstrated that capitalism is more than ever a vital object of study and an indispensable analytical frame to understand African history, society, and economy. Even more so, it is an important tool to track the dynamic changes of our times: be it the opportunity to leap into the post-industrial society by establishing a digital economy, the increasing influence of the financial sector, or the casualization of employment. By way of dialogue between different disciplines and geographic areas, the workshop provided a panoramic insight into the vital research on capitalism and its role on the African continent. The main outcome of the workshop was the deconstruction of a binary worldview that had infested African Studies in the 20th century. Speakers were determined to overcome the dualities such as external/internal, tradition/modernity, European capitalism/African commerce, capitalism/communism, etc. PETER GSCHIERE’s (Amsterdam) keynote lecture, which established a link between capitalism and witchcraft in West African societies, was exemplary for an approach to capitalism in Africa that has left the binary worldviews of the 20th century behind.

Papers were organized in interdisciplinary thematic panels and the organizers assigned ‘presenter tandems’, in which presenters commented on each other’s papers. This proved to be a productive format that guaranteed well-founded feedback and initiated a constructive discussion among peers.

Following a brief welcome note by ANDREAS ECKERT (Berlin), STEPHANIE LÄMMERT (Florence), and KERSTIN STUBENVOLL (Berlin), the first panel was dedicated to “Debt and Credit” and chaired by BAZ LECOCQ (Berlin).

RACHEL TAYLOR (Northwestern) showed that the London Missionary Society (LMS) was part of interacting credit networks that were vital to its expansion into inland East and Central Africa. Partly cut from communication with Europe, the LMS relied on British commercial houses in Zanzibar that advanced money to the LMS and paid out its credit notes. As a result, LMS credit notes were generally trusted by African, Arab, and Indian trading partners, caravan porters and mission employees who held them. The credit system replaced cash payments and established an expanding network of mutual dependence.

BENJAMIN BRÜHWILER (Basel) analyzed the role of debt and credit during the reform of retail shops (maduka) in early colonial Tanganyika and in post-colonial Tanzania. Official policies toward the capitalist maduka retailers oscillated between replacement with cooperatives and reform. Duka shops traditionally advanced textiles on credits and established mutual obligations among wholesale traders, retail traders, and customers. Textile traders were creditors and borrowers at the same time. They were considered to be trustworthy for being nodes in a widespread network of debts and credits rather than for their status of being clear of debts. According to Brühwiler, being indebted was indeed perceived as one type of economic success in Tanzania, among a wide array of differing understandings of capitalism in Africa. These alternative visions and structures of capitalism have to be taken into account when scholars analyze its role in African society and history.

In her stimulating paper, MANYA JANOWITZ (Pomona) revealed that the microfinance aid industry in Morocco provoked dissatisfaction and unrest among the recipients rather than providing them with financial opportunities to start their own business. Based on fieldwork in Ourzazate, she showed that low profits gained from microcredits and high interest rates (often more than fifty percent!) led to further impoverishment. Their declining standard of living resulted in the mobilization of 4,600 recipients and activists who protested against this system. Leaders of the movement were put on trial and await their verdict. These protests are backed by scholars who revealed that microcredits are an inadequate means to resolve problems of poverty. Moreover, intermediary microfinance institutions (that receive their capital from aid institutions such as USAID and the World Bank) are in a process of transforming into "for-profit" corporations, accumulate wealth, and manipulate the statistics to prove their success. Thus, she concluded, the microfinance system in Ourzazate made the poor poorer and those who already ran a successful business richer.

NICHOLAS AJWANG (Duisburg-Essen) addressed the important issue of decentralization in post-colonial Kenya. Decentralization was deemed instrumental in bringing about development and should help to redistribute state support, shifting it from privileged white settler territories (such as the Kenyan highlands) towards poorer territories. However, instead of following this path, the independent government of Kenya continued granting privileges to a new African elite that resumed patronage and clientelism to maintain its economic and political prerogatives. As a response to this mismanagement, and reacting equally to the disastrous effects of structural adjustment programs imposed by neoliberal international organizations, the government changed its policy towards the end of the twentieth century. It used democratization and decentralization processes to secure a more just distribution of state funding.

In a thought-provoking contribution, JULIAN ROCHLITZ (Bonn) showed how private enterprises and international organizations used mobile devices to inform Ghanaian smallholders about price fluctuations and recent developments on the world market. Farmers received instructions via text messages, voice messages and call centers on how to turn their products into more competitive commodities, thus achieving the marketization of these goods. While the announced prices were not always adequate, they nevertheless served as guide price in negotiations with buyers. Theoretically, Ghanaian peasants could feed back data into the pool of information. But generally speaking, the information service provided a virtually unified market space which was rather prescriptive than descriptive with regard to price recommendation.

The second panel was chaired by JULIA TISCHLER (Basel) and linked the topics of labor, transnational corporations and entrepreneurship. The aim of the panel was to go beyond traditional labor histories of Africa and introduce new ways of thinking about categories, meanings and evaluations of work in colonial and postcolonial Africa.

NICOLA GINSBURGH (Leeds) analyzed the self-perceptions of white workers in Southern Rhodesia during the economic crisis of the 1930s. White workers perceived themselves as racially superior skilled workers in opposition to rather careless African workers. In times of crisis, however, trade unions did not dismiss manual and menial labor as a source of positive labor identity. They argued that white workers would be unemployed if they refused to accept low-paid “African” jobs. Complicating the binary distinction between Europeans and Africans, Ginsburgh showed that white labor organizations upheld the settler government to criticism and complained about its lack of support, especially with regard to the low standard of living of white workers that compared unfavorably to the life of other Europeans. The government, in turn, criminalized the poor whites and accused them of having a disposition towards racial degeneration. Thus, while racial identity was often made through work, the unemployment rates among whites during the 1930s threatened to compromise the racial identity of white workers.

Presenting a comprehensive comparative research design, DIANA AYEH (Leipzig) asked whether transnational mining companies in Burkina Faso accorded to self-imposed standards of ethical behavior towards local populations and environments. The "ethical turn" brought about by such Corporate Social Responsibility projects appears to be a "moral strategy" used by companies in Africa to boost their own reputation in response to local protest and international pressure. Participating in initiatives such as UN Global Compact, companies engaged in projects against environmental crisis, corruption and violence, along with initiatives to protect labor rights. In a long-term perspective, the companies’ methods shifted from philanthropy and paternalism to community empowerment and participation. While cooperation with local institutions became more frequent, Ayeh concluded that companies often benefitted from such programs and did not hesitate to significantly modify local environments and social structures through various forms of "community development."

JULIAN TADESSE (Berlin/Basel) assessed the impact of the "Ethiopian way" of development, characterized by a strong interventionist government that remained largely skeptical towards the independence of the private sector. One major goal of Ethiopian economic development was to combat youth unemployment, often at the expense of democratization processes. This attitude translated into an ambiguous policy towards the unemployed youngsters. Many were criminalized for their protests against the governing Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, but at the same time they were encouraged to participate in educational development programs. As well-educated university graduates tended to queue for jobs in public administration rather than entering the private sector, the government reluctantly encouraged private entrepreneurship. This program was in line with international organizations that insist on capitalist entrepreneurship as a means to solve problems of unemployment and poverty. Yet, the strategy of liberalization hardly paid off and youth unemployment persists.

The third panel “Social life and social services”, introduced by CHANFI AHMED (Berlin), kicked off with LIESE HOFFMANN’s (Berlin) paper, which examined the impact of the transformative crisis in East African education systems during the 1990s. The privatization of the state-supervised education system introduced in colonial times in Kenya and Tanzania gave rise to alternative ways of schooling offered by Muslim institutions. Tracing the education of families back to the colonial generation, Hoffmann showed that the population mistrusted colonial education and considered it as unimportant, given that access to higher education was rare. After privatization, an educational market emerged in which Muslim schools and organizations competed with Christian institutions, and amongst each other. But they also competed for pupils, whose parents could now choose to send their kids to the schools with the best education. They developed a deeper understanding of the benefits of education and did not only choose schools in accordance with their religious beliefs, but also with regard to opportunities to study abroad and access to higher education.

Health reforms imposed during the same neoliberal period were at the center of ANITHA TINGIRA’s (Berlin) contribution. She showed how the Tanzanian government reduced funding for maternal health projects in the wake of structural adjustment programs from the 1980s to the 1990s. Although maternal health services were officially free of charge, poorer women suffered from the reform implemented by international organizations in the 1990s. While global programs to reduce maternity deaths were implemented by the Tanzanian government, mortality rates were on rise among the Sandawe in Tanzania, with 80 percent of maternal deaths being due to insufficient treatment. Access to health care was restricted and only practices of parental solidarity and crowdfunding (such as chowa drinking) allowed women to deliver in far-away hospitals. Nevertheless, the maternity care of the 2000s fell way behind the achievements in of welfare systems established in the 1960s.

OBALA MUSUMBA (Berlin) concluded the panel with an innovative reading of Nuruddin Farah’s third trilogy “The Past Imperfect”. By way of metaphor Farah shows to what extent children suffer from the interplay of local and foreign profit-seekers during the Somalian War. Children are victims of American bomb attacks, local warlords, dubious NGOs and organ dealers. These groups came into existence because of the deadly synergy of external interest groups and internal war steered by them, as Musumba showed in his paper by citing examples from Farah’s novels. In the trilogy, children appeared to be parentless, traumatized, and brutalized. To make things worse, the circumstances turn them into perpetrators themselves, such as militiamen, “pirates” and violent tax collectors.

ALEXANDER KEESE (Geneva) was the discussant of the final panel, “Transnational entanglements”. One telling example for cross-border policies was provided by MARIE HUBER’s (Berlin) insightful paper on the economies of UNSECO World Heritage policies in Ethiopia. The inclusion of Ethiopian natural and cultural monuments in the World Heritage list in 1978 coincided with increased efforts to bring about development by way of promoting tourism in the country. Tourism seemed to be the most promising way to integrate the country into the world economy. Monuments should be turned into "paying affairs" guided by UNESCO and the UN Development Program. Once UNESCO confirmed the importance of Ethiopian heritage and declared seven sites in the country World Heritage, the Ethiopian government used these monuments to establish them as symbols of national strength and identity. Although the country failed to transform itself into a famous tourist destination, the firm belief in World Heritage sites as investments that pay off one day prevails both among Ethiopians and the UNESCO alike.

LUCIA WEISS (Berlin) searched for traces of capitalism in Mia Couto’s surrealistic novel “O último voo do flamingo” (2000). The narrative is set in the post-civil war era in Mozambique, with the presence of UN-peacekeeping forces in a Mozambican village. The author criticizes the intrusion of capitalism in various ways, one of them the persistence of colonial political structures. Peace, for example, was not a purpose in itself but submitted to an economic logic of trade. The UN soldiers represented the continued presence of external colonial forces and the logic of the market. Being an integral part of capitalism, corruption nevertheless persisted from the colonial period to the socialist and the capitalist era. While some of the Mozambicans succumbed to the capitalist worlds, older generations withdrew from public live. All of them, Weiss concluded, depended on an "attention economy" that determined who receives aid money and attention in case of violence.

CONSOLATA SULLEY (Daressalam) questioned Tanzania’s transition from a state centralized economy to a market economy in the wake of the structural adjustment programs imposed by the IMF. Answering the economic and humanitarian crisis of the 1970s, Tanzania introduced neoliberal reforms in accordance with the IMF’s prescriptions, but continued to rely on the Ujamaa system. According to Tanzania’s constitution, the country remained a socialist state that was economically based on self-reliance. This paradox, Sulley argued, led to a hybrid policy that should do justice to socialist objectives in the interior and respond to external exigencies to introduce capitalism alike. As the main support base of the party in power is to be found in rural areas, and as most Tanzanians there stick to Nyerere’s Ujamaa program, the socialist policy prevailed in the countryside. At the same time, the state accepted external aid and the obligations that came along with it. While the combination of those policies provided the government with new political options, neither of them brought about the desired development of the country, Sulley concluded.

After a final discussion moderated by CHARLOTT SCHÖNWETTER (Berlin), and introduced by MARIE HUBER (Berlin), FLORIAN WAGNER (Hamburg), JUDITH SCHUEHLE (Berlin) and SARAH KUNKEL (Berlin), the official part concluded with an inspiring workshop on publishing in academic journals held by SUSANN BALLER (Basel/Paris) and HARTMUTH BERGENTHUM (Frankfurt am Main). As members of the Editorial Boards of “Africa Spektrum” and “Impumelelo”, they gave useful advice on publishing strategies and familiarized the participants with the procedures of submitting scientific articles.

After a long day devoted to predominantly unpleasant consequences of capitalism, the keynote lecture by ADEREMI RAJI-OYELADE (Ibadan) on the “The Wisdom of Many, the Wit of One – Postproverbials & Poetry” reminded the participants that poetry is equally an important way to grasp the diversity, creativity, and reality of Africa and the Africans.

Conference Overview:

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Andreas Eckert (re:work / Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), Stephanie Lämmert (European University Institute Florence), Kerstin Stubenvoll (Humboldt University Berlin)

PANEL A: DEBT AND CREDIT
Discussant: Baz Lecocq (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

Rachel Taylor (Northwestern University)
Credit Networks and Missionary Expansion in Late-Nineteenth Century East Africa
Benjamin Brühwiler (University of Basel)
Interweaving Threads of Credit and Debt: Trading (Through) Textiles in Colonial Dar es Salaam
Manya Janowitz (Fulbright Researcher, Pomona College)
In Debt in Ouarzazate: Microfinance and the Crisis of Financial Inclusion
Nicholas Ajwang’ (University of Duisburg-Essen)
Decentralization as a Response to Development: Lessons from the Developing World
Julian Rochlitz (University of Bonn)
Informing Farmers, Performing Capitalism: The Role of Mobile Price Information Services in the ‘Market-Oriented Development’ of Ghanaian Smallholder

PANEL B: LABOR, TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Discussant: Julia Tischler (University of Basel)

Nicola Ginsburgh (University of Leeds)
Depression in the Settler Colonial Context: The Responses of White Workers in 1930s Southern Rhodesia
Diana Ayeh (Universität Leipzig)
Company-state-community Relations and the “Ethical Turn” of Corporate Capitalism
Julian Tadesse (Zentrum Moderner Orient|University of Basel)
‘Selective Application’: Developmental Capitalism and Neoliberal Rationalities – Entrepreneurship
Programmes in Ethiopia

PANEL C: SOCIAL LIFE AND SOCIAL SERVICES
Discussant: Chanfi Ahmed (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

Liese Hoffmann (Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universität Berlin)
Merits and Myths of Meritocracy: Muslim Reflections on Education in post-colonial East Africa
Anitha Tingira (Freie Universität Berlin)
Neo Liberalism and the Moral Economy of Maternal Health: The Case of the Sandawe of Central Tanzania
Obala Fanuel Musumba (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Big Players, Small Victims: Reflections of Capitalism on the Child Character in Nuruddin Farah's Third Trilogy

PANEL D: TRANSNATIONAL ENTANGLEMENTS
Discussant: Alexander Keese (University of Geneva

Marie Huber (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Economies of UNESCO World Heritage: Cultural and Natural Heritage as Emerging Resource for Ethiopia in between 1960-1980
Lucia Weiss (Freie Universität Berlin)
Mia Couto’s O último voo do flamingo and the lethal logics of capitalism in Mozambique
Consolata Sulley (University of Dar es Salaam)
Between Ujamaa and Capitalism: The Paradox of Tanzania’s National Ideology

FINAL DISCUSSION
Chair Charlott Schönwetter, Humboldt University Berlin

Opening Remarks
Marie Huber, Humboldt University Berlin Judith Schühle, Free University Berlin
Sarah Kunkel, Humboldt University Berlin
Florian Wagner, University of Hamburg

WORKSHOP
Publishing in Academic Journals
Susann Baller (University of Basel) and Hartmut Bergenthum (University of Frankfurt)

EVENING LECTURE

Aderemi Raji-Oyelade (University of Ibadan)
The Wisdom of Many, the Wit of One – Postproverbials & Poetry
Welcome and Introduction by Susanne Gehrmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

KEYNOTE LECTURE
Peter Geschiere (University of Amsterdam) Capitalism and Witchcraft