A tapestry of innovation, ideas, and commerce, Africa and its entrepreneurial hubs are deeply connected to those of the past. Moses E. Ochonu and an international group of contributors explores the lived experiences of African innovators who have created value for themselves and their communities. Profiles of vendors, farmers, craftspeople, healers, spiritual consultants, warriors, musicians, technological innovators, political mobilizers, and laborers featured in this volume show African models of entrepreneurship in action. As a whole, the essays consider the history of entrepreneurship in Africa, illustrating its multiple origins and showing how it differs from the Western capitalist experience. As they establish historical patterns of business creativity, these explorations open new avenues for understanding indigenous enterprise and homegrown commerce and their relationship to social, economic, and political debates in Africa today.

About the Author

Moses E. Ochonu is Professor of African History at Vanderbilt University. He is author of Africa in Fragments: Essays on Nigeria, Africa, and Global Africanity; Colonialism by Proxy: Hausa Imperial Agents and Middle Belt Consciousness in Nigeria (IUP), which was named finalist for the Herskovits Prize; and Colonial Meltdown: Northern Nigeria in the Great Depression.

Reviews

"An authentic, Africa-centered volume on entrepreneurship and a fresh departure from stale discussions of African economies that have often been carved from Western modes of explanation that trivialize African historical experiences and realities."-Adebayo Oyebade, author of, Hot Spot: Sub-Saharan Africa

Book Information
ISBN 9780253034380
Author Moses E. Ochonu
Format Paperback
Page Count 340
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press