Why the 2000s were so good

One of the less talked about effects of the rise of the Trans Atlantic trade in the 16th century was how it decimated internal African trade.

Walter Rodney in ‘How Europe underdeveloped Africa’ brilliantly articulates a gradual shift from substantial trade between communities to internal African economies being reshaped to focus on goods (including human beings unfortunately) that could be taken down to the coast and be shipped off to the ‘New World’.

Five centuries later, still only a small fraction, just above 10%, of Africa’s trade occurs within the continent, contrasting with other continents where at least half of their trade takes place among neighboring countries.

The image above tells many stories but I wish to highlight 3. 

1. We exist as isolated entities within our continent, akin to autonomous islands albeit touching each other. Despite a few major companies that have expanded beyond their national boundaries (such as Kenya’s Safaricom and Equity Bank, Nigeria’s GTBank or even South Africa’s MTN and Multichoice), encountering products from Chad in a supermarket or utilising an mobile app from Malawi remains a relatively uncommon experience.

2. The second story is that this situation renders nearly every Sub-Saharan African (SSA) country heavily reliant on global trade. It’s akin to street vendors selling mostly identical goods side by side, in direct competition with one another. Such a scenario leaves each country susceptible and vulnerable to the whims of the ‘Global North’. Woe befalls those who are not present at the table when significant international trade agreements are negotiated with the ‘West’, spanning from the Lome Convention in 1975 to the various rounds of the Economic Partnerships for Africa (EPA) by the European Union, or not adapting to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) by the United States.

3. Considering that African countries find themselves on the periphery of global capitalism and the structure of many trade agreements, numerous Sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies are primarily engaged in the export of raw primary commodities worldwide. Countries in West Africa like Mali, Burkina Faso, or Benin are large cotton exporters but their cotton involves a detour to Asia before East African countries like Tanzania can acquire finished clothing, often produced in locations like Vietnam and China. Likewise, coffee from countries in the East like Uganda, has to go through Europe before reaching consumers in Starbucks in South Africa. 

These configurations depict the current global commodity chains and trade arrangements. They are one of the reasons that many Sub Saharan African countries are trapped at the bottom of the food chain as commodity exporters. 

They tie us all at the hip. We all rise and fall based on international commodity prices. 

This is why, in the early 2000s, as China’s influence grew and its demand for commodities increased, leading to a rise in commodity prices, virtually every Sub-Saharan African (SSA) nation experienced an economic boom.

Ask different Africans about the turn of the new millennium, and many would likely recount the noticeable economic advancements in their respective countries. Similarly, Kenyans reflect on  the ‘Kibaki years’ with a sense of nostalgia and glamorization.

If 1960 was the year for Africa, the noughties (2000s) is arguably the decade for Africa but not in circumstances of our own choosing.