The Internationalization of Economic History: Perspectives from the African Frontier

In an interesting and thought-provoking paper recently published by the Economic History of Developing Regions , Johan Fourie and Leigh Gardner ask why relatively few papers from developing countries have been published in top-ranked economic history journals. They provide a number of tentative answers of which differences in academic traditions between regions seem to be an important one. In this paper, we contribute to this discussion by putting the identified puzzle in the broader context of the development of economic history in the Western world and African universities. We fear that the silence from African scholars in top-ranked economic history journals might lead economic historians in the Western world to believe that little economic history research is taking place at African universities. The paper shows that economic history research at African universities is not only strong, but remained vibrant even when African economic history was on the decline at universities elsewhere. The lack of visible output in major economic history journals is thus not a sign of weakness. Instead it is an effect of the increased methodological specialization of economic history in the Western world. There is a danger that this specialization may led to regional isolation and we thus urge economic historians in the Western world to further engage in the work by African scholars.