Common markets and the decolonization of ‘British Africa’: The role of economics and economists

To facilitate an organized withdrawal from its African territories in the 1960s, the UK authorities undertook studies of the economic potential of each. What has been little studied is the nature and impacts of these exercises on subsequent policy. This paper looks at two such studies that examined ways existing ‘common markets’ in East and Central Africa could be retained after independence, and further developed. The institutions and structures governing the territories differed, one a common market and the other a fuller federation, as did the bodies conducting the analysis, one an official commission requiring public recommendations, and the other an advisory group to a senior government minister. The paper offers insights as to the way economists viewed common markets at the time, how they sought to quantify their economic benefits, and the ways in which these benefits were distributed across member states. It also considers the types of economic policy recommendations that were made and the reaction of the British authorities and the colonial politicians to them.