A number of important scholarly publications have examined various aspects of African entrepreneurship across time and space. These range from microhistories—such as Felicia Ekejiuba, “Omu Okwei, Merchant Queen of Osomari,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (1967), and S. U. Fwatshak, African Entrepreneurship in Jos, Central Nigeria (2011)—to continental collections such as Anita Spring and Barbara McDade, eds., African Entrepreneurship: Theory and Reality (1998); Toyin Falola, ed., Black Business and Economic Power (2002); and Akinyinka Akinyoade, Ton Dietz, and Chibuike Uche, eds., Entrepreneurship in Africa (2017).
However, Entrepreneurship in Africa: A Historical Approach marks a departure from the conventional preoccupation with entrepreneurship as an occupational specialization. Its focus on “entrepreneurial Africans” (seeing enterprise in “almost all occupational groups”) rather than “African entrepreneurs” provides fresh insights into the subject (p. 321). “African entrepreneurial experiences, past and present,” Ochonu declares, “are complex and defy the narrow entrepreneurial notions or conceptual formulations that originated in the West” (p. 321).
Edited by the brilliant Nigerian historian Moses Ochonu, the book's thirteen main chapters—flanked by a comprehensive and robust introduction, plus an insightful epilogue by Ochonu—are arranged in five thematic sections. The content of the book reflects the authors’ engagement with the subject from a variety of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives and a range of geographies. The contributors combine syntheses of extensive secondary source material with insights from their primary research on related subjects. Ochonu's broad sweep of the Wangara in West Africa demonstrates how their premodern enterprise exemplifies modern concepts of “public-private partnership,” “emerging markets,” “franchise,” “brand building,” and “diversification facilitated integration” (pp. 60, 64, 73). Chambi Chachage, in his chapter on Asian (mainly Indian) enterprise in East Africa, debunks “the myth and stereotype of inborn Asian entrepreneurship” and affirms that “entrepreneurs are made, not born” (p. 38). Gloria Emeagwali provides instances of female entrepreneurship and technological innovation in Nigeria, while Gloria Chuku's study of women entrepreneurship and power relations in colonial Nigeria highlights, among others, Nigeria's pioneer all-female joint-stock company. Marta Musso's chapter on the Algerian oil firm Sonatrach provides “a positive example of an entrepreneurial state” enterprise (p. 189).
In-depth case studies of entrepreneurial Africans engaged in previously neglected fields are provided by Isidore Lobnibe (migrant northern Ghanaian women brewers in southern Ghana), Uyilawa Usuanlele (Bini imperialism and entrepreneurship in precolonial northeast Yorubaland), Lynn Schler (Nigerian seamen's after-hours private enterprise), Michael Gennaro (sports entrepreneurship in late colonial Nigeria), Kwasi Konadu (the business of traditional therapeutics in Ghana), Ralph Callebert (dockworkers in Durban—though the title of the chapter lacks reference to occupation or locale—in interconnected locales of the rural homestead, workplace on the docks, and residence in the township), Mike Odey (entrepreneurial activities of the Igede of central Nigeria, especially in western Nigeria), and Martin Shanguhyia (Turkana enterprise in colonial northwestern Kenya, which highlights, among others, British attempts to create Turkana entrepreneurs as counter to Somali “stranger” merchants).
However, there are missed opportunities in this volume. Konadu could have dispensed with emotional attachment to his subject and romanticization of traditional medicine to the point of labeling skeptics as “Christian fanatics” (p. 248). Odey could have devoted more space to notable Igede entrepreneurs than he did. However, his insightful discourse on social entrepreneurship and Schler's on entrepreneurship indirectly enrich the introductory chapter by Ochonu. The real name and social background of “Superhuman Power” (chapter 9) should have been provided. A bibliography of the considerable literature on African entrepreneurship and a glossary of indigenous register for enterprise and entrepreneurs—for example, borokini, olowo, alajapa, and osomalo (Yoruba) and ogaranya and omenuko (Igbo)—would have enriched the book.
The volume glosses over some ethical issues, including the propriety of women entrepreneurs “marrying” other women and pimping them to promote business and the employment of young (presumably out-of-school) girls in brewing. A related question is whether entrepreneurial seamen's moonlighting (chapter 8) contributed to the demise of the Nigerian national shipping line.
The book is well produced, with only a few slips: “Fo example” (p. 98); (Lisa) Lindsay as “Lindsey” (pp. 227, 229, 230). There are a few opaque expressions, such as “who did not enjoy the same ability to command naming ceremonies” (p. 219).
These observations notwithstanding, Entrepreneurship in Africa: A Historical Approach is an outstanding contribution to the literature. It highlights, and contributes substantially to filling, a gap in African business history. This potentially influential book is bound to inspire more collections and monographs, both microhistories and syntheses, on “entrepreneurial Africans.” It will serve the needs of undergraduate and graduate courses in African and comparative business history.
