African entrepreneurship: an essay on the relevance of history to development economics

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Periodical article

Title:	African entrepreneurship: an essay on the relevance of history to development economics
Author:	Hopkins, A.G.
Year:	1988
Periodical:	Genève-Afrique: acta africana
Volume:	26
Issue:	2
Pages:	7-28
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Africa Nigeria
Subject:	entrepreneurs
Abstract:	This article provides a summary of the main conclusions reached by research into the history of African entrepreneurship. The first section outlines the chequered relationship between history and development economics. The next section considers the ways in which various concepts of entrepreneurship have been applied to the study of the African past. The third section offers a more detailed analysis of one country, Nigeria, by examining entrepreneurial activities in agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing during the precolonial and colonial periods. The final section indicates how knowledge of the historical record can assist the formulation of policy, sketches an approach to the conceptual problem raised earlier, and suggests ways in which future work might provide a closer fit between history and development economics. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. also in French and German.