The Contribution of African Women to Economic Growth and Development : Historical Perspectives and Policy Implications, Part I, The Pre-colonial and Colonial Periods

Abstract

Bringing together history and economics,
 this paper presents a historical and processual
 understanding of women's economic marginalization in
 Sub-Saharan Africa from the pre-colonial period to the end
 of colonial rule. It is not that women have not been
 economically active or productive; it is rather that they
 have often not been able to claim the proceeds of their
 labor or have it formally accounted for. The paper focuses
 on the pre-colonial and colonial periods and outlines three
 major arguments. First, it discusses the historical
 processes through which the labor of women was increasingly
 appropriated even in kinship structures in pre-colonial
 Africa, utilizing the concepts of "rights in
 persons" and "wealth in people." Reviewing
 the processes of production and reproduction, it explains
 why most slaves in pre-colonial Africa were women and
 discusses how slavery and slave trade intensified the
 exploitation of women. Second, it analyzes how the
 cultivation of cash crops and European missionary
 constructions of the individual, marriage, and family from
 the early decades of the 19th century sequestered female
 labor and made it invisible in the realm of domestic
 production. Third, it discusses how colonial policies from
 the late 19th century reinforced the "capture" of
 female labor and the codification of patriarchy through the
 nature and operation of the colonial economy and the
 instrumentality of customary law. The sequel to this paper
 focuses on the post-colonial period. It examines the
 continuing relevance and impact of the historical processes
 this paper discusses on post-colonial economies, and
 suggests some policy implications.