Title: Business and economics in Africa - one story or many?

Authors: Keziah Ayuba; Mike Haynes

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, Plateau State University, Bokkos, Plateau State, Nigeria ' University of Wolverhampton Business School, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

Abstract: This paper argues that too much writing on Africa reproduces a dominant narrative that undervalues difference and complexity in the continent. The paper reviews the main narrative of economic performance in Africa in the last half century. It criticises the tendency found in much economic and business writing to think of Africa in terms of what cultural studies specialists have called 'essentialist categories' - that there is a unique and common identity shared by 'the African'. It then reviews some of the ways in which the continent remains divided at the economic level suggesting that this continues to underpin diversity.

Keywords: Africa; economics; business; essentialism; diversity; integration; economic development; economic performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2017.081997

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2017 Vol.10 No.1, pp.54 - 72

Accepted: 30 Sep 2016
Published online: 31 Jan 2017 *

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