The mercantile and colonial periods, including the post-1885 ‘Scramble for Africa', witnessed raging debates about whether European colonialists were agents of change who had a mission to civilise and modernise the ‘Dark Continent'.
Was colonial conquest and its economic intentions a means of showing superiority and humiliating Africans and their traditions (Falola, 2003)? Real or imagined, did the means for material ends, particularly in post-colonial southern Africa, lead to modifications of how people conceive their lived experiences, environments and lands? Did the ‘exploitative' relationship between southern African countries and the colonizing powers alter the way the whole world saw Africa? Indeed, is dependency and ‘underdevelopment' a legacy of imperialism?
To the extent that economic thought in southern Africa, particularly in Botswana, Zambia and South Africa, was shaped and re-shaped by the pre- and post-colonial system that was premised on class, race and gender divisions, we will trace how these developments were also influenced by changing political and social circumstances.
Indeed, economic crises brought about upheaval in economic thinking at different historical periods. We outline contending views of indigenous economic thinking in the region. Post-colonial reaction and resistance to colonialism, which is anchored by what we frame as pre-colonial indigenous economic knowledge systems (IEKS) and practices, also gives us an insight into the development of economic thought in southern Africa.Our argument is centred on the dynamics of development during what was in 1900 an overwhelmingly land-abundant region characterised by shortages of labour and capital, and by perhaps surprisingly extensive indigenous market activities. We argue that in reimagining economic thought in southern Africa, one must explain the muddle of social, political and economic nationalism, particularly as residuals of ‘settler' and ‘indigenous' economies persisted even after independence.